Religious Disagreement: An Empirical Study Among Academic Philosophers

Abstract

Religious disagreement is an emerging topic of interest in social epistemology.Little is known about how philosophers react to religious disagreements in a professional context, or how they think one should respond to disagreement. This paper presents results of an empirical study on religious disagreement among philosophers. Results indicate that personal religious beliefs, philosophical training, and recent changes in religious outlook have a significant impact on philosophers' assessments of religious disagreement.They regard peer disagreement about religion as common, and most surveyed participants assume one should accord weight to the other's opinion. Theists and agnostics are less likely to assume they are in a better epistemic position than their interlocutors about religious questions compared to atheists, but this pattern only holds for participants who are not philosophers of religion.Continental philosophers think religious beliefs are more like preferences than analytic philosophers, who regard religious beliefs as fact-like.

Data Over Dogma: A Brief Introduction to Experimental Philosophy of Religion

“…380 BCE], 2002), for example, he explores how the human mind might come into cognitive contact with truths concerning morality and mathematics.14 The work of Helen De Cruz is a notable exception. See, for example,De Cruz, 2017, 2014 De Cruz & De Smedt, 2015. 15 See, for example, Anstey and Vanzo 2016.16 See, for example,Rutherford, 2006.…”

“…14 14 The work of Helen De Cruz is a notable exception. See, for example, De Cruz, 2017, 2014; De Cruz & De Smedt, 2015. …”

“…32 32 See Moti Mizrahi, 2020; Helen De Cruz, 2017. And given that the majority of scholars working in philosophy of religion are theists and the strong correlations between theism and various philosophical views, one can be forgiven for wondering if a lot of the work that's done in armchair philosophy of religion is more akin to post‐hoc justification of dogma than anything like honest philosophical inquiry. …”