My paper, “Two Solutions to the Problem of Divine Hiddenness” was just accepted for publication in American Philosophical Quarterly!

I think this means that I get to stop working for the day.

I’ll post a version of the paper soon. Here is the abstract.

Two Solutions to the Problem of Divine Hiddenness
Abstract
In this article, I provide two responses to J.L. Schellenberg’s version of the problem of divine hiddenness. In the first section I argue against Schellenberg’s assumption that personal relationships require belief. This undermines the motivation for one of the premises in Schellenberg’s argument. In the second section, I draw on some naturalistic intuitions about some really great goods that some naturalists argue are only possible in a Godless Universe. I argue that what is crucial for these goods is not a Godless Universe, but a Universe in which the existence of God is far from epistemically certain. This will yield a novel kind of greater good defense that gives us the resources to reject a different premise in Schellenberg’s argument.

5 Responses to “Divine Hiddenness Paper Accepted for Publication!”

1. 

   thom blake

   January 22, 2009 at 4:11 pm

   I actually had to google the topic of this one. Reading this abstract was like reading one move in a really long game that I don’t play.

   So do you end up arguing in favor of the existence of God, or a better argument for the non-existence of God, or are you just playing with words?

   Reply
2. 

   Kevin Timpe

   January 22, 2009 at 4:37 pm

   That’s great–congratulations. In fact, I may stop working for the day in your honor!

   APQ‘s a good journal and often has some good phil of religion stuff. Kudos to you.

   Reply
3. 

   Andrew Cullison

   January 22, 2009 at 11:29 pm

   Thom,

   The paper merely offers two responses to a very popular argument against God’s existence. So it’s not an argument for the existence of God, and it’s not me offering an argument against the existence of God.

   Reply
4. 

   Jon Nalewajek

   January 23, 2009 at 12:30 pm

   I would definitely like to read this paper. There are so many awesome topics in philosophy of religion, and although I wouldn’t substitute this for anything we talked about in class, this would have been an awesome topic to discuss.

   Congrats for the publication!

   Reply
5. 

   Clayton

   January 27, 2009 at 12:18 pm

   Congratulations! I’m really looking forward to reading it.

   Reply