ABSTRACT
This chapter details the criticism of the understanding of religious beliefs according to which they are beliefs of a scientific type, based on evidence or on scientific reasoning. It examines where a rational belief was understood to be a belief one adopts after having been convinced of its truth by means of an argument starting from certain putative universal norms and rules for argumentation. Another possible way to criticize this way of understanding the rationality and irrationality of religious beliefs would be to show that it also misrepresents the scientific practice. Reconciling disagreements is obviously more difficult in the context or religion than in the context of science. The chapter focuses on a introduction to Wittgenstein's philosophy. It also explains a distinctive feature of Wittgenstein's way of conducting investigations, their conceptual character. It discusses the unhypothetical character of certain beliefs by pointing out some important themes in Wittgenstein's discussion of rule following.
