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Scepticism about the argument from divine hiddenness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2011

JUSTIN P. MCBRAYER  and
PHILIP SWENSON
JUSTIN P. MCBRAYER*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO 81301, USA
PHILIP SWENSON*
Affiliation:
University of California-Riverside, HMNSS Building, Room 1604, 900 University Avenue, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
*
e-mail: mcbrayer_j@fortlewis.edu
e-mail: pswen001@student.ucr.edu
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Abstract

Some philosophers have argued that the paucity of evidence for theism – along with basic assumptions about God's nature – is ipso facto evidence for atheism. The resulting argument has come to be known as the argument from divine hiddenness. Theists have challenged both the major and minor premises of the argument by offering defences. However, all of the major, contemporary defences are failures. What unites these failures is instructive: each is implausible given other commitments shared by everyone in the debate or by theists in particular. Only challenges which are plausible given both common sense and other theistic commitments will undermine the argument from divine hiddenness. Given that such defences universally fail, the best hope for a successful challenge to the argument comes from more general sceptical responses. This sort of response is briefly sketched and defended against four independent objections.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , June 2012 , pp. 129 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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