Abstract
In The Axiological Status of Theism and Other Worldviews (2020), I defend the Complete Understanding Argument for anti-theism, which says that God’s existence makes the world worse with respect to our ability to understand it. In a recent article, Roberto Di Ceglie offers three objections to my argument. I seek to rescue my argument by showing (1) that understanding can come in degrees; (2) that I’m not a consequentialist about the value of understanding; and (3) that my argument is consistent with God providing us with sufficient knowledge of important spiritual matters. Di Ceglie’s objections point to future areas for fruitful exploration but do not defeat my argument.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Thanks to an anonymous referee for this point.
Thanks to an anonymous referee raising this objection and pressing me to think through it.
Notice, however, that nothing in my original argument claims that all understanding is beneficial.
Likewise, the literature has continued to grow so much that Kraay is now in the process of updating his original entry.
See Korsgaard 1983 for more on distinguishing between these types of value.
It is interesting that Di Ceglie appeals to Schellenberg since as the main proponent of the hiddenness argument, Schellenberg clearly thinks that God is not justified in hiding. For his first statement of the argument for atheism from hiddenness see Schellenberg 1993.
References
Di Ceglie, Roberto. (2021). Revisiting the Complete Understanding Argument for Anti-Theism: a Reply to Kirk Lougheed. Philosophia. [Online First, 1–8]
Howard-Snyder, Daniel and Adam Green. (2017). Dynamic Bibliography on Divine Hiddenness. Unpublished Online Resource.
Howard-Snyder, Daniel and Adam Green. (forthcoming). Hiddenness of God, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
Korsgaard, Christine. (1983). Two distinctions in goodness. Philosophical Review 92 (2): 169– 195.
Kraay, Klaas J. (2013). The Problem of Divine Hiddenness. Oxford Bibliographies Online.
Lougheed, Kirk. (2020). The Axiological Status of Theism and Other Worldviews. Palgrave Macmillan.
Schellenberg, J.L. (1993). Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason. Cornell University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Lougheed, K. Completing the Complete Understanding Argument: A Rejoinder to Roberto Di Ceglie. Philosophia 51, 811–819 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-022-00574-0
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-022-00574-0