Abstract

Internalist, direct realist epistemologies have the conceptual wherewithal to both handle the new evil demon problem and explain how actual perceptual beliefs are justified. Despite this initial plausibility, I argue that direct realist accounts of perceptual justification seem to allow more beliefs to be characterized as justified perceptual beliefs than some philosophers would like. In specific, it seems that it is possible for human agents to have justified perceptual beliefs of a religious nature (e.g. that God is present). In this paper I will examine two contemporary versions of direct realism—that of John Pollock (2005) and that of Peter Markie (2006)—and show that each account is amenable to an explanation of why some religious beliefs are both perceptual and justified. Whether or not this is a virtue or vice of direct realism will depend on one’s religious epistemology.