"What inclines even me to believe in Christ’s resurrection? It is as though I play with the thought. -- If he did not rise from the dead, then he decomposed in the grave like any other man. He is dead and decomposed. In that case he is a teacher like any other and can no longer help; and once more we are orphaned and alone. So we have to content ourselves with wisdom and speculation. We are in a sort of hell where we can do nothing but dream, roofed in, as it were, and cut off from heaven."
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Culture and Value
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His point is total fideism, and I can't help but totally agree with it.
ReplyDeleteI know the arguments for atheism better than many atheists. I've read all the same books and probably had many of the same questions and fears...but ultimately, I simply could and will never make that leap of doubt into the belief that Jesus died and rotted in the ground.
Fideistic in this regard? Yeah probably...but a little fideism built upon a foundation of rational argument and veridical experience probably won't hurt.
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ReplyDeleteThank you for the quote, Jim. Would it be possible for you to write a post about witgensteinian fideism in the future? Seems like an interesting topic.
ReplyDeleteI have in inkling towards Reformed Epistemology, but I won't follow it until I get Plantinga's Warrant trilogy.
Matko, I don't know enough about Wittgensteinian fideism to write a post on it. As for Plantinga, I've read Warrant: The Current Debate and about half of Warrant and Proper Function.
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