Abstract
Skeptical theism seeks to defend theism against the problem of evil by invoking putatively reasonable skepticism concerning human epistemic limitations in order to establish that we have no epistemological basis from which to judge that apparently gratuitous evils are not in fact justified by morally sufficient reasons beyond our ken. This paper contributes to the set of distinctively practical criticisms of skeptical theism by arguing that religious believers who accept skeptical theism and take its practical implications seriously will be forced into a position of paralysis or aporia when faced with a wide set of morally significant situations. It is argued that this consequence speaks strongly against the acceptance of skeptical theism insofar as such moral aporia is inconsistent with religious moral teaching and practice. In addition, a variety of arguments designed to show that accepting skeptical theism does not lead to this consequence are considered, and shown to be deficient.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alston W. (1996). The inductive argument from evil and the human cognitive condition. In: Howard-Snyder D. (eds) The evidential argument from evil. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, pp. 97–125
Bergmann M. (2001). Skeptical theism and Rowe’s new evidential argument from evil. Nous 35(2): 278–296
Flint T. (1992). Prophecy, freedom, and middle knowledge. In: Clark K.J. (eds) Our knowledge of god: Essays on natural and philosophical theology. Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 151–165
Gale R. (1996). Some difficulties in theistic treatments of evil. In: Howard-Snyder D. (eds) The evidential argument from evil. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, pp. 206–218
Howard-Snyder D. (1996). The argument from inscrutable evil. In: Howard-Snyder D. (eds) The evidential argument from evil. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, pp. 286–310
Howard-Snyder D., Bergmann M., Rowe W. (2001). An exchange on the problem of evil. In: Rowe W. (eds) God and the problem of evil. Oxford, Blackwell Publishers Ltd, pp. 124–158
Rowe W. (1979). The problem of evil and some varieties of atheism. American Philosophical Quarterly 16: 335–341
Russell B. (1996). Defenseless. In: Howard-Snyder D. (eds) The evidential argument from evil. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, pp. 193–205
Tooley M. (1991). The argument from evil. In: Tomberlin J. (eds) Philosophical perspectives 5: Philosophy of religion. Atascadero CA, Ridgereview Publishing, pp. 89–134
Wykstra S. (1984). The humean obstacle to evidential arguments from suffering: On avoiding the evils of ‘appearance.’ International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 16: 73–94
Wykstra S. (1996). Rowe’s noseeum arguments from evil. In: Howard-Snyder D. (eds) The evidential argument from evil. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, pp. 126–150
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Piper, M. Skeptical theism and the problem of moral aporia . Int J Philos Relig 62, 65–79 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-007-9128-7
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-007-9128-7