Ep. 8 – What is Faith? with John Bishop

For some religious believers, faith is one of the most important things a person can have in their life. But what is faith? Common theistic definitions say that faith is belief or trust, while a number of atheists argue that faith is an irrational claim to knowledge. In this episode of the show, I talk with Professor John Bishop about some of these issues, as well as the different models of faith. Dr. Bishop is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He has a BA from the Australian National University and a PhD from Cambridge. His interests center around philosophy of religion and philosophy of action, he has written books on each of these subjects, published a number of scholarly articles in academic journals, and has authored the entry on “Faith” for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Links are available below.

Armchair Atheism is the official podcast of GodlessHaven.com, exploring subjects related to religion and non-belief through interview discussions with a variety of scholarly and thoughtful voices.

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Dr. Bishop’s university webpage: http://www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/people/jbis016

Dr. Bishop’s entry on Faith at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Faith as doxastic venture – Dr. Bishop’s 2002 paper from the Religious Studies journal

Books:

Believing by Faith

Natural Agency