The EAAN is apologetics-nerd-talk for “The Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism.” Many people think that evolution is primarily a problem for Christians. This argument says, hold on a second, if evolution and Naturalism are true, then we have no reason to think that our brains would reliably produce true beliefs. Evolution selects for adaptive behavior, not necessarily true belief content. Evolution gives us a defeater for thinking our brains are reliable. So evolution is actually a much bigger problem for the Naturalist than the Christian!
In part 2 of this 3-part interview with Dr. McNabb, we discuss the basic formulation of the argument and then develop a new version of the argument grounded in abductive reasoning. The idea here is that there’s no reason to think that Naturalism and evolution would produce beings with the ability to use high-level abductive reasoning. For more on this fascinating subject, listen to the interview!
Tyler McNabb is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy (Humanities) at Houston Baptist University. His specialization is in epistemology and philosophy of religion. In combining these two topics, his current focus has been on defending both proper functionalism and the project of Reformed Epistemology. In addition to his research, he also enjoys teaching, reading theology, witnessing, watching The Walking Dead, and eating Mexican food.
[…] [2] The tension could be made worse by introducing Plantinga’s Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism. […]