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    [fullTitle] => On behalf of Pascal:  A Reply to Le Poidevin
    [abstract] => 
When we were on the subway back from his lecture, I said to Robin: “I’m not sure there actually are any religious fictionalists.” We keep talking about them in papers and lectures, acting as if fictionalism in religion is a real possibility, but to be honest, I haven’t been able to spot one in the wild so far. The only potential candidate who comes to mind is Don Cupitt, who wrote things like: “I still pray and love God, even though I fully acknowledge that no God actually exists.”[1] Perhaps this is as fictionalist as it gets. But then again, Cupitt never explicitly declared himself a fictionalist (at least to my knowledge). Moreover, on other occasions he sounds more like an expressivist than a fictionalist, e.g. when he says: “The Christian doctrine of God just is Christian spirituality in coded form.”[2] So, if there are any actual fictionalists out there, please step forward.

[1] Don Cupitt, After God: The Future of Religion (Basic Books, 1997), 85.
[2] Don Cupitt, Taking leave of God (SCM Press, 1980), 14.

    [authors] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [givenName] => Sebastian
                    [affiliation] => LMU Munich
                )

        )

    [keywords] => Array
        (
        )

    [doi] => 10.24204/ejpr.v12i3.3416
    [datePublished] => 2020-09-24
    [pdf] => https://www.philosophy-of-religion.eu/menuscript/index.php/ejpr/article/view/3416/version/777/2723
)
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On behalf of Pascal: A Reply to Le Poidevin

Sebastian
LMU Munich

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.v12i3.3416

Abstract

When we were on the subway back from his lecture, I said to Robin: “I’m not sure there actually are any religious fictionalists.” We keep talking about them in papers and lectures, acting as if fictionalism in religion is a real possibility, but to be honest, I haven’t been able to spot one in the wild so far. The only potential candidate who comes to mind is Don Cupitt, who wrote things like: “I still pray and love God, even though I fully acknowledge that no God actually exists.”[1] Perhaps this is as fictionalist as it gets. But then again, Cupitt never explicitly declared himself a fictionalist (at least to my knowledge). Moreover, on other occasions he sounds more like an expressivist than a fictionalist, e.g. when he says: “The Christian doctrine of God just is Christian spirituality in coded form.”[2] So, if there are any actual fictionalists out there, please step forward.


[1] Don Cupitt, After God: The Future of Religion (Basic Books, 1997), 85.

[2] Don Cupitt, Taking leave of God (SCM Press, 1980), 14.

Keywords:

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