Rik Peels

Rik Peels
Peels in 2025
Born
Henric David Peels

(1983-02-16) 16 February 1983 (age 43)
Zoetermeer, Netherlands
AwardsERC Starting Grant (2019)
Ammodo Science Award (2025)
Academic background
EducationTheological University of Apeldoorn (BA)
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (MA Theology, MA Philosophy)
Utrecht University (PhD, 2012)
ThesisBelieving Responsibly: Intellectual Obligations and Doxastic Excuses (2012)
Herman Philipse
Ralph Wedgwood
Academic work
DisciplinePhilosophy, theology
Sub-discipline
Philosophy of religion, epistemology, radicalization studies
InstitutionsVrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Websiteextremebeliefs.com

Henric David "Rik" Peels (born 16 February 1983) is a Dutch philosopher and theologian. Since 2023 he has been professor of analytic and interdisciplinary philosophy of religion at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), holding a University Research Chair. Much of his earlier work is on the ethics of belief and on ignorance, and he has written critically about scientism. His 2017 book Responsible Belief was the subject of book symposia in two philosophy journals.

Since 2019 his main subject has been how people acquire and maintain extreme beliefs, a project funded by a Starting Grant from the European Research Council. He is series editor of Extreme Belief and Behavior at Oxford University Press. Peels received the Ammodo Science Award in 2025 and was elected to the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities the same year.

Early life and education

Peels was born in Zoetermeer. His father is the Old Testament scholar Eric Peels. He took a bachelor's degree in theology at the Theological University of Apeldoorn and went on to study philosophy at the VU, spending 2004–05 as a visiting graduate student at the University of Notre Dame. At the VU he then completed master's degrees in theology and in philosophy, both cum laude.

He began doctoral research in philosophy at Utrecht University in 2008, and in 2011 he was a research associate at Merton College, Oxford. On 2 March 2012 he defended his PhD thesis at Utrecht University, Believing Responsibly: Intellectual Obligations and Doxastic Excuses. Herman Philipse supervised the work, with Ralph Wedgwood as co-supervisor. The thesis develops a theory of what it is to believe responsibly and explores when ignorance counts as an excuse.

Career

In 2007 Peels became chair of the advisory board of the Veritas Forum, a Christian academic network that organises discussions on the big questions of life at universities. He was appointed its European director in 2012. From 2012 he was a postdoctoral researcher at the VU, working on a common-sense philosophical alternative to scientism in a project funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. Together with René van Woudenberg and Jeroen de Ridder he received funding from the same foundation in 2016 and 2019 for two further projects, on the epistemic responsibilities of the university and on epistemic progress in the university respectively. At the VU he leads the research group Strong Religion and Extreme Beliefs. He was a member of the Amsterdam Young Academy from 2018 to 2022 and chaired it in 2019 and 2020.

The European Research Council awarded him a Starting Grant in 2019 for the project Extreme Beliefs: The Epistemology and Ethics of Fundamentalism. It ran from 2020 until the end of 2024 with an EU contribution of just under €1.5 million. On 1 September 2023 he took up a University Research Chair in analytic and interdisciplinary philosophy of religion. At the time of the appointment he worked in the Faculty of Religion and Theology while keeping his link with the Faculty of Humanities. Also in 2023 he became a research associate of the African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science at the University of Johannesburg. His VU position now falls under the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, and since 2025 the university has also described him as professor in the philosophy and theology of radicalisation. He gave his inaugural lecture, De extremist en de wetenschapper ("The extremist and the scientist"), on 26 January 2024, the day his book of the same title was published.

In March 2024 a consortium of researchers from five Dutch universities, led by the historian Beatrice de Graaf, received a €23 million Gravitation grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for Adapt!, a research programme on how societies can better adapt to crises. Peels is one of its principal investigators. He became a member of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities in 2025.

Research

Ethics of belief and ignorance

The ethics of belief runs through much of Peels's work. In Responsible Belief (2017) he argues that people cannot simply choose what to believe. What they can do is influence their beliefs through what they do and fail to do, and that is where, on his account, their responsibility lies. In 2018 the journals Teorema and the International Journal of Philosophical Studies each ran a book symposium on it, with papers by several philosophers and a reply from Peels.

