Objection · Case 08 · Science

Plantinga’s reply that selection acts on behavior, not belief content, assumes beliefs and behavior can come apart. If my belief that the cliff is dangerous causes me to avoid it, selection for the behavior is selection for the belief.

One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.

Suggest a correction

Response

This is the strongest version of the reply, associated with Fodor and with Fitelson and Sober, and it is the one to quote. Plantinga’s response is that beliefs cause behavior by their neural properties, and it is the neural properties that are selected, so semantic content comes along only if it happens to be correlated; naturalists reply that the correlation is exactly what evolution would produce. This is where the argument stands or falls, and the debate is unresolved. You should see both moves and decide for yourself.

About this exhibit

This objection is to The main objection, and Plantinga’s reply.

The strongest objection, pressed by philosophers such as Jerry Fodor and Branden Fitelson and Elliott Sober, is that true beliefs are generally adaptive, since a creature that reads the world…

Under Claim 11: If human reason is only the product of unguided evolution aimed at survival, then trusting it to find truth undercuts itself, which is a problem for naturalism.