The Hiddenness Argument: Philosophy's New Challenge to Belief in God PDF
Preview The Hiddenness Argument: Philosophy's New Challenge to Belief in God
THE HIDDENNESS ARGUMENT . . J L S C H E L L E N B E R G T H E H I D D E N N E S S A R G U M E N T ’ Philosophys New Challenge to Belief in God 1 OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,10/3/2015,SPi 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford,OXDP, UnitedKingdom OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwide.Oxfordisaregisteredtrademarkof OxfordUniversityPressintheUKandincertainothercountries #J.L.Schellenberg Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted FirstEditionpublishedin Impression: Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedin aretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withoutthe priorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,orasexpresslypermitted bylaw,bylicenceorundertermsagreedwiththeappropriatereprographics rightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproductionoutsidethescopeofthe aboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,OxfordUniversityPress,atthe addressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisworkinanyotherform andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyOxfordUniversityPress MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY,UnitedStatesofAmerica BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressControlNumber: ISBN –––– Printedandboundby CPIGroup(UK)Ltd,Croydon,CRYY For Regina PREFACE Inthepasttwentyyearsorsoanewargumentagainsttheexistence ofGodhasemergedinphilosophy.Somecallittheargumentfrom divinehiddenness.Ipreferaleaner,lessmisleadinglabel:thehiddenness argument. Its basic thought is that the existence of God invites our belieflessstronglythanitwouldinaworldcreatedbyGod.Inmany places and times, and for many people, God’s existence has been rather less than a clear fact, and according to the hiddenness argu- ment,thisisareasontosupposethatitisnotafactatall. When reasoning is given a name in this way—the hiddenness argument—itsoundsasthough exactlyonestrand of argumentation is being referred to. So it should be noted that what we have here is reallyawayofreasoning,ofwhichtherecanbemanyinstances.Thisis certainly what you find when you examine older reasoning about God, such as the cosmological argument, which uses the idea of Godtoexplainwhythereisacosmos,oritssistertheteleologicalor design argument, which uses the same idea to explain the order that prevails in the cosmos. By now there are many different versions of boththecosmologicalargumentandtheteleologicalargument.Inthe case of the hiddenness argument, some variety has already emerged; nodoubtthereismoretocome.ButI’llbeconcernedprimarilywith the instance of reasoning that started the contemporary discussion and remains at the center of the hiddenness debate among philo- sophers as the twenty-first century inches toward its third decade. ThishappenstobeanargumentIcreated,andbothIandothershave for some time now been calling it the hiddenness argument. I’ll be continuingthepracticehere. PREFACE Therearehintsinthehistoryofphilosophyastothepossibilityofan atheisticargumentofthiskind,andtothatextentthesuggestionthat what we have is a brand new way of reasoning should come with a qualification.Butnoactualreasoning—nodevelopedatheisticargument alongtheselines—appeareduntilIputtogethersuchanargumentin myfirstbook,DivineHiddennessandHumanReason,whichwaspublished inthespringof.InthatbookItriedtogetclearabouthowandwhy we wouldn’t expect God to be hidden from us, and assessed a wide arrayofpossiblerepliestotheresultingargument. Becauseofdiscussionthisbookaroused,thehiddennessargument is now quite regularly explored alongside the venerable old problem ofevilinphilosophyclassroomsandtexts.(Theproblemofevilisan argument or set of arguments against God based on facts about the bad things that happen in the world. As we’ll see, the hiddenness argument’sapproachisnottosuggestthathiddennessisbad.)Articles onthehiddennessargumenthavenowappearedmanytimesovernot only in philosophy journals and books but also in the various Com- panions and Handbooks on the philosophy of religion put out by presses such as Oxford, Cambridge, Routledge, and Wiley-Blackwell, and in the Macmillan, Routledge, and Stanford encyclopedias of philosophy. The argument (though sometimes in a form that seems to me pitiably malnourished) is moreover frequently seen in discus- sionsoftheexistenceofGodonline.Itlookstobeheretostay. Naturally,I’mpleasedthatthisbitofreasoningfrommyearlydays in philosophy has received so much attention. But at the same time I’m inclined to emphasize how simple an argument it is! And I am fascinatedbythesocialandculturalfactsthatpreventeditfrombeing developed much sooner (versions of which still cause it to be over- lookedormisstatedbothbytheists,thosewhobelieveinGod,andby atheists,whodenythatGodexists).AsI’veoftensaid,itconfirmsour evolutionary immaturity that such relatively uncomplicated argu- ments still need to be discovered. One wonders how many other philosophicalargumentswillbedugupincenturiestocome. viii PREFACE A good deal of the attention that the hiddenness argument has received,asiscustomaryinphilosophy,ishighlycritical.Someofthe materialthathasbeenpublished,especiallyrecently,hasstruckmeas quite impressive.Some seems to me to leave muchto bedesired. It’s tempting to speculate on the reasons for the combination of interest and anxiety, sometimes joined to subtle tendencies of misstatement, that the hiddenness argument apparently provokes among many believersinGod.ButIwillresistthattemptationhere. WhatIdowanttodoistoprovideanaccessible,brief,butvigorous statement of the hiddenness argument and an explanation of the associated issues designed for wide consumption that clearly distin- guishesthehiddennessargumentfromtheproblemofevilandestab- lishesitsclaimtoattentionindiscussionsoftheismandatheism.After three opening chapters, what you will find is careful reasoning that seekstomakecrystalclearjustwhatthehiddenness argumentisand why it matters. Some readers may want more details or wish to see moreattentiontothebroadacademicliteratureonrelatedsubjects.To them I commend my own academic work on hiddenness issues in philosophy, whichprovidesmanymoredetailsandisfar morethor- ough incertainrespects,and ofcoursealso thelong stringof related works by others. Both can be found listed in the bibliography at the backofthebook. What I’ve said so far might suggest that what you hold in your handsissomesortofacademic“Introduction”tohiddennessreason- ing. I want to emphasize that this is not the case. Though, given my attentiontofundamentals,aimofclarity,andmanyexplanations,the style of this book at times overlaps with that of a straightforward “introductiontox,”Ihavealsofeltfreetodepartfromsuchastyleat various points. I would like to interest people in philosophical work who might have wondered what it’s all about, and also to provide a different example of traditional atheism than can be found in the “new” atheists. For this reason tufts of my experience as a believer and as a nonbeliever will not be out of place. Readers can expect to findthemhereandthereinthebook.Inacultureinwhichpeopleare ix
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