Friday, February 7, 2020

Divine hiddenness as a problem for atheists

One might think that divine hiddenness is a problem for the theist but not at all for the atheist. That is not so clear to me. Consider the plausible evolutionary psychology stories about theistic belief, such as that social animals as smart as us will be sufficiently able to outwit the social enforcement of cooperative behavior and the best evolutionary solution is to have us believe in a being who misses nothing and whose judgment cannot be escaped. But given such good evolutionary stories about theistic belief, why are there so many who do not believe?

I am not saying the problem has no good answer, just that there is still a problem there, even if theism is false.

2 comments:

Walter Van den Acker said...

Alex

I don't really see what the problem is supposed to be.
Evolution is, by definition, not perfect.
Moreover, it may very well be that, due to the way people and societies have evolved over time, the 'need' for a belief in a being who misses nothing and whose judgment cannot be escaped is no longer as prominent as it used to be.

Harrison Lee said...

I love this.