Originally posted by bbarr
Don't you see that this requirement is the very thing that cannot be met without actual evidence? That was the point of the original post.
The reason I agreed with your original post was because I agreed with your assertion that evidence is necessary for belief formation. Also, your example seemed to allude to the classic reward/punishment witness style used by some to motivate people to believe (a misguided practice in my opinion).
On second thought, though, it seems to me now that your example leaves out some of the process of belief formation. For example, if the person telling you there was a killer in your closet happened to be a person whom you had a great deal of trust in--a favorite uncle, perhaps Kant himself--would it be less difficult to believe? Would you even need the shedload of money as a motivation?
I don't think it is possible to have an iron-clad belief. Even if you were to open the door and look for yourself, relying upon your senses as a form of evidence, there is no way to prove that your senses aren't deceiving you. Furthermore, you must have faith that your mind is working properly. It is, of course, impossible to prove the reliability of the mind with the mind itself. Then there is the reliability of the testimonial: much of what we believe day to day comes to us via "authorities," i.e., parents, teachers, books, street signs, Wikipedia, etc., none of which can be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be reliable sources.
All of this taken together, it looks more and more like the demand for incontrovertible epistemic proof--in any arena--is either a naive fantasy or a stonewall against committal. Pascal's Wager may not be a recipe for arriving at genuine faith, but Pascal was at least right that in life one must step out on a limb and
wager, because there
are no satisfactory assurances. And in this sense we all live by faith. We are each sticking to what we have good reason to think is true, in light of the difficulties. Therefore, it does not seem to me at all unreasonable to challenge others to test the veracity of Christ's teachings or promises by putting them into practice for themselves (And no, I do not do this ironically, LJ, I assure you I am quite serious).
The best any witness can do, in these forums anyway, is appeal to the authority of scripture. And if you are looking for anything more than the evidence of scripture upon which to base your faith, you will be disappointed (or pleased, depending on your disposition).