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Access denied: a reply to Rickabaugh and McAllister

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Abstract

In their recent paper, Brandon Rickabaugh and Derek McAllister object to Paul Moser’s rejection of natural theology on the grounds that Moser is committed to a principle, Seek, which commits Moser to another principle, Access. Access in turn can be rationally motivated for at least some nonbelievers only by the arguments of natural theology. So Moser is in fact committed to the epistemic usefulness of natural theology. In this paper, we show that Seek by itself does not commit one to Access, and that even if Moser is committed to Access, he is not thereby committed to the epistemic usefulness of natural theology for all nonbelievers. While we find this argument offered by Rickabaugh and McAllister lacking, we do not deny their conclusion that natural theology is epistemically useful to all nonbelievers.

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Notes

  1. Forthcoming. Pagination according to “online first” version.

  2. “If Access is true, then God exists” (R&M: 3).

References

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  • Rickabaugh, B., & McAllister, D. (2016). Who you could have known: Divine hiddenness, epistemic counterfactuals, and the recalcitrant nature of natural theology. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion. doi:10.1007/s11153-016-9580-3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Baylor University, One Bear Place #97273, Waco, TX, 76798-7273, USA

    Christopher M. P. Tomaszewski & John W. Rosenbaum

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  1. Christopher M. P. Tomaszewski
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  2. John W. Rosenbaum
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Correspondence to Christopher M. P. Tomaszewski.

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Tomaszewski, C.M.P., Rosenbaum, J.W. Access denied: a reply to Rickabaugh and McAllister. Int J Philos Relig 83, 201–207 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-017-9631-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-017-9631-4

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