Theism and Explanation - Appeared-to-Blogly

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Successful Theistic Explanations 141 These considerations bring me back to the point I made when discussing theological scepticism (5.5). Given the mysteriousness of the posited divine agent, we can never be confi dent that the explanandum is, in fact, how we would expect God to act. The rationality principle may enable us to make some predictions (5.2), but we can never be confi dent about the judgements we make. The point I am making here is a closely related one, namely that any predictions we make—however provisionally—will lack precision. We have a pretty good idea how a human being might go about “comforting” or “punishing” a fellow creature, so given this posited intention, we can predict just how she will and will not act. But how would God go about comforting someone? Or punishing someone? Or speaking to her? An omnipotent being will presumably have a practically infi nite range of choices open to him, only a few of which we can begin to comprehend. Since we do not know the full range of divine options, we cannot know with any degree of confi dence how God would or would not act, in order to achieve his goals. Once again, it seems, the theological sceptic has a point. 7.6.4 The Danger of Accommodation What follows from these considerations? It seems that any proposed theistic explanation will lack something, when measured against this desideratum of informativeness. It will be, at best, an “unlovely” explanation, which will not allow us to “deduce the precise details of the effect.” 112 In itself, this fact counts against proposed theistic explanations. But it also means that they face a particular danger, that of “making things fi t.” More technically, they face the danger of accommodation as distinct from prediction. It will be all too easy for the theist to redescribe the explanandum, perhaps in all innocence, so that it appears to fi t her description of divine action. But the “explanation” in question may be nothing more than a kind of verbal coincidence. Here’s an example of how this might occur. Let’s say I experience a sense of confi dence and joy when reading a particular passage of scripture. How am I to explain this? The believer might appear to explain this feeling by saying that what I am experiencing is the voice of God. 113 More precisely, she may suggest that what I am experiencing is the “internal testimony of the Holy Spirit” of which John Calvin wrote. 114 And this “explanation” of my feelings might be taken to corroborate some other theistic claim, perhaps one having to do with the authority of scripture. While there are many problems with a proposed explanation of this kind, 115 one of them arises from the diffi culty of knowing just what this claim means. What would it mean to “hear” the “voice of God” when God is an incorporeal being who does not “speak” in our everyday sense of that word? Precisely because this claim is less than informative, it is easy for the believer to suggest it is true, that what I am experiencing is indeed the Holy Spirit. (We might regard this as a variant on Kitcher’s “spurious unifi cation” problem [3.2.3.1].)
142 Theism and Explanation The theist could reply that this is no more than a danger, and one that faces many proposed explanations. It could, in principle, be countered by a suffi ciently robust process of testing. The problem is that this would require us to make further predictions, each of which would be equally “unlovely.” It follows that this weakness in proposed theistic explanations seems inescapable. We can never be confi dent that we are not being deceived by a clever use of words. So once again, we have reason to prefer a natural explanation, which has at least the capacity to be more informative. And even if we had no natural explanation to hand, we would always be justifi ed in seeking one.
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Theism and Explanation
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Theism and Explanation Gregory W. D
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To Anna who never tires of asking
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Acknowledgements My thanks are due
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Figure 2.2 Swinburne’s conception
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On Explanations in General 27 simil
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On Explanations in General 29 condi
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3 What are Theistic Explanations? I
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What are Theistic Explanations? 35
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3.2.2 Positing a Divine Agent What
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4 What Would They Explain? It’s a
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4.2 SINGULAR AND GENERAL EXPLANATIO
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What Would They Explain? 63 shelter
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What Would They Explain? 65 were we
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What Would They Explain? 67 not des
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What Would They Explain? 69 must of
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What Would They Explain? 71 to prod
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What Would They Explain? 73 There i
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What Would They Explain? 75 how mig
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78 Theism and Explanation contradic
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80 Theism and Explanation low—tha
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82 Theism and Explanation 5.1.3 Is
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84 Theism and Explanation eye. But
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86 Theism and Explanation If we acc
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88 Theism and Explanation Why not,
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Page 112 and 113: 6 Inference to the Best Explanation
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Page 156 and 157: Conclusion 145 explanation that met
Page 158 and 159: Appendix Intentional Explanations M
Page 160 and 161: Appendix 149 attend any discussion
Page 162 and 163: Appendix 151 explanation is a causa
Page 164 and 165: Appendix 153 we assume is a “myth
Page 166 and 167: Appendix 155 Will this suffi ce as
Page 168 and 169: Appendix 157 reasoning, Schueler su
Page 170 and 171: Appendix 159 action, one that has a
Page 172 and 173: Appendix 161 estimate of her charac
Page 174 and 175: Appendix 163 causal laws do exist.
Page 176 and 177: Appendix 165 this is the explanatio
Page 178 and 179: Notes NOTES TO CHAPTER 1 1. Numbers
Page 180 and 181: Notes 169 James Maclaurin has remin
Page 182 and 183: Notes 171 19. Musgrave, “Scientif
Page 184 and 185: Notes 173 the most explicit in its
Page 186 and 187: Notes 175 any true proposition, the
Page 188 and 189: Notes 177 weaker but to their mind
Page 190 and 191: Notes 179 15. Hume, “Dialogues,
Page 192 and 193: Notes 181 19. Swinburne, Is There a
Page 194 and 195: Notes 183 it will also confi rm H 2
Page 196 and 197: Notes 185 91. I am grateful to Geor
Page 198 and 199: Notes 187 this be a fatal objection
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192 Bibliography Behe, Michael J. D
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194 Bibliography Dembski, William A
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196 Bibliography . A Treatise of Hu
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198 Bibliography Melnyk, Andrew. A
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200 Bibliography Rundle, Bede. 2004
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Index A abduction: and induction, 1
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defences, and theodicies, 134-35 de
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intelligent design theory: argument
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preemption, causal. See causal pree
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tsunami, Boxing Day, 60, 61, 68, 14
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