Faith and "Truth vs Utility"

[Neo-Scholastic]

On an existential level every belief rests on “as-if” pre-commitments. My personal opinion is that those atheists who consider atheism rational in contrast to theism, which they consider irrational, do so because they adhere to Enlightenment-era classical foundationalism. Their position is that knowledge is warranted only if it traces back to either self-evident principles or incorrigible experiences. Generally they believe that these two basics exhaust all possible options. That may or may not be the case. Either way, there are strains of skepticism that will deny one or both of those propositions to one degree or another. Even before someone can apply the methodology of classical foundationalism, each person must make private and pre-rational existential choices about: 1) whether or not reason is effective and 2) whether or not the world is intelligible. Again, you will find that there are strains of skepticism that will deny one or both of those propositions to one degree or another.