Array
(
    [fullTitle] => Religion and Arguments from Silence
    [abstract] => 
Arguments from Silence have been used many times in attempts to discredit the foundations of religions. In this project, I demonstrate how one might judge the epistemic value of such arguments. To begin, I lay out for examination a specific argument from silence given by Walter Richard Cassels in his work Supernatural Religion.  I then discuss a recently developed Bayesian approach for dealing with arguments from silence. Finally, using Cassels’s work and the work of some of the critics who replied to his argument, I argue for what probabilities might be applied in the use of the Bayesian method for testing the epistemic value Cassels’s argument and demonstrate how one might respond to similar arguments.

    [authors] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [givenName] => Zachary
                    [affiliation] => University of Oklahoma
                )

        )

    [keywords] => Array
        (
            [0] => Arguments from Silence
            [1] => Confirmation Theory
        )

    [doi] => 10.24204/ejpr.v10i3.1797
    [datePublished] => 2018-09-17
    [pdf] => https://www.philosophy-of-religion.eu/menuscript/index.php/ejpr/article/view/1797/version/395/2165
)
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Religion and Arguments from Silence

Zachary
University of Oklahoma

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.v10i3.1797

Abstract

Arguments from Silence have been used many times in attempts to discredit the foundations of religions. In this project, I demonstrate how one might judge the epistemic value of such arguments. To begin, I lay out for examination a specific argument from silence given by Walter Richard Cassels in his work Supernatural Religion.  I then discuss a recently developed Bayesian approach for dealing with arguments from silence. Finally, using Cassels’s work and the work of some of the critics who replied to his argument, I argue for what probabilities might be applied in the use of the Bayesian method for testing the epistemic value Cassels’s argument and demonstrate how one might respond to similar arguments.

Keywords: Arguments from Silence

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