Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason (original) (raw)

1994, Philosophical Books

of Arguments According to the author of this carefully argued, well constructed, clearly written, and original book, we have reason to believe that a loving God would want all human beings to have a personal relationship with him at all times at which they are capable of such a relationship. A personal relationship of the relevant sort involves reciprocity and mutuality: in particular it involves trust, obedience and worship on our part. Such a relationship is not to be identified with the beatific vision: it admits of change and growth, and it may be shallow or deep, depending on our response. It is impossible for us to have such a personal relationship with God unless we believe God to exist. So we have reason to believe that God would provide evidence that renders probable the belief that God exists, thereby rendering nonbelief unreasonable (33-5). If we had such evidence we would believe unless our culpable acts or omissions caused us not to do so, for belief is involuntary and arises in response to the perceived evidence. But this evidence has not been provided, and nonbelief is reasonable. So we have reason to believe that God does not exist. We have reason to believe that "the weakness of our evidence for God is not a sign that God is hidden ... [butl a revelation that God does not exist" (l). Schellenberg has arguments to show that a loving God would seek a personal relationship with us. He says that "only the best human love could serve as an analogy of Divine love, and human love at its best clearly involves reciprocity and mutuality. If I love you and so seek your well-being .. .1 wish to make available to you the resources of an intimate personal relationship with me" (18). And he says that "personal relationship with God would immeasurably enhance our well-being" (ibid.). He rejects the idea that God might want to be persomilly related to us in the future rather than in the here and now (25f.). "A loving God ... would bring us into existence so that he might enter into fellowship with us-for our sakes, but for its own sake too. We have, then, reason to suppose that there is no time at which some human being is to some extent capable of personal relationship with God but at which God does not wish the potential represented by that capacity to be realized" (26). When he says that "God, if loving, seeks explicit reciprocal relationship with us" (18, my emphasis) I take him to mean not merely that God wishes us to have (or is well disposed towards, or is interested in, or would welcome, our having) a personal relationship with him, but rather that God does everything 269