[The earlier piece] outlined the reasons for the Christian faith’s claims to veracity. However, how can we explain that it makes sense as well?
Some say there is no warrant for the Christian faith or that it is not warranted. What does this signify? Can a response be given to this objection? In his book Warranted Christian Belief, American philosopher Alvin Plantinga provides a significant and helpful response to this problem. His opinions can be summed up, albeit far too succinctly, as follows:
How any human belief can have warrant
The question of how any human belief can have warrant—that is, be rational and reasonable—must be addressed first. Human beliefs are typically created by a mental process that starts with an input, like seeing a tree in my yard visually, and ends with an output, like “I believe there is a tree in my garden.” Is this notion, however, justified? Such a view can only be justified inasmuch as specific requirements are met.
- First and foremost, this system needs to work correctly. I have no reason to believe that I see a tree in my garden if my vision is hindered.
- It is necessary that this mental process be created with the intention of creating accurate beliefs. Assume that my vision is limited to what I wish to see, which may or may not be the case. One such would be the desire to have an apple tree with an abundance of apples in my garden. If so, I have good reason to question my belief.
- In the end, this system needs to work well. In the absence of light, I won’t be able to determine whether or not what I think I see in my garden is a tree.
The belief I have about the tree in my garden is justified if all these requirements are satisfied. Then, holding this opinion is likewise reasonable and sensible.
A similar approach to belief in God
The next step is that Plantinga applies a similar approach to belief in God. He proposes that we have a mental mechanism that forms belief about God in us. The way this operates can be illustrated by means of an example. If I see something of the tremendous beauty of nature – an impressive mountain range, the magnificent Milky Way seen in the southern hemisphere, a wonderfully colored butterfly, or the design of the human eye – I form the belief that an all-powerful God must exist. Human beings have been equipped with such a faculty, and the resulting belief can meet the criteria for warrant in a similar way as spelled out above. If it is true that God exists, we can assume that He wants us to know Him, and that He has therefore designed this mechanism to give us true belief about Him. If this mechanism functions properly, and under the right conditions (such as those in the examples given above), this belief can have warrant. It can therefore be concluded that belief in God can be warranted and can also be rational and reasonable.
Sin in human beings
The issue is that because of what the Bible refers to as human sin, this process is no longer able to take place as it should. Humans are inherently hostile to God and unwilling to acknowledge Him, which is the issue that was previously discussed in [the preceding article]. What’s the fix? The uniquely Christian faith has the solution. So how is this faith warranted? The following piece in this series will address this.
