Courting Epistemology: Legal Scholarship, the Courts, and the Rationality of Religious Belief

Abstract

What we here show is two-fold. First, there is in certain sectors of the legalcommunity a trend to pronounce negatively on the epistemic credentials ofreligious belief: many hold that religious belief as such is simply irrational. Oursecond claim is simply that religious belief need not be irrational: it is perfectlypossible for religious believers to have epistemically justified religious beliefs. Wediscuss here several implications of our two-fold claim. The most important ofthese is simply that religious citizens’ religious beliefs cannot be barred from thepublic square for any epistemological reason.