I did NOT say that truth claims can only be justified empirically. There
are a set of claims, scientific ones, which require empirical
confirmation, a special kind of justification. Materialism is a
philosophical doctrine which, like all philosophies, have a single
requirement, consistency. Scientific theories also demand consistency,
plus the empirical.
Yes, beliefs based on religious experience are justifiable, given some
presuppositions. But then there is the problem of justifying the
presuppositions. They are not plausible to materialists, for example. It
will take the work of the Holy Spirit to change that. But there remains a
problem in some circumstances: is it the work of the Spirit or is the guy
running a clever con? God knows, but I don't and often can't even come up
with a good basis for a guess.
Dave (ASA)
On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 17:18:43 -0500 "David Opderbeck"
<dopderbeck@gmail.com> writes:
Dave S. said: If somebody can figure out how to make the requisite
measurements, we have a new scientific discipline.
Ok, but would you say that truth claims can only be justified by
empirical measurements? Do you mean to say there's no way to "disprove
materialism" empirically?
I think Roy Clouser (Knowing With the Heart), Donald Bloesch (The Ground
of Certainty) and others in the tradition of Reformed epistemology make a
good case that beliefs based on certain sorts of religious experiences
and presuppositions are justifiable. And I think John Milbank makes a
good case in favor of the independence of Christian theology as against
positivism and empiricism and that Alister McGrath ( A Scientific
Theology: Reality) also establishes theology as a source of real
knowledge that isn't reducible to measurements of the material.
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Received on Fri Dec 7 23:00:30 2007
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