Second Essay Topic

According to many, the fact of divine hiddenness is a source of good evidence against the existence of God. The world is full of terrible things. Yet we seem to observe little or no response from God. Why would a being who cares  allow such things? And why would God’s reality and goodness remain hidden not only from skeptics but also from many sincere and honest inquirers? It seems that a perfectly loving God would want people to believe in him. And an all-powerful God would be able to provide evidence of his existence sufficient to eliminate reasonable unbelief. But it’s obvious that reasonable unbelief does occur. So how can an all-powerful, perfectly loving God exist?

Carefully evaluate the argument outlined above. In doing so, you may  want to consider some of the following sorts of questions. Does the argument rest on any underlying assumptions? If so, should we accept them? What are the argument’s strengths? Is the argument seriously flawed? How great is the threat of this argument to the theist? What do you think is the theist’s best response?

Your essay, which must not exceed 1000 words, is due in class  on Thursday, March 31, 2011. You may hand in your essay after that time; but notice that all late papers will be penalized in the following way. I will expect more of them; that is, I will expect them to reflect the fact that their author had extra time to work on them, and they will be graded accordingly. In addition, late papers will not receive written comments. I do not expect to award any deferred grades at the end of the semester. Notice that you must also submit an identical copy of your paper to the Turnitin site not later than 11:59 p.m. that same day (March 31). Your paper will be deemed late if either version is late.

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