Ignorance is his second long-standing topic. He edited two collections on it, the first with Martijn Blaauw, which appeared in 2016 and 2017. His monograph Ignorance: A Philosophical Study followed in 2023 and was reviewed in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews and the International Journal for the Study of Skepticism, among other places. In 2025 Philosophical Issues, a supplement to Noûs, devoted a symposium to the book, with contributions by Duncan Pritchard and Christopher Willard-Kyle and replies by Peels.

Scientism and common sense

Peels has criticised scientism, the view that only the natural sciences produce reliable knowledge. With Jeroen de Ridder and René van Woudenberg he edited Scientism: Prospects and Problems (2018). He and Van Woudenberg then edited The Cambridge Companion to Common-Sense Philosophy (2020), on the philosophy of common sense. A Philosophy of the Humanities (2025), written with Stephen Grimm and Van Woudenberg, deals with how the humanities produce knowledge.

Philosophy of religion

With the theologian Stefan Paas, Peels wrote God bewijzen ("Proving God", 2013), a book on the arguments for and against belief in God. In January 2014 the two authors debated it at Felix Meritis in Amsterdam with Herman Philipse and Maarten Boudry. That June the book shared the prize for best theological book at the Nacht van de Theologie (Night of Theology) with De berg van de ziel by Christa Anbeek and Ada de Jong.

Life without God (2023) asks why people become atheists. It argues that most atheists are not primarily driven by arguments for atheism. It was reviewed in Reviews in Religion & Theology, among others. The Dutch edition, Leven zonder God (2024), was reviewed in Trouw, the Nederlands Dagblad and the Reformatorisch Dagblad.

Monotheism and Fundamentalism (2024) deals with the relation between monotheism and fundamentalism. Peels argues that there is no empirical evidence to think that faith in one God generally or often leads to fundamentalism. Fundamentalists can and do instrumentalise certain religious texts for their own purposes, he argues, but monotheistic religions also have enough resources to make monotheists resilient to fundamentalism.

Extremism and radicalisation

Since 2019 Peels has worked mainly on extreme beliefs, from religious fundamentalism to belief in conspiracy theories. His ERC project started from the assumption that a fundamentalist is usually an ordinary and relatively rational person who is, as a rule, responsible for his harmful views. For Peels, fundamentalism lies less in the content of a belief than in the way a person holds it. It is therefore not confined to religion and also occurs in right-wing and left-wing extremism. Socio-economic explanations are useful but incomplete in his view. How people think matters as well, including their intellectual virtues and vices, and so does their religiosity. His 2025 article in Terrorism and Political Violence on the relation between cognitive and behavioural radicalisation drew responses in the same journal from Clark McCauley and Sophia Moskalenko and from James Khalil, to which he replied.

In his inaugural lecture and the accompanying Dutch book he made the case for bringing resources from philosophy and theology to the study of radicalisation, and for engaging with extremists in conversation. Theologians should have a larger part in that debate, he argues, because the religious motives of terrorists cannot be explained away. He defines extremism as the belief that one's own group can only flourish in hostility towards another group. Extremists, in his view, are not mad; they act with instrumental rationality. Much research on radicalisation, he says, describes more than it explains. The citation for his Ammodo Science Award mentions his use of the concept of non-ideal rationality to explain how apparently rational people arrive at extreme beliefs.

Peels is the series editor of Extreme Belief and Behavior at Oxford University Press. For the series he edited Conceptualizing Extreme Beliefs and Behaviors (2025, with John Horgan), Explaining Extreme Belief and Behavior (2026, with Lorne L. Dawson) and Responsibility for Extreme Beliefs and Behaviors (2026, with Naomi Kloosterboer and Chris Ranalli). In 2023 he co-wrote a report for the Research and Documentation Centre (WODC) of the Dutch government on how public bodies arrive at ideological assessments and how sound those assessments are.

Replication in the humanities

Peels has argued that research in the empirical humanities should also be replicated, to test whether its findings hold up. He made the case with Lex Bouter in Nature and Palgrave Communications in 2018. A debate followed with scholars who see little point in replication in the humanities. With the art historian Charlotte Rulkens and others he then repeated a study on the attribution of two portraits to Rembrandt, work for which the team received the OSCAward for Open Science in 2024.

