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Document Details : Title: Godsbewijzen en de crisis van het klassieke funderingsdenken Subtitle: Theistic Arguments and the Crisis of Classical Foundationalism Author(s): VAN WOUDENBERG, René Journal: Bijdragen Volume: 58 Issue: 1 Date: 1997 Pages: 2-28 DOI: 10.2143/BIJ.58.1.2002403 Abstract : This paper discusses some arguments against some traditional 'proofs of God's existence'. First it is argued that it is not obvious that these arguments are fallacious. Secondly, I try to articulate why so many Protestant thinkers maintained a hostile attitude toward the traditional proofs. I argue that their attitude was shaped by the conviction that belief in God is epistemically justified even when it is not based on argument or proof. I reconstruct Bavinck's treatment of the traditional proofs as a rejection of what has come to be called 'classical foundationalism'. Lastly I try to show that even though Protestant thinkers were right in claiming that one does not need any of the traditional arguments in order to be epistemically justified in believing that God exists, this does not imply that such arguments are without any value (as some thinkers influenced by Wittgenstein maintain). |
