Hostname: page-component-857557d7f7-qdphv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-11-20T14:11:27.920Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

God as the Ultimate Conspiracy Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2012

Brian L. Keeley
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Traditional secular conspiracy theories and explanations of worldly events in terms of supernatural agency share interesting epistemic features. This paper explores what can be called “supernatural conspiracy theories”, by considering such supernatural explanations through the lens of recent work on the epistemology of secular conspiracy theories. After considering the similarities and the differences between the two types of theories, the prospects for agnosticism both with respect to secular conspiracy theories and the existence of God are then considered. Arguments regarding secular conspiracy theories suggest ways to defend agnosticism with respect to God from arguments that agnosticism is not a logically stable position and that it ultimately collapses into atheism, as has been argued by N. Russell Hanson and others. I conclude that such attacks on religious agnosticism fail to appreciate the conspiratorial features of God's alleged role in the universe.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Episteme , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , June 2007 , pp. 135 - 149
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Basham, Lee. 2006. “Afterthoughts on Conspiracy Theory: Resilience and Ubiquity.” In Coady, D. (ed.), Conspiracy Theories: The Philosophical Debate1, pp. 133–8. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Benn, Piers. 1999. “Some Uncertainties About Agnosticism.” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 46: 171–88.Google Scholar
Boethius., 1962. The Consolation of Philosophy. New York: Macmillan Publishing.Google Scholar
Clarke, Steve. 2002. “Conspiracy Theories and Conspiracy Theorizing.” Philosophy of the Social Sciences 32(2): 131–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coady, David (ed.). 2006. Conspiracy Theories: The Philosophical Debate. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Earman, John. 2000. Hume's Abject Failure: The Argument against Miracles. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hanson, Norwood Russell. 1971a. “The Agnostic's Dilemma.” In Toulmin, S. and Woolf, H. (eds.), What I Do Not Believe and Other Essays, pp. 303–8. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Hanson, Norwood Russell. 1971b. “What I Don't Believe.” In Toulmin, S. and Woolf, H. (eds.), What I Do Not Believe and Other Essays, pp. 309–31. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Hanson, Norwood Russell, Toulmin, Stephen, and Woolf, Harry (eds.). 1971. What I Do Not Believe, and Other Essays. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Hume, David. 1748. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.Google Scholar
Keeley, Brian L. 1999. “Of Conspiracy Theories.” Journal of Philosophy 96: 109–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keeley, Brian L. (ed.). 2005. Paul Churchland. Contemporary Philosophy in Focus. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLaughlin, Robert. 1984. “Necessary Agnosticism?” Analysis 44(4): 198–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, Thomas V. 1985. “Agnosticism.” Analysis 45(4): 219–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pigden, Charles. 2006. “Complots of Mischief.” In Coady, D. (ed.), Conspiracy Theories: The Philosophical Debate, pp. 139–66. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Sagan, Carl and Ann, Druyan. 1995. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Scriven, Michael. 1966. Primary Philosophy. New York: McGrawHill.Google Scholar
Seely, Hart. 2002. “The Unknown.” Retrieved July 14, 2007, from http://www.slate.com/id/2081042/Google Scholar
Seely, Hart (ed.). 2003. Pieces of Intelligence: The Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Tweyman, Stanley (ed.). 1996. Hume on Miracles. Bristol, England: Thoemmes Press.Google Scholar