Awards and honours

Public engagement

Peels at a debate on religion in 2014

Peels writes opinion pieces for Dutch newspapers including Trouw, NRC, de Volkskrant and the Nederlands Dagblad. In 2019 he published an op-ed in de Volkskrant defending funding for the humanities. A year later he wrote in the same newspaper that needless insult is immoral but need not be banned by law. In 2025 and 2026 he was one of eight researchers who took turns writing for Trouw's series Klaar voor de crisis ("Ready for the crisis"). With Beatrice de Graaf he wrote a series in NRC on the seven classical virtues; their book De zeven deugden ("The seven virtues") has been announced for January 2027 by the publisher Prometheus. In September 2026 he argued in NRC that the greatest threat to the democratic constitutional state comes from within, and called for what he terms waardenweerbaarheid, resilience in values. With Jeroen de Ridder he wrote Wat is nou waar? ("So what is true?", 2025), which sets out seven rules for clear thinking in a time of disinformation.

In 2024 he contributed to The Long History of... Ignorance, a six-part series by Rory Stewart on BBC Radio 4 that was also released as a podcast. On 17 September 2025 he appeared as one of the witnesses in the Radio 4 debate programme Moral Maze, in an episode titled "To know or not to know?". On Dutch radio he has been a guest on NPO Radio 1 programmes such as Villa VdB and Nieuwsweekend. He talked with Annemiek Schrijver about Wat is nou waar? and other subjects in the KRO-NCRV programme De verwondering, broadcast on NPO 2 on 28 December 2025. He has appeared several times on De Ongelooflijke Podcast, once alongside the atheist philosopher Stine Jensen. He was the keynote speaker at the Nacht van de Theologie in 2024. At the VU's anniversary celebration (dies natalis) on 20 November 2025 he spoke about free and respectful debate on sensitive subjects at the university.

