Religion, fiction, and facts

Religious fictionalism is a philosophical theory that aims to provide an alternative to the metaphysically realistic (theistic or God-centred) view of the nature of religious discourse. Religious fictionalism argues that being an atheist is compatible with a certain kind of personal religiousness be...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Koistinen, Timo (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor & Francis 2024
In: Studia theologica
Year: 2024, Volume: 78, Issue: 1, Pages: 23–43
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
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Summary:Religious fictionalism is a philosophical theory that aims to provide an alternative to the metaphysically realistic (theistic or God-centred) view of the nature of religious discourse. Religious fictionalism argues that being an atheist is compatible with a certain kind of personal religiousness because it is possible to understand traditional religious discourse as a useful fiction. In the first part of my presentation, I will outline the central ideas of religious fictionalism. After that, I highlight some key problems associated with it. These have to do with the “make-believe” attitude of the fictionalist account of faith and the problems linked with personal integrity. In the last part of the article, I will turn to metaphysical and epistemic presuppositions that play a central role in religious fictionalism. I will deal with these issues in the light of Bas van Fraassen’s empiricist views on science, secularism and religion.
ISSN:1502-7791
Contains:Enthalten in: Studia theologica
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/0039338X.2023.2264266