The Problem of Evil - Common Sense Atheism

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Lecture 8 The Hiddenness of God I will begin by laying out an argument for your consideration: If God existed, that would be a very important thing for us human beings to know. God, being omniscient would know that this would be an important thing for us to know, and, being morally perfect, he would act on this knowledge. He would act on it by providing us with indisputable evidence of his existence. St Paul recognized this when he in effect said (Rom. 2: 18–23) that the blasphemies of the pagans were without excuse because God had provided humanity with indisputable evidence of his existence—simply by placing humanity in a world in which, to quote a text we can be sure Paul approved of, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. But Paul was wrong to think we had such evidence. It’s quite obvious that we don’t have it and never have had it, for the unprejudiced know that the heavens are quite silent about the glory of God and that the firmament displays nothing of his handiwork. And, therefore, the absence of evidence for the existence of God should lead us to become atheists, and not merely agnostics. This argument is in some ways very similar to the global argument from evil. 1 It contends that if there were a God, the world would, owing to his moral perfection, his knowledge, and his power, have certain observable features; it contends, moreover, that the world can be seen not to have these features; it concludes that God does not exist. In a way, it is an argument from evil, for, if God does exist, then a rational creature’s being ignorant of his existence is an evil. It might also be said that this argument stands to a famous theological problem called ‘‘the problem of the hiddenness of God’’ or ‘‘the problem of divine hiddenness’’ as the argument from evil stands to the problem of evil. But if the problem of the hiddenness of God is indeed a famous theological problem, it is not so famous a theological problem as the problem of evil, and perhaps not everyone will be familiar with the problem of the
136 The Hiddenness of God hiddenness of God, or will even have heard of it. 2 I will, therefore, take some time to lay out this problem. As is the case with the problem of evil, the problem of the hiddenness of God is more often referred to than precisely stated. Theologians often refer to this problem as if it were perfectly clear what it was, but their writings on the subject do not always make it wholly clear what the problem is. In some writers, it is hard to distinguish the problem of the hiddenness of God from the problem of evil. The writers I am thinking of introduce the problem of the hiddenness of God with reflections along the following lines. The world is full of terrible things, and we observe no response from God when these terrible things happen: the heavens do not rain fire on the Nazis, the raging flood does not turn aside just before it sweeps away the peaceful village, the paralyzed child remains paralyzed. Nevertheless, I think it is possible to make an intuitive distinction between what is naturally suggested by the words ‘‘the problem of divine hiddenness’’ and what is naturally suggested by the words ‘‘the problem of evil’’. I think I can imagine worlds in which it would not be right or natural by anyone’s lights to say that God was ‘‘hidden’’ but in which evil was as much a problem for theists as it is in the actual world. Imagine, for example, that to every Jew who was to perish in the Holocaust there had come, a few weeks before his or her death, a vision of a seraph, a being of unutterable splendor, who recited Psalm 91 in Hebrew—and then vanished. The doomed recipients of these visions, comparing notes, found that the visions were remarkably consistent. Learned Jews understood the seraph’s words perfectly. Less learned Jews recognized the psalm and understood bits and pieces of it, just as they would have if they had heard it recited in a synagogue. Others, less learned still, recognized the language as biblical Hebrew, and said things like, ‘‘It sounded like poetry—maybe a psalm’’. A few wholly secularized Jews did not even recognize the language, but gave an account of the visual aspect of the apparition consistent with everyone else’s, and said that the apparition spoke to them in a language they did not understand. (But those victims of the Holocaust who were not Jews according to the Law but were Jews according to the Nazi Race Laws did not experience the vision at all; some of them, however, experienced other visions, of a kind I will describe in a moment.) There were, then, these visions, but that was all. Nothing else happened: not a single life was saved, not a single brutal incident was in any way mitigated. With the exception of the visions, the Holocaust proceeded exactly as it did
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THE PROBLEM OF EVIL
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1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX
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Preface These lectures were deliver
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Outline Contents Detailed Contents
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xii Detailed Contents agnostics’
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xiv Detailed Contents he is ‘‘h
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2 The Problem and Argument from Evi
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10 The Problem and Argument from Ev
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Lecture 2 The Idea of God I said th
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20 The Idea of God unifying princip
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22 The Idea of God ‘‘God was in
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24 The Idea of God And Demiourgos i
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26 The Idea of God evil. When we fi
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28 The Idea of God —immutable. Th
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30 The Idea of God worlds: those in
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32 The Idea of God (it would certai
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34 The Idea of God Now why do I dra
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36 The Idea of God not a possible p
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38 Philosophical Failure Note the w
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40 Philosophical Failure proved by
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42 Philosophical Failure which prem
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44 Philosophical Failure thesis. Al
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46 Philosophical Failure realist in
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48 Philosophical Failure of our con
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50 Philosophical Failure mere agnos
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52 Philosophical Failure representa
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54 Philosophical Failure minds, say
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Lecture 4 The Global Argument from
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58 The Global Argument from Evil I
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Page 113 and 114: 96 The Local Argument from Evil tha
Page 115 and 116: 98 The Local Argument from Evil (3)
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Page 127 and 128: 110 The Local Argument from Evil If
Page 129 and 130: 112 The Local Argument from Evil ca
Page 131 and 132: 114 The Sufferings of Beasts the ac
Page 133 and 134: 116 The Sufferings of Beasts balls
Page 135 and 136: 118 The Sufferings of Beasts state
Page 137 and 138: 120 The Sufferings of Beasts Let us
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Page 141 and 142: 124 The Sufferings of Beasts What I
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Page 149 and 150: 132 The Sufferings of Beasts to ens
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Page 155 and 156: 138 The Hiddenness of God admiratio
Page 157 and 158: 140 The Hiddenness of God Theist. S
Page 159 and 160: 142 The Hiddenness of God about the
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Page 163 and 164: 146 The Hiddenness of God (2) Patri
Page 165 and 166: 148 The Hiddenness of God in genera
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Page 169 and 170: Notes LECTURE 1 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL
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Page 175 and 176: 158 Notes greatest possible being m
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Page 179 and 180: 162 Notes I believe as strongly as
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Page 183 and 184: 166 Notes Christianity.) Let us say
Page 185 and 186: 168 Notes LECTURE 6 THE LOCAL ARGUM
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Page 195 and 196: 178 Works Cited Providence and Evil
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Page 199 and 200: 182 Index free will (free choice) 2
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The Problem of Evil - Common Sense Atheism

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