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Introduction
In this article I develop a line of thought according to which there might be good reasons - reasons to do with the dubious epistemic authority of religious testimony, contrasted with the basic warrant which some religious experiences might confer upon religious beliefs - for those who warrantedly believe in God and perhaps even know that God exists to recommend that at least some of us accept, but do not believe, that God exists. That is, I will present a schematic argument for a form of religious fictionalism. A particularly interesting feature of this argument is that it is a realist argument for a form of fictionalism.1To date, most arguments for religious fictionalism (and all arguments for fictionalism in metaethics, the philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of science, etc. of which I am aware) offer to those who reject realism (or remain agnostic) reasons for non-doxastically accepting, rather than believing, something.2
In summary outline, the argument is this. A person can be warranted in believing that God exists because they have enjoyed some particular religious experience(s). In some cases, their warrant may be so strong that their belief amounts to knowledge. But the warrant they have for their belief that God exists does not transmit via testimony. Not everyone has had experiences which would warrant belief in the existence of God, nor do they have any other warrant for believing that God exists. So, since the testimony of those who have had the right sort of experiences does not transmit warrant to their audience, there are at least some people for whom the belief that God exists would be unwarranted, even if they could bring themselves to form such a belief. From the point of view of those who have warranted belief in the existence of God (from religious experience, perhaps amounting to knowledge), this presents a problem, given certain assumptions. On the one hand, they believe (perhaps even know) that God exists, and they might have reason for thinking that if God exists then the thought that God exists ought to play a role in all our lives. On the other hand, they might agree with many of us who think that one ought not to have unwarranted beliefs, at...