Verandering van geloofsvoorstelling : analyse van legitimaties door Antony Flew, Cees Dekker en Raymond Bradley

Revision of beliefs is a common practice. An opinion that once was considered right, is now considered wrong. The interest in this study is in the revision of religious beliefs. Research questions in this dissertation are: (1) How do people justify their revision of religious beliefs? (2) How did this revision take place? (3) How can the revision be assessed intellectually? And more general: (4) What can we learn from the analysis of these revisions and their intellectual justification regarding the possibility of assessing intellectually the revisions of religious beliefs? In this study three intellectuals who changed their religious beliefs, are discussed Antony Flew, Cees Dekker and Raymond Bradley. Their changes are analysed using a model based on the work of Imre Lakatos. A conclusion regarding the revision process is that people tell stories, a narrative about their revision. This narrative provides the intellectual justification of the process. Through this narrative the change is presented as a rational change. However, an outsider need not agree on the line of reasoning in the narrative and may have his own opinion whether the change can be justified intellectually.