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In many places and times, and for many people, God's existence has been rather less than a clear fact. According to the hiddenness argument, this is actually a reason to suppose that it is not a fact at all.
The hiddenness argument is a new argument for atheism that has come to prominence in philosophy over the past two decades. J. L. Schellenberg first developed the argument in 1993, and this book offers a short and vigorous statement of its central claims and ideas. Logically sharp but so clear that anyone can understand, the book addresses little-discussed issues such as why it took so long for hiddenness reasoning to emerge in philosophy, and how the hiddenness problem is distinct from the problem of evil. It concludes with the fascinating thought that retiring the last of the personal gods might leave us nearer the beginning of religion than the end.
Though an atheist, Schellenberg writes sensitively and with a nuanced insider's grasp of the religious life. Pertinent aspects of his experience as a believer and as a nonbeliever, and of his own engagement with hiddenness issues, are included. Set in this personal context, and against an authoritative background on relevant logical, conceptual, and historical matters, The Hiddenness Argument's careful but provocative reasoning makes crystal clear just what this new argument is and why it matters.
- Sales Rank: #895142 in Books
- Published on: 2015-09-03
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 5.40" h x .70" w x 8.60" l, .70 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 160 pages
Review
"Had I read John Schellenberg's brilliant new work, which gives title and cogency to the argument from the hiddenness of God, I would have become an unbeliever years before. In fact, of all the arguments for and against God's existence (and I've heard them all) this is the most powerful I have encountered in support of the atheist position. A tour de force."
--Michael Shermer, Publisher Skeptic Magazine, monthly columnist Scientific American, author of The Moral Arc.
"In contrast to the polemics that normally fire back and forth across the imaginary lines of the culture wars, this essential, accessible book has an argument truly worth contending with. But it is also more than an argument; Schellenberg's way of thinking opens possibilities that are spiritual as well as rational, fully human as well as satisfyingly precise." -- Nathan Schneider, author of God in Proof: The Story of a Search from the Ancients to the Internet
"Schellenberg's arguments about the alleged hiddenness of God have been much discussed in recent years. In a welcome, and accessible, book he introduces this challenging issue to a wider readership with clarity and incisiveness." -- Roger Trigg, Senior Research Fellow, Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, Oxford University, author of Religious Diversity
"For all those who really want to know whether God exists, reading The Hiddenness Argument is a must. The book is written for the widest possible readership and great fun to read." -- Herman Philipse, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, University of Utrecht, author of God in the Age of Science?
"A powerful and yet simple statement of one of the most powerful and yet simple arguments for atheism that has been developed in recent years." -- T. J. Mawson, Edgar Jones Fellow in Philosophy, St Peter's College, Oxford University, author of Belief in God
"I wonder what the implications would be if we took Schellenberg's optimism about human reasoning and applied it more broadly...one of the things that has struck me the most about the development of Schellenberg's thought is precisely his optimism about human reason and its prospects. The spirit of Schellenberg's work is never one of pessimistic judgment about the errors and superstitions of religious folk. He is not a mocker. Rather, his writing seems to flow from a conviction that there's so much out there to explore." -- Notre Dame Philosophical Review
About the Author
J. L. Schellenberg, Mount Saint Vincent University
J. L. Schellenberg (DPhil, Oxford) is Professor of Philosophy at Mount Saint Vincent University and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Dalhousie University. He is the author of Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason and of a recent trilogy on the philosophy of religion: Prolegomena to a Philosophy of Religion, The Wisdom to Doubt: A Justification of Religious Skepticism, and The Will to Imagine: A Justification of Skeptical Religion. The ideas of the trilogy are placed into an evolutionary context and made generally accessible in his recent short work from Oxford called Evolutionary Religion.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
The Hiddenness Argument: A Review
By Randal Rauser
The writer of Ecclesiastes famously opined, “There is nothing new under the sun.” It’s a sentiment that might seem at times to characterize the field of philosophy of religion. To be sure, there are new advances, but new arguments for or against God? Now that’s a rare thing indeed.
And yet, just over twenty years ago Canadian philosopher J.L. Schellenberg did develop a novel argument against God’s existence. Commonly called “the divine hiddenness” argument (though Schellenberg prefers the simpler moniker “the hiddenness argument”), the core datum is surprisingly simple: “the existence of God invites our belief less strongly than it would in a world created by God.” (vii) Based on this feature of the world — the apparent hiddenness of God — Schellenberg argues that God does not exist.