Selected publications

Books

Edited volumes

Selected articles

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Peels, Rik. "CV". rikpeels.nl. Archived from the original on 7 April 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Janssen, Jonathan (10 June 2024). "Filosoof Rik Peels: 'Extremisten zijn niet gek'" [Philosopher Rik Peels: 'Extremists are not mad']. Filosofie Magazine (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 14 April 2026.
  3. 1 2 "Four excellent VU researchers appointed as professors". Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. 26 June 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Rik Peels benoemd als hoogleraar op de URC-leerstoel" [Rik Peels appointed professor on the URC chair]. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (in Dutch). 26 June 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 Peels, Rik (2018). "Response to Critics: The Influence Account of Responsible Belief Defended". International Journal of Philosophical Studies. 26 (4): 632–643. doi:10.1080/09672559.2018.1511151.
  6. 1 2 Peels, Rik (2018). "Resumen: la importancia y las complejidades de creer responsablemente" [Précis: the importance and complexities of believing responsibly] (PDF). Teorema (in Spanish). 37 (2): 93–101.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "The Epistemology and Ethics of Fundamentalism (EXTREME)". CORDIS. European Commission.
  8. 1 2 3 Schmid, Alex P. (2025). "Book Review: Conceptualizing Extreme Beliefs and Behaviors. Definitions and Relations". Perspectives on Terrorism. 19 (4).
  9. 1 2 3 "Laureates Ammodo Science Award 2025 announced". Ammodo. 15 April 2025.
  10. 1 2 3 "Rik Peels strengthens science network KHMW". Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. 3 March 2025. Archived from the original on 22 January 2026.
  11. ↑ Peels, Rik (October 2021). "Curriculum Vitae Rik Peels". Academia.edu.
  12. 1 2 3 4 van der Zwaag, Klaas (2 March 2012). "Rik Peels promoveert bij Herman Philipse" [Rik Peels obtains his doctorate under Herman Philipse]. Reformatorisch Dagblad (in Dutch).
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Rik Peels". Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
  14. ↑ Peels, Rik (2 March 2012). Believing responsibly: intellectual obligations and doxastic excuses (PhD thesis). Utrecht University.
  15. 1 2 van der Zwaag, Klaas (11 October 2013). "Peels en Paas: Geloven is gezond, nuttig en redelijk" [Peels and Paas: Believing is healthy, useful and reasonable]. Reformatorisch Dagblad (in Dutch).
  16. ↑ "The Epistemic Responsibilities of the University". Templeton World Charity Foundation.
  17. ↑ "Strong Religion and Extreme Beliefs – Onderzoeksgroep" [Strong Religion and Extreme Beliefs research group]. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (in Dutch).
  18. 1 2 "Drie ERC Starting Grants voor de VU" [Three ERC Starting Grants for the VU]. Ad Valvas (in Dutch). 3 September 2019.
  19. 1 2 Peels, Rik; Kloosterboer, Naomi; Ranalli, Chris, eds. (16 October 2026). Responsibility for Extreme Beliefs and Behaviors: Individual, Group, and Structural Factors. Extreme Belief and Behavior Series. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780197817186.
  20. 1 2 de Jong, Marjolein (29 October 2025). "'De universiteit is een soort mini-samenleving'" ['The university is a kind of mini-society']. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (in Dutch).
  21. 1 2 3 Visscher, Johannes (25 January 2024). "Prof. Rik Peels: Fundamentalistische krachten trekken aan reformatorische gezindte" [Prof. Rik Peels: Fundamentalist forces are pulling at the Reformed community]. Reformatorisch Dagblad (in Dutch).
  22. 1 2 "Extremisme en radicalisering: tijd voor een ander mensbeeld" [Extremism and radicalisation: time for a different view of human nature]. VNG Magazine (in Dutch). Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten. 2024.
  23. ↑ "De extremist en de wetenschapper" [The extremist and the scientist]. Uitgeverij Balans (in Dutch).
  24. 1 2 "Gravitation grant for multidisciplinary team to investigate adaptability of societies in crises". Utrecht University. 25 March 2024.
  25. 1 2 "Gravitation for scientists to investigate adaptability of societies in crises". Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. 25 March 2024.
  26. 1 2 Peels, Rik (30 June 2025). "Opinie: Is er nu wel of niet een crisis? Loop deze checklist eens langs" [Opinion: Is there a crisis or not? Run through this checklist]. Trouw (in Dutch).
  27. 1 2 "Nieuwe leden KHMW 2025" [New members of the KHMW, 2025] (PDF) (in Dutch). Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen. 2025. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 November 2025.
  28. 1 2 Pegtel, Alies (3 December 2019). "Wat is eigenlijk een fundamentalist?" [What exactly is a fundamentalist?]. Filosofie Magazine (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 12 May 2026.
  29. ↑ Björnsson, Gunnar (17 October 2017). "Responsible Belief: A Theory in Ethics and Epistemology". Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
