Clifford's Argument Analysis

James presents the idea that our human nature is to believe things that we are passionate about even if there is no sufficient evidence to support the belief. What tends to drive our beliefs is the passion that is behind it. James has a placed a set of standards on any hypothesis to determine if the hypothesis has enough evidence to support the claim. These standards include whether the hypothesis is living or dead, forced or avoidable and momentous or trivial. All of these are taken into consideration to determine if the hypothesis can be considered as a legitimate option, James states that a legitimate option has to have the standards of being live, forced and momentous. When thinking about the existence of God James believes that there is …show more content…
This seems reasonable to believe since Clifford’s whole argument is based upon the principle of having sufficient evidence. But what evidence does a person have to leave a question unanswered? Their decision to do so would mean that one would believe that there is sufficient evidence to make a decision but contradicts the fact that Clifford says there was not sufficient evidence. James believes that this is one aspect of Clifford’s argument that he does not agree with. James does not agree with the idea that we shouldn’t believe ideas on insufficient evidence since it closes our minds off to suspense. James responded to Clifford by saying that our feelings towards a certain belief no matter what they are, are just a mere reflection of our passion. He believes that we should be able to be satisfied with our choice instead of living an uneasy life where we always worried. James also believes that the Christians should need no sufficient evidence for what they believe in. James says that one’s belief in a certain religion has no significant impact on others, but can only help the one who believes. These are all ways that James disagrees with