Atheist philosophers of religion have often argued that certain phenomena we observe in our world (particularly, suffering or evil) is better explained by an atheistic picture of the world than a theistic one. More recently, the existence of atheism or unbelief itself has come to be seen as one such phenomena.
The ‘argument from divine hiddenness’ goes roughly as follows, that if there exists a perfectly loving God, we would not expect reasonable, non-resistant non-belief to exist. But reasonable, non-resistant non-belief does exist. The existence of God is therefore incompatible with these two facts, or unlikely given these two facts.
For this month’s PEACE talk, Dr Emma Wood will be presenting a response to the argument from divine hiddenness. While many responses to the argument are possible, Emma will be looking at one line of response in particular: one which makes use of the distinction between belief and the closely related epistemic state of acceptance.
About the speaker: Emma Wood received her PhD in Philosophy from Victoria University in Wellington, in 2015. She has since worked for the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Ethics and Society, and currently coordinates the Philosophy and Theology program at Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Sydney. Her research interests include metaethics, applied ethics, and philosophy of religion.
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About PEACE: PEACEtalks is a monthly event hosted by Paddington Anglican Church aimed at serving the community by promoting and cultivating deep conversations about life, the world and everything. ‘PEACE’ stands for ‘political, ethical, artistic & cultural engagement’. As such, our events seek to take all of these areas of our shared humanity seriously in a world where such things are often marginalized. We also seek to demonstrate the ways in which spiritual and theological reflection enable us to look at all of these important areas afresh. All welcome!