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God as the Ultimate Conspiracy Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2012

Brian L. Keeley
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Abstract

Traditional secular conspiracy theories and explanations of worldly events in terms of supernatural agency share interesting epistemic features. This paper explores what can be called “supernatural conspiracy theories”, by considering such supernatural explanations through the lens of recent work on the epistemology of secular conspiracy theories. After considering the similarities and the differences between the two types of theories, the prospects for agnosticism both with respect to secular conspiracy theories and the existence of God are then considered. Arguments regarding secular conspiracy theories suggest ways to defend agnosticism with respect to God from arguments that agnosticism is not a logically stable position and that it ultimately collapses into atheism, as has been argued by N. Russell Hanson and others. I conclude that such attacks on religious agnosticism fail to appreciate the conspiratorial features of God's alleged role in the universe.

Type
Research Article
Information
Episteme , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , June 2007 , pp. 135 - 149
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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References

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