The Pandora’s box objection to skeptical theism

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 78 (3):285-299 (2015)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Skeptical theism is a leading response to the evidential argument from evil against the existence of God. Skeptical theists attempt to block the inference from the existence of inscrutable evils to gratuitous evils by insisting that given our cognitive limitations, it wouldn’t be surprising if there were God-justifying reasons we can’t think of. A well-known objection to skeptical theism is that it opens up a skeptical Pandora’s box, generating implausibly wide-ranging forms of skepticism, including skepticism about the external world and past. This paper looks at several responses to this Pandora’s box objection, including a popular response devised by Beaudoin and Bergmann. I find that all of the examined responses fail. It appears the Pandora’s box objection to skeptical theism still stands

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 93,031

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Skeptical theism and Skepticism About the External World and Past.Stephen Law - 2017 - Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 81:55-70.
The Skepticism of Skeptical Theism.Edward Wierenga - 2019 - Journal of Philosophical Theological Research 21 (3):27-42.
Skeptical Theism and the Problem of Moral Skepticism.John M. DePoe - 2022 - Philosophia Christi 24 (2):257-269.
Skeptical theism and moral obligation.Stephen Maitzen - 2009 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 65 (2):93 - 103.
Agnosticism, Skeptical Theism, and Moral Obligation.Stephen Maitzen - 2014 - In Justin McBrayer Trent Dougherty (ed.), Skeptical Theism: New Essays. Oxford University Press.
The moral skepticism objection to skeptical theism.Stephen Maitzen - 2013 - In Justin P. McBrayer & Daniel Howard‐Snyder (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to the Problem of Evil. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 444--457.
All too skeptical theism.William Hasker - 2010 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 68 (1-3):15-29.
Why skeptical theists are not in a scenario of Olly-style deception.Francis Jonbäck - 1970 - Forum Philosophicum: International Journal for Philosophy 23 (1):59-68.
Why Skeptical Theists are Not Involved in a Scenario of Olly-Style Deception.Francis Jonbäck - 1970 - Forum Philosophicum: International Journal for Philosophy 23 (1):59-67.
Are skeptical theists really skeptics? Sometimes yes and sometimes no.Justin P. McBrayer - 2012 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 72 (1):3-16.

Analytics

Added to PP
2015-05-28

Downloads
439 (#46,938)

6 months
36 (#102,360)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Citations of this work

Sceptical theism and the evil-god challenge.Perry Hendricks - 2018 - Religious Studies 54 (4):549-561.
Sceptical Agnosticism.Francis Jonbäck - 2022 - International Journal for the Study of Skepticism (1):1-13.

View all 6 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Knowledge and its limits.Timothy Williamson - 2000 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Knowledge and its Limits.Timothy Williamson - 2000 - Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 64 (1):200-201.
Unreasonable Knowledge.Maria Lasonen-Aarnio - 2010 - Philosophical Perspectives 24 (1):1-21.
The philosophical works of Descartes.René Descartes - 1967 - London,: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Elizabeth Sanderson Haldane & G. R. T. Ross.

View all 21 references / Add more references