  30. ↑ Kulp, Christopher B. (2018). "On Peels on Doxastic Responsibility" (PDF). Teorema. 37 (2): 111–126.
  31. ↑ "International Journal of Philosophical Studies, Volume 26, Issue 4: Book Symposium". Taylor & Francis Online. 2018.
  32. ↑ Zimmerman, Michael J. (2018). "Peels on Ignorance as a Moral Excuse". International Journal of Philosophical Studies. 26 (4): 624–632. doi:10.1080/09672559.2018.1511150.
  33. ↑ Vogt, Katja Maria (3 April 2017). "The Epistemic Dimensions of Ignorance". Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
  34. ↑ Flanders, Chad (2 April 2017). "Perspectives on Ignorance from Moral and Social Philosophy". Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
  35. ↑ Tanesini, Alessandra (29 October 2023). "Ignorance: A Philosophical Study". Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
  36. ↑ DeNicola, Daniel R. (2023). "Rik Peels' Ignorance: A Philosophical Study". International Journal for the Study of Skepticism. 13 (3): 239–254. doi:10.1163/22105700-bja10064.
  37. ↑ Pritchard, Duncan (2025). "In Defense of the Normative Account of Ignorance". Philosophical Issues. 35. doi:10.1111/phis.70018.
  38. ↑ Willard-Kyle, Christopher (2025). "Ignorance, Questions, and Significance". Philosophical Issues. 35. doi:10.1111/phis.70015.
  39. ↑ Branch, Glenn (2020). "Jeroen de Ridder, Rik Peels, and Rene van Woudenberg, eds., Scientism: Prospects and Problems". Philosophy in Review. 40 (3): 107–109. doi:10.7202/1071520ar.
  40. ↑ Peels, Rik; van Woudenberg, René, eds. (2020). The Cambridge Companion to Common-Sense Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108598163. ISBN 9781108476003.
  41. ↑ Grimm, Stephen R.; Peels, Rik; van Woudenberg, René (2025). A Philosophy of the Humanities. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/9780197749647.001.0001. ISBN 9780197749609.
  42. ↑ Renckens, Cees (29 January 2014). "Is er vooruitgang in de filosofie?" [Is there progress in philosophy?]. Kloptdatwel? (in Dutch).
  43. 1 2 Aangeenbrug, Eddy (23 June 2014). "Paul van Geest verkozen tot theoloog van het jaar" [Paul van Geest chosen as theologian of the year]. Reformatorisch Dagblad (in Dutch).
  44. ↑ Peels, Rik (2023). Life without God: An Outsider's Look at Atheism. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009297790. ISBN 9781009297790.
  45. 1 2 Dekker, Willem Maarten (22 August 2024). "De atheïst leren begrijpen zonder hem te willen overtuigen, krijgt Rik Peels dat voor elkaar?" [Understanding the atheist without trying to convert him: does Rik Peels manage it?]. Nederlands Dagblad (in Dutch).
  46. ↑ Van Herck, Walter (2024). "Life Without God: An Outsider's Look at Atheism, Rik Peels". Reviews in Religion & Theology. 31 (4): 219–223. doi:10.1111/rirt.14363.
  47. ↑ KleinJan, Gerrit-Jan (4 June 2024). "Van het bestuderen van atheïsme zou een gelovige auteur nog geloviger worden" [Studying atheism would make a believing author even more devout]. Trouw (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 16 July 2024.
  48. ↑ Hoek, J. (5 September 2024). "Motieven van atheïsten gepeild" [The motives of atheists examined]. Reformatorisch Dagblad (in Dutch).
  49. 1 2 "Monotheism and Fundamentalism: Prevalence, Potential, and Resilience". Cambridge Core. Cambridge University Press. 11 April 2024.
  50. ↑ Zijderveld, Arjen (22 January 2024). "Prof. Rik Peels: Geloof in één God geen voedingsbodem voor fundamentalisme" [Prof. Rik Peels: Belief in one God is no breeding ground for fundamentalism]. Reformatorisch Dagblad (in Dutch).
  51. ↑ "'Fundamentalisten zijn niet zo heel anders dan wij'" ['Fundamentalists are not so very different from us']. Ad Valvas (in Dutch). 29 October 2020.
  52. ↑ van Beek, Marije (12 September 2019). "Deze filosoof kruipt in het hoofd van fundamentalisten" [This philosopher gets inside the heads of fundamentalists]. Trouw (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 18 July 2023.
  53. ↑ Peels, Rik (2023). "What Is It to Explain Extremism?". Terrorism and Political Violence. doi:10.1080/09546553.2023.2255902.
  54. ↑ Peels, Rik (2026). "Cognitive and Behavioral Radicalization: An Explanatory Split?". Terrorism and Political Violence. 38 (7): 840–854. doi:10.1080/09546553.2025.2502860.
  55. ↑ McCauley, Clark; Moskalenko, Sophia (2026). "Belief and Behavior in Radicalization: Clarifying the Link in Response to Peels". Terrorism and Political Violence. 38 (3): 306–314. doi:10.1080/09546553.2025.2580999.
  56. ↑ Khalil, James (2026). "A Response to Rik Peels' "Cognitive and Behavioral Radicalization: An Explanatory Split?"". Terrorism and Political Violence. 38 (3): 321–327. doi:10.1080/09546553.2025.2581009.
  57. ↑ Peels, Rik (2026). "Extreme Belief and Extreme Behavior Reconsidered: A Response to Clark McCauley and Sophia Moskalenko". Terrorism and Political Violence. 38 (3): 315–320. doi:10.1080/09546553.2025.2580990.
  58. ↑ Hoogendoorn, Maurice (23 January 2024). "Rik Peels onderzoekt radicalisering: 'Een extremist is normaler dan we denken'" [Rik Peels studies radicalisation: 'An extremist is more normal than we think']. Nederlands Dagblad (in Dutch).
