Skeptical theism

Philosophy Compass 5 (7):611-623 (2010)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Most a posteriori arguments against the existence of God take the following form: (1) If God exists, the world would not be like this (where 'this' picks out some feature of the world like the existence of evil, etc.) (2) But the world is like this . (3) Therefore, God does not exist. Skeptical theists are theists who are skeptical of our ability to make judgments of the sort expressed by premise (1). According to skeptical theism, if there were a God, it is likely that he would have reasons for acting that are beyond our ken, and thus we are not justified in making all-things-considered judgments about what the world would be like if there were a God. In particular, the fact that we don't see a good reason for X does not justify the conclusion that there is no good reason for X. 1 Thus, skeptical theism purports to undercut most a posteriori arguments against the existence of God. What follows is an account of the nature of skeptical theism, an application of skeptical theism to both the argument from evil and the argument from divine hiddenness, and a review of the cases for and against skeptical theism.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Paying the cost of skeptical theism.Jeff A. Snapper - 2011 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 69 (1):45-56.
The problem of evil: skeptical theism leads to moral paralysis.Scott Sehon - 2010 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 67 (2):67 - 80.
Skeptical theism and moral obligation.Stephen Maitzen - 2009 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 65 (2):93 - 103.
All too skeptical theism.William Hasker - 2010 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 68 (1-3):15-29.
Are skeptical theists really skeptics? Sometimes yes and sometimes no.Justin P. McBrayer - 2012 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 72 (1):3-16.
Skeptical Theism and Empirical Unfalsifiability.Ian Wilks - 2009 - Faith and Philosophy 26 (1):64-76.
Skeptical theism and the problem of moral aporia.Mark Piper - 2007 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 62 (2):65 - 79.

Analytics

Added to PP
2010-06-30

Downloads
296 (#62,522)

6 months
14 (#114,907)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Justin McBrayer
Fort Lewis College

References found in this work

Warranted Christian Belief.Alvin Plantinga - 2000 - New York, US: Oxford University Press USA.
Providence and the Problem of Evil.Richard Swinburne - 1998 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK.
The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism.William L. Rowe - 1979 - American Philosophical Quarterly 16 (4):335 - 341.
The Problem of Evil.Peter van Inwagen - 2007 - Philosophical Quarterly 57 (229):696-698.

View all 66 references / Add more references