In his defense of religious exclusivism, Alvin Plantinga
gives a somewhat tangential mention of a phenomenology that attends belief (citation
at end). In this post, I am not interested in speaking to Plantinga’s defense
of exclusivism, but I do want to consider this phenomenology of belief he
mentions. To whit, it seems to me that if we believe something, part of why we
believe that something is because it strikes
us as true. That is, it seems true to us. This phenomenon of seeming true (or,
false, for that matter) is not wholly within our control. Why does that matter?
Well, for me, I have struggled to find ways to clarify my understanding of not
only the experience of belief, but also the humility that it seems should
attend belief. Something Plantinga says in that defense has helped me
understand these better.
