Reformed Epistemology and the Psychic Abilities of an Emperor Having No Clothes

Cameron Bertuzzi recently posted a Master List of Free Resources on Reformed Epistemology, which can be seen here. Isn't this crazy? Here folks, is what faith does to otherwise rational adults. They are pretending to know things even a child can see are false. It reminds me of psychics and the story of the emperor who had no clothes on.

Alvin Plantinga is revered in some circles for coming up with the most robust defense of Reformed Epistemology (RE). Roughly his argument is that believers do not need an argument to believe (!!) nor do they need any objective evidence:
The believer is entirely within his epistemic rights in believing, for example, that God has created the world, even if he has no argument at all for that conclusion. His belief in God can be perfectly rational even if he knows of no cogent argument, deductive or inductive, for the existence of God—indeed, even if there is no such argument. [Plantinga, “Reason and Belief in God,” in Faith and Rationality: Reason and Belief in God, ed. Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff (University of Notre Dame Press, 1983), p. 65.]
More specifically, Plantinga argues Christians can be entirely rational in having a “full-blooded Christian belief ” [Warranted Christian Belief, p. 200] in “the great truths of the gospel.” [Ibid., pp. 245, 262]. Moderates, progressives and liberals need not apply, says he. For true Christian beliefs come “by way of the work of the Holy Spirit, who gets us to accept, causes us to believe, these great truths of the gospel. These beliefs don’t come just by way of the normal operation of our natural faculties, they are a supernatural gift.” [Plantinga, Warranted Christian Belief, p. 262.] If this is not claiming to have psychic abilities to know which Christian beliefs are true ones (what else can he mean here?), then I don’t know what is.

Perhaps more importantly, the very fact RE is seen as necessary to bolster the Christian faith proves, all by itself, that believers don't think there's enough objective evidence to believe. Just imagine if it did exist. [Go ahead, imagine it. I'll wait.] Would anyone bother with RE? Of course they wouldn't! It would be seen as completely unnecessary and hence a laughingstock to propose and argue for it. You know it. I know it. So some of the very best Christian apologists (on behalf of whatever sect they agree to disagree about) don't think sufficient objective evidence exists to believe. Let that sink in.

This is analogous to the story of the emperor who had no clothes on. Christians are promenading naked through the streets without objective evidence for their faith, and they are proud of it. Lacking the requisite objective evidence forces them into claiming psychic knowledge "from the other side" that can and does bypass the normal evidential, historical, and hermeneutical processes. So listing online Reformed epistemology resources is telling the world there isn't enough objective evidence to believe so psychic abilities are required to know the truth.

Them not realizing what they're actually doing? Now that's priceless.

This is crazy and deluded. No rational person should accept it. Q.E.D.

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Edit:

Paul Moser and William Lane Craig are both Christian philosophers who accept RE.

Moser doesn’t believe Jesus was born of a virgin. Craig does.

Yet both of them would agree with Plantinga that their faith is supernaturally given.

Here’s Plantinga's quote again:
For true Christian beliefs come “by way of the work of the Holy Spirit, who gets us to accept, causes us to believe, these great truths of the gospel. These beliefs don’t come just by way of the normal operation of our natural faculties, they are a supernatural gift.” [Plantinga, Warranted Christian Belief, p. 262.]

Who is right on this doctrine cannot possible be determined by the Holy Spirit. But as soon as you go looking for evidence and study the hermenuetics of the relevant passages and the history of virgin birth claims in ancient history to find out, you will be rejecting RE. Once you reject RE in part you can see why you should reject RE in whole.

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