Epistemic Arbitration between Theism and Atheism Based on Epistemic Virtue

Three approaches of theism, atheism and agnosticism have been the focus of the philosophy of religion with a great deal of controversies. Adherents of each one try to overcome the opposing argument and to prove its own claim. One of the necessary predispositions for arbitration between these claims is determining the dominant pattern and evaluation criteria among which evidentialism, fideism, reformed epistemology, and advisable and pragmatist approaches are considered as examples of these criteria. Virtueoriented epistemology is a modern approach highlighting the function of rational virtues in epistemic value of the beliefs. According to this approach, it is known that the way of connecting belief to truth is the fact that it is originated from practicing rational virtues. Therefore, to evaluate epistemic value of every belief, the quality and quantity of the mentioned virtues in the operating epistemic process should be detected. Having an overall investigation on the prevalent types of arbitration between theism and atheismand also providing a short report on virtue-oriented epistemology narrated by Zagzebski, the paper intends to show epistemic value of believing in God against the lack of it based on the mentioned approach.