A critique of religious fictionalism

Andrew Eshleman has argued that atheists can believe in God by beingfully engaged members of religious communities and using religious discourse in anon-realist way. He calls this position ‘fictionalism’ because the atheist takes upreligion as a useful fiction. In this paper I critique fictionalism along two lines: thatit is problematic to successfully be a fictionalist and that fictionalism is unjustified.Reflection on fictionalism will point to some wider problems with religiousanti-realism