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How not to defend Positive Evidential Atheism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2016

PAUL K. MOSER
PAUL K. MOSER*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL 60660, USA
*
e-mail: pmoser@luc.edu
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Abstract

In ‘Undermining the case for evidential atheism’, Religious Studies, 48 (2012), 83–93, I challenged positive evidential atheism on the basis of some considerations from divine hiding, if God exists. Scott Aikin, in ‘Does divine hiding undermine Positive Evidential Atheism?’, Religious Studies, 52 (2016), 205–212, attempts to rehabilitate positive evidential atheism in the face of my challenge. I contend that his attempt fails, owing not only to his misunderstanding of my challenge from divine hiding but to also his defective positive case for atheism. The main defect is in his portrait of how evidence would count against God's reality. I explain how a serious epistemic problem for evidential atheism persists, relative to available relevant evidence, despite Aikin's proposed defence.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , December 2017 , pp. 459 - 465
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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References

Aikin, Scott F. (2016) ‘Does divine hiding undermine Positive Evidential Atheism?’, Religious Studies, 52, 205–212.Google Scholar
Moser, Paul K. (2008) The Elusive God (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Moser, Paul K. (2012) ‘Undermining the case for evidential atheism’, Religious Studies, 48, 83–93.Google Scholar
Moser, Paul K. (2013) The Severity of God (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Moser, Paul K. (2016) ‘Divine hiddenness and self-sacrifice’, in Green, Adam & Stump, Eleonore (eds) Hidden Divinity and Religious Belief (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 71–88.Google Scholar
Moser, Paul K. (2017) The God Relationship (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar