Is skeptical religion justified?

This session will be hosted by Anthony.

You can checkout a more detailed outline here
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kN11xLbg4NaX3eiH5yK4w47o--fB_CzJ

Skeptical religion is a kind of religious practice without religious belief. It entails having faith that there is an Ultimate religious reality while remaining skeptical given the lack of good reasons for belief. This approach to philosophy of religion is developed by John Schellenberg in his trilogy:

Prolegomena to a Philosophy of Religion
The Wisdom to Doubt: A Justification of Religious Skepticism
The Will to Imagine: A Justification of Skeptical Religion.

Schellenberg argues that while religious belief is unjustified, and in the case of Theism disbelief (Atheism) is justified, faith that there is a more fundamental religious reality is justified. Importantly, this faith does not entail belief that there is an Ultimate religious reality. In fact it demands that we be skeptics, acknowledging that just as our species may be in the relative early stages of scientific discovery we may be at an even more immature phase of religious inquiry.

Many religious skeptics may think the issue is settled with mere non-belief being the most justified stance. Schellenberg emphasizes that there there are other (non-doxastic) propositional attitudes like faith that should be evaluated on their own terms. He argues that religious faith is justified on utilitarian grounds in part because adopting such faith offers the best means to achieve certain rational and moral aims that all things considered we ought to pursue.

Some of the core questions raised by Schellenberg are:

1. What is fundamental to philosophy of religion?
2. What distinguishes faith from belief?
3. When can faith that some proposition is true be justified?
4. What should be the object of religious faith?
5. Can unsound arguments for Theistic belief (e.g. pascal’s wager, the ontological and teleological arguments) be adapted to justify skeptical religious faith?
6. What are the practical implications for a skeptic who might adopt skeptical religious faith?

Paper summarizing Schellenberg's approach:

http://www.jlschellenberg.com/uploads/8/5/6/1/8561683/word___world_article.pdf

Video of Schellenberg discussing religious faith and belief:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxaRkxdQQWs&t=63s&frags=pl%2Cwn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wADyxQXfNL0