Hard Rationalism
 
Hard rationalism means that if you are using your head and thinking properly, you will not accept anything as true or believe it unless you have evidence.
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Criticism: There are many things we believe without evidence . For example, you believe that you are awake now and not asleep and dreaming.
 
The truth: Acceptance is not the same thing as belief. When you are dreaming you accept that you are awake and it is real. When you are awake you accept that you are awake and it is real.
 
True belief is a result of your interpretation of evidence.
 
Hard rationalism may teach that you should not accept anything as true or believe without proof. But in the absence of proof it allows you to assume that theories are true.
 
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Criticism: You can't prove that hard rationalism is true. It asks for proof and it cannot prove itself. So it is self-defeating.
 
The truth: What else are we to do then? The fact that we know we believe things proves that rationalism works.
 
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Criticism: You can't prove that hard rationalism is true. It asks for proof and it only gives evidence in itself defence. Hard rationalism should be proven 100%.
 
The truth: What else are we to do then? The fact that we know we believe things proves that rationalism works.
 
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Criticism: Rationalism can lead you astray.
 
The truth: Yes, like a mathematician who does his or her sums wrong it can. That is not the fault of the method but the user.
 
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A basic belief is a belief that we need to be able to believe that what happens in our experience and in our world is real. We don't need evidence for it but we just need to be able to argue that it is true. It is a belief that has warrant but not evidence.
 
Some say that belief in God is a basic belief. They might say that to recognise our lives in this world as real we need to believe in God that he is not tricking us all the time and making us think the world is real if it is not. So they argue. They use no evidence. They do not look for evidence that the world is real because there is none. We just take it for granted as a result of arguments.
 
Belief in God is not a basic belief. Belief in reason is. Which is more basic? If you assume God exists you have to reason what he is like. So you are using reason anyway. You can't get away from it so you have no choice but to make it the basic belief. Those who say that God is the basic belief are confusing the result of reason with reason. They believe in the method more than God so reason is the basic belief.
 
Plus, God cannot be a basic belief for even if he is pure truth he tolerates deception. He could have a reason for letting you be deceived.
 
We never really believe anything because of reasons. We believe because of our memory of those reasons. Memory causes belief.