Schellenberg initially developed this argument in his 1993 monograph "Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason." Since then, the hiddenness argument has spawned a voluminous literature, a clear indicator that it has caught the imagination of atheist and theist alike.
*The Argument*
Now Schellenberg has written an accessible introduction to his argument and the wider debate it has spawned. While "The Hiddenness Argument: Philosophy’s new challenge to belief in God" is intended for a general readership, Schellenberg does not sacrifice rigor or precision on the altar of accessibility.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s talk about the argument.
Chapter 1 begins with “Some Basic Tools” to orient the non-philosopher to the field. For example an “argument” is a piece of reasoning: “Not that philosophers don’t ever fight and have arguments. But they’re supposed to avoid this by giving arguments–careful reasoning for their point of view….” (2) Schellenberg goes on to discuss the importance of validity (logical form, including modus ponens and modus tollens) and soundness (truth). This material may seem rather basic for some, but there is an economy and clarity in Schellenberg’s writing that makes this fruitful material even for the philosopher who can discover precise new ways to convey basic concepts. If his classroom is anything like his book, Schellenberg must be a great teacher.
In chapter 2 Schellenberg lays out a “conceptual map” for the book that focuses on two concepts: hiddenness and ultimism. Schellenberg acknowledges that the term “hiddenness” is potentially misleading in that “what’s hidden exists.” (14) Thus, the concept might seem to presuppose theism. The real question is whether the apparent hiddenness of God is best interpreted as God actually hiding or whether, in fact, it supports the conclusion that God doesn’t exist.
And what of ultimism? Schellenberg explains:
“Ultimism … is the general claim that there is a reality ultimate in three ways: in the nature of things (metaphysically), in inherent value (axiologically), and in its importance for our lives (soteriologically). And that’s all it says….” (18)
Ultimism concerns the most basic or fundamental facts of reality as regards these three areas. Western monotheism presents one theory of ultimism, namely one which seeks to ground the nature of things, inherent value, and salvific significance in the nature of an absolute personal being. But there are other ultimist theories. Thus, the theistic question is whether the ultimate reality is best explained in terms of a personal being.
As an aside, Schellenberg’s concept of ultimism is very helpful and I wish more Christian apologists would come to terms with it. How common it is to find Christian apologists assuming that atheism is committed to nihilism or some other bleak view of the world. But atheists are free to pursue impersonal ultimist theories as surely as theists pursue personal ultimist theories.
In chapter 3, aptly titled “Why so late to the show?” Schellenberg considers why the hiddenness argument was not developed prior to his ground-breaking work. Schellenberg includes an interesting survey of anticipations of his argument in intellectual history and also discusses the relationship between hiddenness and the problem of evil. As he notes, these problems need to be distinguished. While suffering is a problem (i.e. a state of disvalue) whether God exists or not, the same is not true of nonbelief in God, for this is only a problem if God does exist: “The hiddenness argument in its very specific emphasis on nonbelief doesn’t require nonbelief to be bad at all.” (31)
Schellenberg begins to unpack the argument in chapter 4. He starts with some personal background, noting how he grew up in a Christian home on the Canadian prairies where atheism was all but unthinkable (35). Eventually, questions began to present themselves as young Schellenberg wrestled with the apparent religious ambiguity of the world. As a Christian he was faced with the fact that “honest doubt about God is possible.” (37) But this didn’t seem to make sense. If God desired to share with his creatures “a conscious, interactive, and positively meaningful relationship” (38), why would God leave room for doubt about his very existence? These troubling observations gradually formed into the kernel of a skeptical argument:
“If there was good reason for God to prevent religious ambiguity, then this very evidential situation might be disambiguating, showing that all things considered–that is, with the fact of ambiguity included in the evidence–the world wasn’t religiously ambiguous but instead spoke clearly against the existence of God.” (37)
To be sure, Schellenberg wasn’t naively assuming that God is obliged to behave like the overbearing aunt at Thanksgiving dinner who pinches your cheeks before enveloping you in a bear hug. In other words, God may very well remain at some distance from us, like a still small voice, allowing human creatures the space to develop a relationship on our own terms. But God will nonetheless be available to those looking to find him. And yet God seems to be unavailable — hidden — from many people who earnestly desire a relationship with him.
Over the next fifty pages Schellenberg carefully assembles an argument, step by step, from this puzzling datum of divine hiddenness, culminating in a summary presentation of the argument on page 103:
(1) If a perfectly loving God exists, then there exists a God who is always open to a personal relationship with any finite person.
(2) If there exists a God who is always open to a personal relationship with any finite person, then no finite person is ever nonresistantly in a state of nonbelief in relation to the proposition that God exists.
