Why is God Hidden? 1-Minute Case

Humble, loving, believing loyalty vs. propositional head knowledge

Sep 13, 2024

Incompatible with Christian God?

Under a Christian view, how we come to believe in God is more important than that we “know” He exists, as philosopher Peter van Inwagen notes. Humble, loving, believing loyalty trumps mere propositional head knowledge. Even in the Bible, seeing God does not translate to a trusting relationship with Him (eg. Pharisees and demons). Philosopher Laura Garcia argues divine hiddenness may provide the best conditions for one’s will to grow closer to God’s through a purification process of letting go of one’s will for God’s.

Our wants shape our thinking

Atheists like Huxley and Nagel have expressed they do not want God to exist for reasons such as sexual freedom and authority problems- do wants ever shape thinking? Psychology says yes. This cuts both ways, yes, but it must be acknowledged.

File:Aldous Huxley 1929.png - Wikimedia Commons — Huxley claimed he would rather adopt a philosophy of meaninglessness than have his sexual freedom interfered with

Transcendent “hiddenness” is everywhere

We rely on rules of logic that transcend local human existence. Immaterial morals. Mathematical laws. Transcendent beauty in music and art. How can anything transcendent, immaterial, unchanging, and universal exist if the best you have is localised chemical reactions in your own body, stemming from accidental physical events? Even doubters have background beliefs they often forget. Doubts can themselves be doubted. We frequently have hidden presuppositions.

How much is enough?

It’s sheer speculation. Why think no transcendent Being exists given the natural universe had a beginning (nothing comes from nothing), the earth is finely tuned for human existence, objective morals exist (some things are really wrong), transcendent rules of logic and mathematics exist as well as seemingly transcendent beauty in music and art. How much more evidence will do? What is not enough?