19 - Debunking Arguments and Religious Belief

Summary

Debunking arguments aim to undermine a belief based on epistemically problematic features of how the belief was originally formed or is currently held. They typically offer at least a partial genealogy for the belief and then point out epistemically problematic features of the genealogy. Many important scholars of religion – from Hume, Feuerbach, and Freud to contemporary scholars in the cognitive science of religion such as Boyer, Bering, and Norenzayan – have attempted to explain human religious belief naturalistically. Do their accounts debunk religious belief? This chapter presents a schema for debunking arguments, briefly summarizes several proposed explanations of religious belief, and outlines several epistemic principles that have been used in debunking arguments. Then, it presents three different debunking arguments for belief in gods and discusses several replies to those arguments, including the religious reasons reply, the classic Plantingean approach to defeat, and epistemic self-promotion.