Being good and loving God

Can trying to be morally good make a determinative difference for whether a person cognitively commits themself to God’s existence? If so, would the resulting commitment be epistemically justified—or at least not epistemically unjustified? This chapter defends a positive answer to both questions. It explains, first, how aiming to be the kind of person who tends to err on the side of giving others praise, thanks, or apology might lead someone to adopt positive cognitive commitments to God’s existence despite having ambiguous evidence for God’s existence. It then explains how several different views about epistemic justification would allow the resulting cognitive commitments to be either epistemically justified or not epistemically unjustified.