Reformed Epistemology (RE) is a branch of Philosophy of Religion. Reformed
denotes Protestant Reformation. Epistemology (episteme-Knowledge,
logos-reason/study) is the study of knowledge. It answers the question “How do
you know what you know is true?” Reformed Epistemology is the answer of some
Protestant (Reformed) Christian philosophers like Thomas Reid, John Calvin and
Alvin Plantinga to the question “How do you know what you know about God is
true?”
Foundationalism is the theory of how
beliefs are justified. Beliefs can be inferential (deduced from proposition or
evidence which justifies it) or non-inferential (which is believed without
evidence but still justified). Justification for non-inferential beliefs can be
pushed back but not infinitely. For example, my justification for believing the
time in my watch is based on the fact that I timed it with a TV news channel.
Then your next question would be “Can you justify the time shown in the TV
channel as correct time?” Answer is “No”. If “Yes” further evidence would be
required for it’s further justification and so on. But we cannot regress
infinitely. We just stop and believe it is the right time. Most people would. This
is a non-inferential belief. This is not based on evidence but it is still a
justified belief.
A properly basic belief would be a
self-evident belief, like belief about self and others. For example, we don’t
pinch every time we see someone in order to obtain knowledge that they are true
i.e. self-evident. Properly basic beliefs are also non-inferential beliefs.
According to RE, God has endowed
all humans with sensus divinitatis.
Just like seeing is a sense using the eye to perceive the physical world, sensus divinitatis is the sense to
perceive the divine. It is the innate ability/mechanism by which humans can
perceive the divine. Just like we see other people with our eyes and believe
them to be true without testing or evidence, senses divinitatis enable humans
to perceive God as God when he reveals himself to them. Therefore belief in God
is self-evident based on subjective experience of the divine i.e. personal
encounter with Christ as perceived by sensus divinitatis. It does not require
objective evidence or propositional arguments.
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