Nonbelief as Support for Atheism Essay - 3154 Words

Nonbelief as Support for Atheism The Canadian philosopher J.L. Schellenberg has recently put forward an argument for atheism based on the idea that God is supposed to be perfectly loving and so would not permit people to be deprived of awareness of his existence. If such a deity were to exist, then, he would do something to reveal his existence clearly to people, thereby causing them to become theists. Thus, the fact that there are so many non-theists in the world becomes good reason to deny the existence of God conceived of in the given way. I first raise objections to Schellenberg’s formulation of the argument and then suggest some improvements. My main improvement is to include among the divine attributes the property of strongly†¦show more content†¦(1) In this paper I shall first raise some objections to the argument and then try to show how it might be improved. Objections (A) Irrelevance of the term reasonable Schellenberg regards reasonable nonbelief to be that which is inculpable (i.e., for which the nonbeliever is not to blame). The distinction between culpable and inculpable nonbelief is somewhat unclear, but even if it could be sufficiently understood I am inclined to say that all nonbelief in God is inculpable. For that reason, I would accept premise (3) of the argument. Schellenberg devotes a chapter of his book to a defense of it. Although I agree with what he says there, it seems to me that even if peoples nonbelief in God were always somehow their own fault, that would be irrelevant. A perfectly loving deity would set vindictiveness aside and still want to help nonbelievers (by supplying them with evidence of his existence), despite their culpability. All it would take, for most, would be some spectacular miracle, or perhaps, as Schellenberg prefers, a religious experience. So, even if some clear sense could be attached to the distinction between culpable and inculpable nonbelief , the real force of Schellenbergs argument would lie in the fact of nonbelief itself. The issue of whether or not the nonbelief is culpable would be irrelevant. It would therefore improve the argument if the word reasonable were simply omitted from it. (B) Premise (1) Premise (1) should beShow MoreRelatedPersuasive Speech On Freedom Of Speech1345 Words   |  6 Pagessay. The biggest risk of silencing a person just because you like agree on what theyre saying could have had a very powerful impact and change a persons view on certain things. Most of society silences opposition categorizing them as profanity, nonbelief, a threat to society, or even resistance to authority which can lead the youth to think a certain way and then making free speech to diminish if not used freely. The recent tragedy at the paris cartoon publication Charlie Hebdo pushed the issueRead MoreResolving The Dilemma Of The Absurd2309 Words   |  10 Pages Even more notable than this relatively minor and implicit comparison, which demonstrates Marie’s desire to find meaning and Meursault’s indifference on the matter, is the contrast Camus constructs between other characters’ piety and Meursault’s atheism. For example, the chaplain who visits Meursault in his cell typifies an individual who attempts to resolve the dilemma of the absurd by pursuing belief in an objective meaning determined by some transcendent being. From the chaplain’s perspective