Monday, May 26, 2014

When to Trust Peter Boghossian's Parachute Folding Skills

In the debate with philosopher Tim McGrew, the question came up of whether or not we should trust the parachute folding skills of Peter Boghossian. Boghossian maintained that since he had no experience folding parachutes, that we should not trust his skills. I suggest, instead, that whether or not we should trust his skills depends upon the situation. For example, if I am in a plane that is obviously going to crash, and the only recourse is to use a parachute that was folded by Peter Boghossian, then the rational thing to do would be to trust Peter Boghossian's parachute folding skills.

According to Tim McGrew, there is a close analogy between parachute jumping and religious faith.  I suspect he is correct.  If so, then even if the grounds for our religious faith are very weak, it may be the case that the rational thing to do would be to trust in them.

HT: Randal Rauser.

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