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    William James's 'will to believe' doctrine holds that gen... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→It is rational for an atheist or agnostic who initially follows a mixed strategy (e.g., tossing a fair coin to decide whether to wager for God) to repeat that mixed strategy indefinitely after each tails result, because with probability 1 the coin will eventually land heads and the agent will wager for God.

    William James's 'will to believe' doctrine holds that genuine belief-relevant decisions must be live, forced, and momentous — a strategy of indefinite deferral renders the decision neither forced nor live at any given moment.

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    Key Terms

    Forced (option)(one of the three conditions James says a decision must meet)
    A decision where you can't avoid making a choice by staying neutral — choosing not to decide is itself a decision with consequences.
    Indefinite deferral(the strategy being criticized in the statement)
    Endlessly putting off making a decision, always waiting for more evidence or information instead of committing to a choice.
    Live (option)(one of the three conditions James says a decision must meet)
    A belief or choice that feels real and possible to you personally, not just abstract or theoretical.
    Momentous (option)(one of the three conditions James says a decision must meet)
    A decision that significantly impacts your life or matters a lot to you, not something trivial or insignificant.
    William James

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    (the philosopher being discussed)
    An American philosopher (1842-1910) who founded a school of thought called pragmatism, which judges ideas by whether they work in real life rather than whether they're theoretically perfect.
    will to believe(James's account of faith)
    The voluntarily adopted faith that is justified only when an option is genuine and the evidence is inconclusive

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    Truth & Knowledge1 linkedNatural Theology1 linked

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    It is rational for an atheist or agnostic who initially follows a mixed strategy...

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