(3) If a perfectly loving God exists, then no finite person is ever nonresistantly in a state of nonbelief in relation to the proposition that God exists (from 1 and 2).
(4) Some finite persons are or have been nonresistantly in a state of nonbelief in relation to the proposition that God exists.
(5) No perfectly loving God exists (from 3 and 4).
(6) If no perfectly loving God exists, then God does not exist.
(7) God does not exist (from 5 and 6).
In chapter 8 Schellenberg offers some clarifications of the premises and some brief responses to objections.
The book then concludes with a brief word on the way forward under the title “After Personal Gods.” Schellenberg writes: “Ultimism is too impressive an idea for us rightly to suppose it exhausted by personal gods.” (121) In short, one may still believe there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. But if Schellenberg is correct, a personal God is not among them.
"Evaluating the Argument"
Schellenberg’s intent was to write an introduction to the hiddenness argument that is accessible, brief, and vigorous (ix). "The Hiddenness Argument" is all those things, but I think the adjective that best describes it is elegant, as in gracefully refined. Like a wooden banister that has been worn perfectly smooth by hours of 2000 grit sandpaper, so the sentences and paragraphs of this book are worn smooth by years of reflection on the topics addressed therein. The result is a model of philosophy of religion, a concise and elegant work that is ready to unsettle, encourage, and ignite a passion for philosophical reasoning in the reader.
And what of the success of the argument itself? Schellenberg observes, “I don’t assume that every well-functioning intellect, after reading the previous chapters of this book, will be pointing unwaveringly toward atheism.” (104) I count myself in that camp. While Schellenberg has masterfully articulated an elegant argument that is logically valid and has plausible premises, I am unpersuaded.
Since the hiddenness argument is logically valid, if I want to avoid the conclusion I will need to deny at least one of the premises. In this review, I will challenge premise (2):
(2) If there exists a God who is always open to a personal relationship with any finite person, then no finite person is ever nonresistantly in a state of nonbelief in relation to the proposition that God exists.
Before progressing, we should get a sense of precisely what Schellenberg means by “personal relationship.” He defines the concept as follows: “a conscious, interactive, and positively meaningful relationship.” (38) He also adds that it encompasses “the general and familiar idea of positively meaningful interaction between persons that they are aware of experiencing.” (40) Thus, for Schellenberg, if a person is to have a personal relationship with God, that person must be conscious of God and the fact that they are in relationship with God, and this entails that the person believe the proposition “God exists”. Consequently, any person who denies the proposition “God exists” is not in a personal relationship with God.
My first concern comes when I reflect on the relationship of a developing child to their parent. There is no doubt that a parent/child relationship should normally develop to the point where the young child is aware of the parent as a person with whom the child is in relationship. In other words, a parent/child relationship should grow to the point where it constitutes what Schellenberg calls a “personal relationship.”
But even so, that relationship is existentially significant for both parties long before it ever becomes a personal relationship by Schellenberg’s definition. This is important because while the non-resistant nonbeliever lacks a personal relationship with God, it does not follow that this individual lacks an existentially significant (or even a soteriologically effective) relationship with God.
So here’s the first question for us. Could something similar to the parent/child relationship be true of the relationship between God and truly non-resistant nonbelievers? Could God be in existentially significant relationships with human persons that have not yet developed to the stage of personal relationship?
Before proceeding further, let’s note that there is an obvious problem with the analogy I just proposed. The small child only lacks a personal relationship with the parent because they are cognitively undeveloped (e.g. an infant) or cognitively deficient (e.g. mentally handicapped). But the non-resistant nonbeliever who desires to know if God exists is not like this. They are cognitively capable of grasping God’s existence and they want to know if God exists. So why would God not reveal his existence to these individuals, thereby allowing this existentially significant relationship to advance to the status of a full-fledged personal relationship?
Before addressing that question, let me point out that an existentially significant relationship that lacks the dimension of personal relationship is not as limited or impoverished as you might think. Consider the case of Liz, a young lady who doesn’t believe in God but who does believe in what she calls “absolute goodness” (a view on the spectrum of impersonal forms of ultimism). Liz seeks to cultivate virtue in accord with this absolute goodness that she believes enlivens the universe and provides purpose and significance to human life. Shortly after her thirtieth birthday God will reveal himself to Liz at which point the existentially significant relationship that Liz has with the Almighty will graduate to a full-fledged personal relationship. In that moment Liz realizes that her belief in “absolute goodness” was in fact, a belief in God. In other words, she now recognizes that the absolute goodness in which she believed is a person. This is undoubtedly a critically important advance in her understanding, but note that it is indicative of continuity (Liz always believed absolute goodness exists) as much as discontinuity (Liz comes to believe that absolute goodness is personal).
