Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism

[ChinoCoug]

Has anyone heard this Alvin Plantinga argument?

-Darwin's Doubt: Since our brains evolved from lower animals, how can we trust them?

-Our nervous system was evolved for survival (reproduction, fleeing predators, metabolism, find food, etc.), not for finding truth.

-Darwin's bulldog Huxley believed in epiphenomenalism: your beliefs have no effect on your behavior. So evolution does nothing to ensure you have true beliefs.

-If epiphenomenalism is false, natural selection favors beliefs that lead to survival.

-Say you are a caveman and you see a lion.
(1) If you stay you will get eaten by the lion (true), so you run away.
(2) You are running a marathon, and the lion is just a signal "on your mark, get set..." (false).
(3) You think the lion is a cute little kitty (false) and you want to pet it, and the best way to pet it is to run away (false).

Only (1) is a true belief. But even if you harbor (2) or (3), natural selection will favor that belief.

So our brains aren't trustworthy.