Epistemic Foundations of Theology

[Ella S.]

I am interested in discussing the concepts of Reformed Epistemology, Theistic Rationalism, and Theistic Evidentialism.

For the Christians (and others with theological bends, although it's mostly a facet of Christian theology), I am wondering what your foundations of belief are.

I do not intend to argue against them in this thread, but to use this thread as a tool to gain a deeper understanding of the foundations of Christian arguments, as well as to poll the Christians here to see how common the various views are.

 

[Thomas]

I'm not sure I'm sufficiently equipped to undertake this inquiry?

For myself, as someone who struggles with his faith, the question of why I believe is never far away. The fact remains, I do. Not so much in the Church these days, certainly not as dogmatically as I once did, but in the Christian faith as it is expressed in the Greco-Roman traditions, by which I mean I would like to think I have a foot in both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox beliefs, although I issues between them, and at times find them both wanting.

Suffice to say I do not find a belief in God to be necessarily irrational.

 

[Ella S.]

I'm not sure I'm sufficiently equipped to undertake this inquiry?

For myself, as someone who struggles with his faith, the question of why I believe is never far away. The fact remains, I do. Not so much in the Church these days, certainly not as dogmatically as I once did, but in the Christian faith as it is expressed in the Greco-Roman traditions, by which I mean I would like to think I have a foot in both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox beliefs, although I issues between them, and at times find them both wanting.

Thank you for your contribution to the thread.

Suffice to say I do not find a belief in God to be necessarily irrational.

Neither do I. As a matter of course, I don't find any beliefs to be irrational in and of themselves, only specific arguments.

Well, as long as those beliefs don't violate one of the laws of logic, such as the Law of Identity or the Law of Noncontradiction, but it's not often that you run across a belief that is literally logically impossible.

 

['Amir Alzzalam]

I am interested in discussing the concepts of Reformed Epistemology, Theistic Rationalism, and Theistic Evidentialism.

For the Christians (and others with theological bends, although it's mostly a facet of Christian theology), I am wondering what your foundations of belief are.

I do not intend to argue against them in this thread, but to use this thread as a tool to gain a deeper understanding of the foundations of Christian arguments, as well as to poll the Christians here to see how common the various views are.

'Reformed Epistemology: that religious belief can be rational without any appeal to evidence or argument.' I would simply call this 'faith' because it lacks any actual evidence.
'Theistic Rationalism: believe natural religion, Christianity, and rationalism typically coexist compatibly, with rational thought balancing the conflicts between the first two aspects.' This assumes that religion is natural, which I don't agree with. I see nothing rational with theistic beliefs.
'Theistic Evidentialism: contend that there is enough evidence to ground rational belief in God' But there isn't any evidence much less enough evidence for any rational person to believe in a god.