hermanleadready
Just Arrived
Joined: Nov 05, 2009
Posts: 1
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 Posted:
Thu Nov 05, 2009 6:12 pm |
 
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| infidelguy wrote: |
Working on perfecting my argument. This is a variation of the Argument from Divine Hiddenness. I wrote this 9 years ago before I knew what the ADH was. I was looking over my arguments and I saw some room for improvement.
An Argument From Non-belief if God Exists
1.) If the Christian God exists, he wants ALL humans to know he exists.
2.) If the Christian God exists, he knows what sufficient evidence he can provide for ALL to know that he exists.
3.) However, Not ALL people know that the Christian God exists.
4.) God then, thus far, hasn't provided sufficient evidence for ALL to know that he exists.
5.) God at least wants SOME humans to not know he exists or there may be no Christian God. (from 2,3 and 4) |
Objection to #2:
Watch William Lane Craig's debate with Theodore Drange. From that exchange, I suspect Craig would object to #2 as follows: We cannot possibly know if God has the ability to ensure that ALL people know he exists. It is pure speculation to say that more evidence from God would make it so that people would freely come to know that he exists. We have not seen such a demonstration, so how could we know what would happen if one happened?
Objection to #5:
First, consider the following statement by Paul Pardi, which appeared in his rejoinder to Drange's argument from nonbelief:
"Many Evangelicals hold that man is determined at some level but few (perhaps none) hold that God is determined in this way. Few classical renditions of Christianity would endorse the compatibalist notion of God's freedom that Drange is promoting. According to ANB, God appears to be an automaton who must act according to his strongest desires. However, according to classical theism, God is libertarianly free[5] with respect to his will.
That means that God is not caused to act by anything--not even his own beliefs and desires.
If God is determined in the way Drange seems to imply that he is, we need an argument to demonstrate this. God is the archetype of libertarian freedom if anyone is!"
In short, it may not be possible to assess God's desires, simply by looking at the way the world is. Rephrased: Just because the world is a certain way, does it necessarily mean that God wants it that way? |
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