In the field of epistemology, the Gettier problem shows that one can have justified true belief (JTB) about a claim yet not possess knowledge. For example, imagine someone is looking in a field at something that looks like a sheep but it’s actually a dog in sheep’s clothing. The person believes there’s a sheep in the field, and the person is justified in believing the claim “there is a sheep in the field” because there happens to be a sheep tucked away behind a hill in the field. JTB thus, perhaps by itself, is inadequate to account for absolute knowledge. However, it doesn’t follow that all descriptive knowledge of the physical world collapses into nihilism. It may be true that it’s difficult to know anything with total certainty, but it doesn’t mean we can’t make decisions based on common sense realism with something close to certainty although tempered with epistemic humility. But how does “JTB ≠ knowledge” apply to God?
God is not subject to the Gettier problem because God’s omniscience precludes him from having any false beliefs. Thus, God needs no justification for his beliefs. But what about my knowledge of God?
Belief in God is warranted as being innate to all conscious people. That is, knowledge of God is universal. It’s also perceived via his creation. Consider the apostle Paul’s words to the church in Rome: “They [the godless] know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”[1] The sensus divinitatis (innate “sense of deity”) is the universal mechanism by which God’s “general revelation” in nature is received. These concepts—conscience and nature—are both given to us by God.
At this point, some may scoff at the notion that immaterial beings exist, which includes God, albeit he’s a maximally great immaterial being. But to be consistent, if they call God into question, they would have to call other immaterial things into question, such as logic and morality. For example, the nature of the laws of logic cannot be empirically verified or put into a test tube, but we know they exist. The same goes for the nature of moral realism. Absolute morality or universal moral truths, such as pursuing the summum bonum (“the greatest good”) and repudiating the summum malum (“the greatest evil”), exist. And they are grounded by God whose goodness is maximally great in all possible worlds.
The distinction between knowing the sheep exists and knowing God exists shifts from knowledge of the physical to knowledge of the metaphysical. I propose when seeking justification for our metaphysical beliefs, we consider justified reasonable faith (JRF). That is, we are epistemically justified believing in God’s existence given our intrinsic faculty or conscience, which also makes sense of other immaterial things, such as logic and morality, which we depend on to make accurate decisions in real time with reliable outcomes. The innate knowledge theory for believing in God’s existence is a necessary condition for knowledge, but it’s not sufficient. Theists have other reasons for believing in God. For example, the reason from cosmology (e.g., the Kalam Cosmological Argument and the Cosmic Fine-Tuning Argument); the reason from (absolute) morality; and the reason from general revelation, which is the practice of natural theology.
So, why aren’t there more theists? The apostle Paul explains, “Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshipping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshipped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.”[2] Therefore, there are good reasons for believing in the existence of God and offering him the worship he deserves, but the minds of mortal men have been warped by spiritual rebellion, which has affected their noetic and moral faculties. Precisely, this is why God must initiate the regenerative process. And by responding by faith in the only son of “the glorious, ever-living God,” who came to make propitiation for us to be considered worthy of being called “sons and daughters of God,” we show the necessity for JRF. To be sure, justification and reason are not substitutes for faith. Matter-of-fact, they do complement it. A faith that does not align with the right God by act of reason is relegated to fideism or, worse, nonsense. When our conscience is justified in believing in God it simply means that we have moved from atheism (or agnosticism) to theism. But it doesn’t mean we have moved into the salvific category of believing in the right God. That’s why we need reasonable faith given to us by God through his word—special revelation.
[1] Romans 1:19-20, NLT.
[2] Romans 1:21-23, NLT.