But why would God wait until Liz’s thirtieth birthday to reveal his personal existence to her, especially when she was non-resistant the entire time? The simple answer is that God would do so if he had morally sufficient reasons to defer that revelation.
Like what, you ask? Here’s one possible scenario. It is possible that in the decade during which she is an atheist, Liz will bring many resistant nonbelievers to a greater understanding of absolute goodness, an understanding which provides a crucial step for those individuals eventually becoming non-resistant and then later moving into a personal relationship with God. And counterfactually, had God revealed himself to Liz at an earlier time, her witness as a theist would have been rendered ineffectual for these particular individuals that God wanted to reach. (Perhaps they would have tuned out Liz’s evangelical Christian preaching about the personal absolute goodness, but they carefully assimilated her preaching about impersonal absolute goodness.) Thus, God providentially delays revealing himself personally to Liz because he can reach people through Liz’s state of nonbelief that he would not be able to reach through Liz’s state of belief.
So far as I can see, scenarios of this kind are certainly possible, indeed, in my view they are plausible. Moreover, they appear to me to offer morally sufficient reasons for God to defer revealing himself personally to non-resistant nonbelievers like Liz. Consequently, I remain unpersuaded by premise (2).
That said, let me conclude this review on a positive note by reiterating my admiration for "The Hiddenness Argument." This book deserves careful study and it belongs on the shelf of every person interested in questions of theology and philosophy of religion.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
Perhaps the most well-written book I have ever read.
By Breanne Patton
Before reading this book, I was unfamiliar with the work of Schellenberg. I had seen him in an online interview, and was vaguely familiar with idea of his Hiddenness Argument. I wasn't sure of his capacities as a philosopher, but I purchased the book with the hope of clarifying my own atheistic thoughts which no other arguments seemed to capture. I just now finished reading the book, and I am left wonderfully delighted in what I discovered.
Namely, what I discovered is a book so thoughtfully well written that it could only come from an expertise developed from a career of dedicated philosophical thought. Schellenberg, like a good philosopher, carefully defines all his terms and logical methodology, clearly states his argument and analytically takes it apart for critical scrutiny, guiding the reader through possible variations and objections. Yet this is all carried out in such a clear and simple language that it avoids the frustration that often accompanies reading philosophical arguments. The final product being, not just a convincingly beautiful argument, but even more, a benchmark for how such books should be presented--analytically clear and eloquently short!
If one has an education in philosophy, then you will enjoy this book (it is not overly simplified) and come away with a thorough and satisfying understanding of the hiddenness argument against the existence of God. Or if one does not have such an education, then one will likely experience having ones mind blown, along with the intellectual wonder that exists within the study of philosophy. Five stars for you my man, Schellenberg! Well done and thank you.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Schellenberg has written a beautifully written and tightly-argued book on an argument he developed
By Tim K
Schellenberg has written a beautifully written and tightly-argued book on an argument he developed: the hiddenness argument against the existence of God.
The book is exceptionally written. No one can fault Schellenberg for being sloppy or glossing over things. As a philosopher, he aims at clarity, and he succeeds. This may turn off some readers who are looking for more entertaining prose. I think his clarity is a virtue, not a vice. You get a clear idea of how Schellenberg has thought through the issues explored in the book, and as a philosopher, he explores these ideas with a fine-toothed comb.
After some discussion of the historical aspects of the hiddenness argument, Schellenberg sets out to explain, premise by premise, how the argument functions and why each conclusion can be drawn. The book is not technical and he presumes very little philosophical background (a basic acquaintance with some terms could be beneficial). But he is incredibly thorough, raising objections and offering up responses. Whether or not you agree with everything Schellenberg says, you ought to commend him for his clarity of thought and his ability to dissect objections and show why the hiddenness argument has not been defeated.
Overall, I think Schellenberg is successful. The hiddenness argument is a simple, yet powerful, argument against the existence of God. I cannot do justice to summing up the book’s central argument, so I will merely say that if you have any interest in whether God exists, you have something to gain from reading Schellenberg’s book.
Other recommendations:
Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason (Cornell Studies in the Philosophy of Religion)
The Cambridge Companion to Atheism (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy)
Nonbelief & Evil: Two Arguments for the Nonexistence of God
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