scumble

What makes you think I was suggesting something different?

Surely if you actually know what you believe is true, you don't have to believe it anymore?

mattbballman

tom,

I wouldn't necessarily disagree with the problems of internalism posed by Gettier-style responses. However, some justifications of knowledge come through this route -- you mentioned possibly omniscience. Yet externalism might make the claim for God better. I suppose an internalist might argue, and there are several responses to the Gettier-style problems, that in the absence of defeaters to God's knowing that He is omniscient would be grounds for accepting such a belief. But I agree that an externalist view, a reliable belief-forming mechanism, makes this necessarily true for God since the greatest conceivable being would necessarily have maximal knowledge. And just in case the greatest conceivable being utters "I am omniscient" it is necessarily true for Him.

If you're truly interested in the Christian interaction on epistemology between the internalist and externalist theories, I recommend Christian Perspectives on Religious Knowledge (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books).

matt