God's Silence as an Epistemological Concern

Philosophical Forum 43 (4):383-393 (2012)
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Abstract

Throughout history, many people, including Mother Teresa, have been troubled by God’s silence. In spite of the conflicting interpretations of the Bible, God has remained silent. What are the implications of divine hiddenness/silence for a meaning of life? Is there a good reason that explains God’s silence? If God created humanity to fulfill a purpose, then God would have clarified his purpose and our role by now, as I will argue. To help God carry out his purpose, we would need to have a clear understanding of our role. Thus, by failing to clarify our role, God would be undermining himself in achieving the purpose he conceived, which would not make sense. Because God, if he exists, would not engage in this self-defeating behavior, this suggests that humanity was not created by God to fulfill a purpose.

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Citations of this work

Divine hiddenness: Part 2.J. L. Schellenberg - 2017 - Philosophy Compass 12 (4):e12413.
Re-evaluating the hiddenness argument from above.Kevin Vandergriff - 2019 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 85 (2):193-211.

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References found in this work

Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason.J. L. Schellenberg - 1993 - Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Divine hiddenness and the demographics of theism.Stephen Maitzen - 2006 - Religious Studies 42 (2):177-191.
The Hiddenness Argument Revisited.J. L. Schellenberg - 2005 - Religious Studies 41 (3):287-303.
Divine Hiddenness, Divine Silence.Michael C. Rea - 1987 - In Louis P. Pojman, Philosophy of religion. Mountain View, Calif.: Mayfield. pp. 266-275.

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