Episode 10 starts a two-part series on Reformed Epistemology, the view that belief in God can be rational even without arguments. I’m joined by Dr. Andrew Moon. He’s a professional philosopher that’s written extensively in this area. Our discussion centers around a paper he wrote back in 2016 entitled “Recent Work in Reformed Epistemology.”
The paper itself is very good. Not only does it provide a very clear and succinct summary of Reformed Epistemology, it lays out and responds to some of the most popular objections. I highly recommend downloading and reading it (alongside listening to this podcasts series, of course).
Dr. Andrew Moon
Dr. Moon is currently an assistant professor of philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Previously, he was a research fellow at University of Notre Dame and Rutgers University and a visiting professor at Dalhousie University and Kansas State University. He earned his PH.D. at the University of Missouri, and his committee was composed of Peter Markie (adviser), Matthew McGrath (2nd reader), John Greco, Andrew Melnyk, and Paul Weirich.
His areas of specialty are in epistemology and philosophy of mind, and he has interests in philosophy of religion, metaphysics, ethics, and logic. A sample research lecture is available here, and a sample introductory level lecture is available here. Both were delivered for the Young Philosopher’s Lecture Series.
I encourage you to check out his website here. There you can find a list of his publications, CV, and further information.
Episode 10
One of the things I love about Dr. Moon is his amazing ability to summarize complex topics. I’ve read a lot of Plantinga over the years, and when I read Moon’s paper, I was in awe of how succinct, yet accurate it was. Our discussion covered A LOT of ground. When we were done, I noticed that we went so long (nearly 1.5 hours!), I felt it best to split the discussion into two episodes.
Part 1 introduces Reformed Epistemology and makes some really useful distinctions (like de jure/de facto, evidentialism, positive epistemic status, and so on). Part 2 continues the conversation and considers various objections to the view (like the Great Pumpkin Objection).
Links mentioned during the show:
- Dr. Moon’s paper “Recent Work in Reformed Epistemology“
- Warranted Christian Belief
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If the entire basis of reformed epistemology is “If god exists” the next step to show that it is justified, and that you are justified in believing it, is to show that it is true that god in fact actually exists and would be interested in giving you reasons to believe he exists as the argument claims.
Until then, I don’t think there is any justification in thinking reformed epistemology is true.