Epistemic Tolerance and Religious Diversity

Abstract

This paper discusses some epistemological issues concerning religious diversity or religious disagreement. We explore the questions: Is it justified for a person to hold her own religious beliefs and entertain beliefs in another religion? How can we deal with religious diversity reasonably and with tolerance? To answer these questions, we propose the idea of epistemic tolerance that is based on conciliationism. First, we introduce the concepts of intolerance and religious exclusivism, which are undesirable for religious diversity. Next, we endorse the idea of conciliationism or tentativism, a form of epistemic tolerance supported by Alvin Goldman’s view of reasonability and Richard Feldman’s view of evidential equality. We argue that such an idea can help us handle religious diversity with reason and tolerance.