Thread by @Helenreflects

There seems to be no better time than the present to be discussing an intriguing argument and observation in philosophy of religion #PORcourse: divine hiddenness. In a traditional sense, divine hiddenness is when God seems absent, distant, far away from us 1/

This is an ancient phenomenon. You already see observations of divine hiddenness in the psalms, such as Psalm 22 (which makes a striking contrast with Psalm 23, just on the lectionary at our church this weekend) biblegateway.com/passage/?searc… 2/

You see it in people of strong faith, such as Mother Theresa, who asks "What do I labor for? ... If there be no God, there can be no soul. If there be no soul then, Jesus, You also are not true." What are we to make of this phenomenon? 3/
cbsnews.com/news/letters-r…

If God loves us, shouldn't we expect that God would seek a loving relationship with us? Why isn't our evidence for God's existence stronger? What's the objection against getting some more unambiguous signs God actually exists? This problem is ancient. Mystics grappled with it 4/

St John of the Cross argued for the "dark night of the soul", where lack of religious experience is a kind of purgation in one's religious journey. 5/

John Schellenberg used the observation of divine hiddenness in an argument against the existence of God as construed in traditional theistic religions (such as Christianity). He outlined this first in 1993, Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason, has since revised and refined it 6/

Schellenberg's 1993 argument:
*there are many people who don't believe in God but are not culpable for doing so
*if there were a God, he'd want a loving relationship with us
*loving God/human relationships are impeded if humans don't believe God exists
*so, God does not exist 7/

Since, this argument has been revised (see this helpful entry in the SEP: plato.stanford.edu/entries/divine…)
But the basic idea remains similar: divine hiddenness seems to present a serious challenge to God's existence, similar yet distinct from problem of evil. 8/

Let's start with premise 1, the existence of "nonresistant nonbelievers", people who don't believe in God but not because they resist evidence or arguments for God's existence. They could be, among others... 9/

People who never heard about God (as construed in the abrahamic monotheistic traditions), e.g., the Chinese before the middle ages. They had this idea of Tian (Heaven) but it's unclear whether Tian can be equivalent to God
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tian 10/

Or they could be honest people who try to assess the evidence and are spiritual people, and who still remain atheists or agnostics. They could be people who are shattered by spiritual trauma (see @MichellePanchuk's work on this) and cannot believe anymore... 11/

Moving to premise 2, it seems plausible that God would want a loving relationship. In later writings, Schellenberg sees this as necessary truths, necessarily, if God exists, then God perfectly loves such finite persons as there may be. (see SEP article for formalization) 12/

It does seem that if you don't believe God exists, this would be an obstacle in building relationships (there is some scoffing among atheists about invisible friends and such, but clearly for theists it's more than having an invisible friend). 13/

This argument is distinct from the problem of evil.
How might theists respond? A key claim is the existence of nonresistant nonbelievers, who lack religious belief but not because they resist God. One way out is to deny the existence of such people 14/

For example, Paul (in letter to the Romans) says that because we see evidence of God's handiwork all around us, no-one is without excuse for their lack of belief. 15/
biblehub.com/romans/1-20.htm

Or you might argue against the premise that "if God exists, then God perfectly loves such finite persons as there may be."
Michael Rea has argued against this claim in The Hiddenness of God, using the transcendence of God (helpful podcast here classicaltheism.com/rea/) 16/

Or you might use the epistemic distance reply, outlined by theologian John Hick: "At least one of the reasons that God must remain hidden is that failing to do so would lead to a loss of morally significant freedom on the part of creatures." /17

Imagine you were continuously under mass surveillance, and you saw cameras everywhere, and you also knew that doing wrong, you'd end up in a horrible torture chamber, you'd be nicer, but it would not be your genuine free choice. That's why God remains hidden /18

(note: One intriguing argument that it would be *better* if God did not exist comes from Guy Kahane. Kahane thinks that if God exists, none of our actions, thoughts, etc. would be truly private, and that would be a massive cost: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11… 19/

You can think about each of these arguments, and whether they're successful. It is indeed interesting to think whether an omnibenevolent God should want a relationship with us (from necessity), what kind of ill lack of religious belief constitutes... /20

See also this related argument by Maitzen. He argues the uneven distribution of theism is much better explained by naturalism than by theism /21

cambridge.org/core/journals/…

In closing, I am also wondering about the recent evidence from cognitive science of religion/sociology of religion for hiddenness. What explains atheism or lack of theistic belief?
Best predictor: Low cultural exposure to faith
psyarxiv.com/e29rt /22

This is a much stronger predictor than other factors, including more cognitive reflectiveness. Particularly, it seems that lack of exposure to credibility enhancing displays (displays of faith e.g, religious services) correlates strongly with lack of religious belief 23/

And this further fuels decline in religious belief. Imagine someone who grew up never seeing any religious displays, who then raises their children non-religiously and so on. In the end, you come to an atheistic/agnostic population (e.g., Scandinavia) 24/
pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-…

Conversely, it seems that people of faith want to continue in these expressions of faith through social distancing #onlinechurch is trending. Fascinating to see to what extent this might transform the religious landscape in the US and elsewhere 25/

This brings me to the 2 discussions of divine hiddenness I started with, (1) a felt absence of God, in spite of efforts to be closer, (2) the existence of nonresistant nonbelief.
Though these are two distinct phenomena, they are not unrelated. 26/

In fact, if atheist and agnostic friends of mine are at all representative, they do seek meaning (not necessarily in a theistic sense), they are not nihilists. If God exists, why doesn't he do more to bridge that divide? /end

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