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    The fact that a competent evaluator finds first-order evi... — Carmelics
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    Home/Natural Theology
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    The fact that a competent evaluator finds first-order evidence to support God's existence is itself evidence that God exists.

    Natural TheologyTruth & Knowledge
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.The cosmological argument, teleological argument, and problem of evil are first-order evidence regarding God's existence.
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    • 2.A competent evidential evaluator finding a body of evidence to support a proposition is higher-order evidence for that proposition.
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    • 3.Higher-order evidence bears on the truth of the proposition in question.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Higher-order evidence that a competent evaluator found first-order evidence is epistemically defeated by the equal existence of competent evaluators who find the same first-order evidence to disconfirm God's existence.
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    • 2.When symmetrically competent evaluators reach opposing conclusions from shared evidence, the higher-order evidence they generate cancels rather than compounds, leaving the original epistemic situation unchanged.
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    • 3.Alvin Goldman's veritistic epistemology and the peer disagreement literature from Christensen and Elga establish that unresolved peer conflict suspends the evidential force of individual evaluator verdicts.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.The move from 'a competent evaluator finds evidence E supports P' to 'E actually supports P' commits the psychologistic fallacy of substituting cognitive performance for logical entailment.
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    • 2.Frege's foundational critique of psychologism establishes that the normative validity of an inferential relation is independent of whether any cognitive agent successfully tracks it.
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    • 3.Competent evaluation of theistic arguments historically reflects prior metaphysical commitments, as Plantinga's Reformed epistemology and Mackie's eliminative materialism demonstrate, undermining the evaluator-neutrality that the argument requires.
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    Topics

    Natural TheologyTruth & Knowledge

    Related

    A competent evidential evaluator finding a body of evidence to support a proposi...Alvin Goldman's veritistic epistemology and the peer disagreement literature fro...Competent evaluation of theistic arguments historically reflects prior metaphysi...Frege's foundational critique of psychologism establishes that the normative val...
    +5 moreShow less
    Higher-order evidence bears on the truth of the proposition in question.Higher-order evidence that a competent evaluator found first-order evidence is e...The cosmological argument, teleological argument, and problem of evil are first-...The move from 'a competent evaluator finds evidence E supports P' to 'E actually...When symmetrically competent evaluators reach opposing conclusions from shared e...

    Similar

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    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: disagreement
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    So, the cosmological argument, the teleological argument, and the problem of evil are all items of first-order evidence regarding God’s existence, whereas the fact that a competent evaluator of such evidence finds it to on balance support God’s existence is a piece of higher-order evidence that God exists. That a competent evidential evaluator has evaluated a body of evidence to support a proposition is evidence that the body of evidence in question does in fact support that proposition.
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit