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Divine hiddenness

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Title: Divine hiddenness


1
Divine hiddenness
  • Philosophy of Religion 2008
  • Lecture 6

2
Today
  • Possibility and necessity
  • What is the problem of divine hiddenness?
  • Hiddenness as an argument for atheism
  • Theistic responses to hiddenness
  • Reading etc

3
First procedurals possibility
  • Logical possibility
  • Anything which is not self-contradictory
  • There is a possible world in which
  • Empirical possibility
  • Anything in accord with the laws of nature
  • It can be, in this world
  • Technical possibility
  • Anything we can do right now
  • Clearly, logical possibility is the most inclusive

4
First procedurals necessity
  • Necessity and contingency
  • Necessary truth must be true in all possible
    worlds. E.g
  • A cat is a cat
  • Everything is either a cat or not a cat but not
    both
  • 2 2 4
  • Are all necessary truths analytic?

5
Divine necessity
  • Necessary existence, and necessary attributes
  • Divine necessity
  • Is Gods existence a logical necessity
    (ontological arguments denying Gods existence
    leads to contradiction)?
  • Or in some weaker sense (maybe cosmological
    arguments)?
  • Are all Gods attributes necessary (if there is a
    God must he have these attributes)?

6
Hiddenness
  • Moser if God exists, God is hidden. Pascal was
    dead right
  • Any religion that does not say that God is
    hidden is not true, and any religion that does
    not explain why does not instruct (Pascal
    Pensees 242)

7
Hiddenness
  • My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why
    art thou so far from helping me, from the words
    of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but thou
    dost not answer, by night, but find no rest
    (Psalm 22)
  • Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I
    might come even to his seat! Behold, I go
    forward, but he is not there and backward, but I
    cannot perceive him on the left hand I seek him,
    but I cannot behold him I turn to the right
    hand, but I cannot see him (Job 23)

8
Hiddenness
  • The existence of God seems apparent to some, but
    not others even some who seek for Him.
  • Given this, is it more reasonable to believe that
    God does not exist?
  • If God does exist, why is this not apparent to
    all?
  • An argument for atheism?
  • Or can divine hiddenness be explained should it
    even be expected?

9
Hiddenness
  • Like the problem of evil, the problem of
    hiddenness may come in different forms
  • Logical (in which case the theist need only show
    that a consistent position is possible)
  • Evidential (here the theist needs a more
    convincing answer)
  • Focussed on lack of evidence
  • Focussed on lack of belief
  • Focussed on evidence against (e.g. lack of divine
    action against evil)
  • Concentrate on Schellenbergs argument

10
Schellenbergs argument for atheism
  • P1 If there is a loving God, all creatures
    capable of a relationship with God who have not
    freely shut themselves off from God should be
    able to have one.
  • P2 To have this relationship one must believe
    that God exists.
  • C1 So if there is a loving God, all will believe
    that God exists
  • P3 But this is not the case there is
    non-resistant nonbelief
  • C2 So it is not the case that there is a
    perfectly loving God
  • P4 If God exists, God is perfectly loving.
  • C3 It is not the case that God exists

11
In a nutshell
  • If God exists, then all capable creatures should
    be able to believe in Him
  • All capable creatures are not able to believe in
    Him
  • Therefore God does not exist (Modus Tollens)

12
Unpacking the argument
  • Some creatures in the world have the equipment
    required to believe that God exists and trust in
    God and feel God's presence I am suggesting is
    that there is something remarkably odd about the
    idea that, supposing there really is a God whose
    love is unsurpassably perfect, such creatures
    should ever be unable to exercise their capacity
    for relationship with God--at least so long as
    they have not got themselves into that position
    through resisting the divine What sense can we
    make of the idea that capable creatures should be
    open to relationship with a perfectly loving God,
    not resisting it at all, perhaps even longing for
    it, and yet not in a place where they can have
    such a relationship, if there really is a
    perfectly loving God? (Schellenberg 2008)

13
Unpacking the argument
  • Why should Gods love imply that we should be
    able to be in relationship with him?
  • Howard-Snyder (1996) relationship enables goods
    that a loving God would want us to have
  • moral benefits help in overcoming flaws in our
    character more likely to emulate Gods love
    more likely to flourish as human beings.
  • experiential benefits peace and joy in knowing
    our creator, security, pleasure at Gods presence
  • intrinsic benefits relating to God is just good
    in itself
  • improved relations with others as a result of
    these
  • Also, a loving God would want a relationship with
    us not just for these benefits, but for its own
    sake

14
Unpacking the argument
  • The argument depends on
  • Gods necessarily being loving
  • Gods love always requiring that we relate to him
  • God being able to make Himself known
  • Creatures being capable of relationship
  • Inculpable non-belief creatures dont resist
    relationship
  • There being genuine sincere unbelief
  • Can the theist challenge these?

15
Possible responses
  • Is God necessarily loving (1)? Maybe not -
    perhaps Schellenberg can only have the weaker
    claim
  • C2 So it is not the case that there is a
    perfectly loving God
  • Probably acceptable to the theist (Cf problem of
    evil)?
  • Is God able to make himself known (3)?
  • Presumably so but in what way? And more later
  • So concentrate on
  • First, (2) Gods love always requiring that we
    relate to him
  • Also, (4,5,6) Creatures able, willing, sincerely
    unbelieving

16
Coercion
  • Is God was evident in this world, would we lack
    moral freedom? (Murray Cf soul-making theodicy)
  • The capacity to choose freely between good/evil
    is a necessary condition for us to achieve moral
    maturity
  • If God made himself obvious to us, we would be
    coerced into acting in certain ways (through fear
    of punishment, hope of reward)
  • To allow moral freedom a loving God must be hidden

17
Coercion - objections
  • Knowing of Gods existence wouldnt coerce us
  • But if God is to bring us into relationship, he
    must reveal something of his nature as well
  • If the knowledge wasnt certain, we wouldnt be
    coerced
  • our belief that negative consequences sometimes
    follow evil acts can suffice for coercion
    (Murray)
  • We would still have a choice between obligatory
    and supererogatory acts
  • Are there minimum standards or supererogatory
    acts for God?

18
Coercion - objections
  • Surely even those who claim experience of God go
    wrong, so it cant be coercive?
  • Thats OK the theist can claim that the limited
    experience God does allow is not coercive
  • So why doesnt everyone have experiences of that
    sort
  • Maybe they do, but do they dispose themselves to
    rightly forming beliefs on the basis of these
    (MJM) ?
  • This is at least a possibility

19
Separated from God?
  • What sort of disposition?
  • Individual? Arrogant/unreceptive to belief?
  • Generic? Humans separated from God by
    individual/original sin
  • ..your iniquities have made a separation between
    you and your God, and your sins have hid his face
    from you (Is.59)

20
Separated from God?
  • Challenges conditions 4, 5, 6 is everyone
    willing and able to believe?
  • But is there never honest, open-minded disbelief?
  • Why would God allow those people to continue in
    disbelief?
  • Might God prefer honest disbelief to wrongly
    motivated belief (See van Inwagen! An aspect of
    soul-making?)
  • Do they freely resist God, or is this separation
    forced on them (and maybe on God) by the fall?
    Can God act unilaterally, while respecting free
    will?

21
Hiddenness as helpful
  • Moser reasons why a loving God might be hidden
  • For those open to God to discourage
    triumphalism, or the demand for proofs
  • A presumption theodicy some people would not
    relate to God in appropriate ways if they
    believed
  • an evil generation seeks for a sign (Matt..
    16)
  • For those hostile to God
  • To ensure they do not rebel against God, who
    alone can bring them through death
  • Or perhaps so not to throw pearls before swine

22
Cognitive idolatry?
  • Moser we cannot demand how God should reveal
    Himself He can reveal Himself as and when he
    chooses
  • Gods intentions in hiding may be unknowable to
    us and cognitive idolatry denies Gods
    supremacy in recommending ways of knowing God
  • (Moser in H-SM)
  • But God is sovereign, and so we should not expect
    Him to meet our demands for evidence

23
Cognitive idolatry?
  • Also we have no right to demand evidence of
    Gods reality that fails to challenge us to
    undergo volitional transformation towards Gods
    character. So Gods hiding from a casual or
    indifferent inquirer does not count against the
    reality of Gods existence (Moser, H-SM)
  • We cannot expect God to reveal himself if we are
    not willing to be changed by this revelation
  • But are there sincere seekers who do not find
    God?
  • If so, should they be persuaded by the testimony
    of others, or (DH-S) accept Gods existence
    without belief?

24
Some other theodicies
  • Stimulus theodicy God does not provide
    overwhelming evidence because an intense faith
    requires risk.
  • Intellectual virtue theodicy God does not
    provide evidence so that individuals will engage
    in investigation, reflection, and wrestling with
    doubt (Cf soul-making)
  • Diversity theodicy religious diversity would be
    reduced, and religious variety of this sort is
    good
  • Investigation theodicy God permits inculpable
    nonbelief so that human beings can help each
    other to learn about Him, gently assisting
    nonbelievers
  • and others, perhaps of varying value. (See
    Howard-Snyder 1996, and Introduction to
    Howard-Snyder and Moser)

25
No problem?
  • Kvanvig (in DH-S) nothing about the
    hiddenness of God has the power to change the
    epistemic status of theism
  • It is merely a special case of the problem of
    evil
  • If the evidence for/against God is equally
    balanced, and the theist can live with the
    problem of evil, she can live with hiddenness
  • And theists have knowingly done so for a long
    time if it has epistemic import, this is
    epiphenomenal (Kvanvig)

26
Weighing up the arguments
  • As with the problem of evil, these arguments aim
    to show how hiddenness and the existence of God
    might both be true
  • Religious traditions are unfazed by hiddenness
  • Are the arguments ad hoc, or do they follow from
    what the traditions say about God?

27
Weighing up the arguments
  • How should a disinterested observer react?
  • You should have given us more evidence
    (Russell)
  • What evidence should we expect/would we accept?
  • Testimony of religious experience? they have
    Moses and the prophets (Luke 16)
  • What sort of evidence do we expect in other
    cases? More next week!

28
Reading
  • Seminar reading
  • Other reading as advised in list and e-mail
  • Penelhum, (1960) Divine necessity Mind 69
  • Mann, Necessity in Blackwell Companion
  • Howard-Snyder, (1996) The argument from divine
    hiddenness Canadian Journal of Philosophy
  • Schellenberg, (2008) What divine hiddenness
    reveals at www.infidels.org
  • Van Inwagen, in Howard-Snyder Moser
  • Introduction to Howard-Snyder and Moser

29
Things to think about
  • Is hiddenness primarily a logical or an
    evidential issue?
  • Is it distinct from the problem of evil?
  • What would it be like if God was obvious to us?
  • Does this issue really help us decide whether
    there might be a God?
  • How?
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