Swinburne's Principles Of Testimony & Credulity (For)

Question 1

People in general tell the truth, what does this mean we cannot realistically do?

Answer 1

Doubt every account of religious experience

Question 2

What is the principle of testimony?

Answer 2

Unless we have evidence to the contrary, we should believe what people say when they have had a religious experience

Question 3

What are the 3 types of evidence that should be taken as making testimonies unreliable

Answer 3

• circumstances are unreliable (through hallucinatory drugs)
• if there is particular evidence that suggests the person is lying
• if the experience can be explained in terms other than God (mental illness)

Question 4

What is the principle of credulity

Answer 4

since many thousands of people have had an experience of what seems to them to be of God, then it is a basic principle of rationality (sense/logic) that we should believe them

Question 5

Swinburne “how things seem to be is a good guide to..

Answer 5

..how things actually are”

Question 6

In support of swinburne

Answer 6

• empirical research in recent years show as many as 40% of people have had at some point in their lives a experience that can be seen as religious

Question 7

Problem - Peter Vardy’s examples of what

Answer 7

• UFO’s
• Loch Ness monster
• person could be mistaken therefore would be right to remain sceptical