Looking for a Foundation

If our only tool is reason then the only house we can build is scepticism. If we want to build some other house we need some other tool(s) in addition to reason (or perhaps a redefinition of reason). We need a way to establish a foundation for all of our belief. How can any belief be properly basic, i.e. noninferentially grounded, on the basis of reason alone? Even those things that are normally accepted as properly basic by Foundationalists can be questioned. For instance, why should I consider a particular belief to be properly basic just because it is incorrigible? I believe that Descartes was correct in understanding that only God can guarantee the integrity of thought.

But is belief in God properly basic? This is what Reformed Epistemology in general, and the work of Alston and Plantinga in particular, hopes to establish. However, have they accomplished their task and is the argument convincing? There is some concern that they have proven too much, if the proof stands at all. If the proof is just as effective for any belief in any deity or imagined deity then does the proof have any value at all?

Reformed theology roots belief in the God of the Bible (as opposed to theism in general) in Revelation. The God who created all things has revealed himself in the creation in general and in the Bible in particular. Our belief in the God of the Bible has ontological roots. This ontology is supported moment by moment by the (doctrines of the) infallibility and perspicuity of the Scriptures and by the internal testimony of the Spirit of God. This is why Paul, in Romans one, rejects any possible claim to atheism, agnosticism, or alternate theism, as a mere suppression of the truth (of revelation). Yet, how do we defend this claim against similar counter claims from other religions? How does this not reduce our testimony to a "he said, she said" debate?

Help is on the way: I have requested Plantinga's "God and Other Minds" and Alston's "Perceiving God" for Christmas. Any suggestions on directions I might take in my reading or thinking would be appreciated.