God's Silence as an Epistemological Concern
Philosophical Forum 43 (4):383-393 (2012)
| Abstract | Throughout history, many people, including Mother Teresa, have been troubled by God’s silence. In spite of the conflicting interpretations of the Bible, God has remained silent. What are the implications of divine silence for a meaning of life? Is there a good reason that explains God’s silence? If God created humanity to fulfill a purpose, then God would have clarified his purpose and our role by now, as I will argue. To help God carry out his purpose, we would need to have a clear understanding of our role. Thus, by failing to clarify our role, God would be undermining himself in achieving the purpose he conceived, which would not make sense. Because God, if he exists, would not engage in this self-defeating behavior, this suggests that humanity was not created by God to fulfill a purpose. | |||||||||
| Keywords | Divine Hiddenness Meaning of Life Divine Silence God's Silence | |||||||||
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Daniel Howard-Snyder (1996). The Argument From Divine Hiddenness. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 26 (3):433-453.
Robert P. Lovering (2004). Divine Hiddenness and Inculpable Ignorance. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 56 (2/3):89 - 107.
John J. Conley (1994). The Silence of Descartes. Philosophy and Theology 8 (3):199-212.
Thaddeus Metz (2007). God's Purpose as Irrelevant to Life's Meaning: Reply to Affolter. Religious Studies 43 (4):457-464.
Chris Tucker (2008). Divine Hiddenness and the Value of Divine–Creature Relationships. Religious Studies 44 (3):269-287.
Arthur Peacocke (2009). The Sound of Sheer Silence : How Does God Communicate with Humanity? In F. LeRon Shults, Nancey C. Murphy & Robert J. Russell (eds.), Philosophy, Science and Divine Action. Brill.
Ismail Cetin (2009). Some Reflections on the Concept of 'Timeless God' in Western Thought. Kaygi 12:225 - 234.
Thaddeus Metz (2000). Could God's Purpose Be the Source of Life's Meaning? Religious Studies 36 (3):293-313.
Charles Billingsley (2009). God Laughs: And Other Surprising Things You Never Knew About Him. Regal Books.
Elmer L. Towns (2009). God Laughs: And Other Surprising Things You Never Knew About Him. Regal Books.
W. Matthews Grant (2003). Aquinas, Divine Simplicity, and Divine Freedom. Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 77:129-144.
Paul K. Moser (2008). The Elusive God: Reorienting Religious Epistemology. Cambridge University Press.
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