Sceptical Theism and Divine Lies
Religious Studies 46 (4):509-523 (2010)
Abstract
In this paper I develop a novel challenge for sceptical theists. I present a line of reasoning that appeals to sceptical theism to support scepticism about divine assertions. I claim that this reasoning is at least as plausible as one popular sceptical theistic strategy for responding to evidential arguments from evil. Thus, I seek to impale sceptical theists on the horns of a dilemma: concede that either (a) sceptical theism implies scepticism about divine assertions, or (b) the sceptical theistic strategy for responding to evidential arguments from evil fails. An implication of (a) is that sceptical theism is at odds with any religious tradition according to which there are certain claims that we can know to be true solely in virtue of the fact that God has told us that they are true. This result will render conceding (a) unattractive to many sceptical theists.Author's Profile
DOI
10.1017/s0034412510000247
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Citations of this work
Skeptical Theism Proved.Perry Hendricks - 2020 - Journal of the American Philosophical Association 6 (2):264-274.
Sceptical Theism and the Paradox of Evil.Luis R. G. Oliveira - 2020 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 98 (2):319-333.
Plantinga’s Religious Epistemology, Skeptical Theism, and Debunking Arguments.Andrew Moon - 2017 - Faith and Philosophy 34 (4):449-470.
The moral skepticism objection to skeptical theism.Stephen Maitzen - 2013 - In Justin McBrayer & Daniel Howard-Snyder (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to the Problem of Evil. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 444--457.
References found in this work
The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism.William L. Rowe - 1979 - American Philosophical Quarterly 16 (4):335 - 341.
The Humean obstacle to evidential arguments from suffering: On avoiding the evils of “appearance”.Stephen Wykstra - 1984 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 16 (2):73 - 93.
Skeptical theism and Rowe's new evidential argument from evil.Michael Bergmann - 2001 - Noûs 35 (2):278–296.
Friendly Atheism, Skeptical Theism, and the Problem of Evil.William L. Rowe - 2006 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 59 (2):79-92.
Skeptical theism and empirical unfalsifiability.Ian Wilks - 2009 - Faith and Philosophy 26 (1):64-76.