  59. ↑ Peels, Rik; Dawson, Lorne L., eds. (20 January 2026). Explaining Extreme Belief and Behavior: Theoretical, Methodological, and Ethical Challenges. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/9780197768914.001.0001. ISBN 9780197768884.
  60. ↑ "Een onderzoek naar de totstandkoming en kwaliteit van, het toezicht op, en beroepsmogelijkheden tegen ideologische duidingen" [A study of the formation and quality of, supervision of, and means of appeal against ideological assessments]. WODC Repository (in Dutch). 5 July 2023.
  61. ↑ Peels, Rik; Bouter, Lex (2018). "Humanities need a replication drive too". Nature. 558. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-05454-w.
  62. ↑ Peels, Rik; Bouter, Lex (2018). "The possibility and desirability of replication in the humanities". Palgrave Communications. 4. doi:10.1057/s41599-018-0149-x.
  63. ↑ Peels, Rik; Bouter, Lex; van Woudenberg, René (13 February 2019). "Do the humanities need a replication drive? A debate rages on". Retraction Watch.
  64. ↑ Rulkens, Charlotte; Peels, Rik; Stols-Witlox, Maartje; Meloni, Sabrina; Lechner, Iris M.; Bouter, Lex (2025). "The Attribution of Two Portraits of Rembrandt Revisited: A Replication Study in Art History". Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. 12. doi:10.1057/s41599-025-05523-2.
  65. 1 2 "OSCAward for Open Science: Replicating a Rembrandt Study". Research Portal Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
  66. ↑ "Award for science communication by the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences". Research Portal Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
  67. ↑ "KNAW-fonds "Gewaardeerd"". Research Portal Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. 8 April 2021.
  68. ↑ "Ammodo Science Award 2025 presented". Ammodo. 8 May 2025.
  69. 1 2 "Rik Peels". Trouw (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 15 May 2026.
  70. 1 2 3 Peels, Rik (18 September 2026). "Vergeet Poetin en Trump, we zijn zelf onze grootste vijand" [Forget Putin and Trump, we are our own worst enemy]. NRC (in Dutch).
  71. 1 2 Peels, Rik (23 November 2020). "Nodeloos beledigen is immoreel, maar hoeft daarom nog niet bij wet verboden te worden" [Needless insult is immoral, but that is no reason to ban it by law]. de Volkskrant (in Dutch).
  72. ↑ "Rik Peels". Nederlands Dagblad (in Dutch).
  73. ↑ "De alfa's zijn boos" [The humanities are angry]. de Volkskrant (in Dutch). 29 July 2019.
  74. ↑ de Graaf, Beatrice; Peels, Rik (31 December 2025). "Geloof in de democratie is hard werken, met liefde" [Faith in democracy is hard work, with love]. NRC (in Dutch).
  75. ↑ "De zeven deugden" [The seven virtues]. Uitgeverij Prometheus (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 11 July 2026.
  76. ↑ "Feit of fictie? Rik Peels en Jeroen de Ridder geven praktische tips" [Fact or fiction? Rik Peels and Jeroen de Ridder give practical tips]. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (in Dutch). 17 February 2025. Archived from the original on 18 February 2026.
  77. ↑ Visser, Marco (26 March 2025). "Deze zeven denkregels helpen je erachter te komen: wat is waar?" [These seven rules of thinking help you work out what is true]. Trouw (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 1 April 2025.
  78. ↑ "Rory Stewart: The Long History of... Ignorance – 1. The Pursuit of Knowledge". BBC Radio 4. 11 July 2024.
  79. ↑ "Moral Maze: To know or not to know?". BBC Sounds. BBC Radio 4. 17 September 2025.
  80. ↑ "Complottheorieën gemakkelijk te vinden via sociale media: wat zijn de gevolgen?" [Conspiracy theories easy to find on social media: what are the consequences?]. NPO Radio 1 (in Dutch). 21 October 2024.
  81. ↑ "Van radicale denkbeelden tot extremisme: 'Extremistische personen zijn grotendeels mensen zoals jij en ik'" [From radical ideas to extremism: 'Extremists are largely people like you and me']. NPO Radio 1 (in Dutch). 6 May 2025.
  82. ↑ "Filosoof Rik Peels: 'Als je nooit stilstaat, loop je voorbij het wonder van het bestaan'" [Philosopher Rik Peels: 'If you never stand still, you walk past the wonder of existence']. KRO-NCRV (in Dutch). 19 December 2025.
  83. ↑ "Rik Peels: 'Het gaat niet zo goed met ons, maar er is reden tot hoop!'" [Rik Peels: 'We are not doing so well, but there is reason for hope!'] (Press release) (in Dutch). KRO-NCRV. 4 December 2025. Archived from the original on 18 January 2026.
  84. ↑ "#146 Dank God voor atheïsme! (met Rik Peels en Stefan Paas)" [#146 Thank God for atheism! (with Rik Peels and Stefan Paas)]. De Ongelooflijke Podcast (in Dutch). NPO Radio 1. 2023.
  85. ↑ "'Leven zonder God', een zingevingsdate tussen atheïst Stine Jensen en christen Rik Peels" ['Life without God', a date about meaning between atheist Stine Jensen and Christian Rik Peels]. NPO Radio 1 (in Dutch). 18 August 2024.
  86. ↑ "Vrede op aarde van Stefan Paas is Beste theologische boek 2024" [Stefan Paas's Vrede op aarde is Best theological book of 2024]. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (in Dutch). 15 November 2024. Archived from the original on 10 March 2026.