Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T05:50:54.665Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On preferring God's non-existence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Klaas J. Kraay  and
Chris Dragos
Klaas J. Kraay*
Affiliation:
aDepartment of Philosophy, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, ONM5B2K3
Chris Dragos
Affiliation:
bIHPST, University of Toronto, Room 316, Victoria College, 91 Charles Street West, Toronto, OntarioM5S 1K7
*
E-mail: kraay@ryerson.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

For many centuries, philosophers have debated this question: ‘Does God exist?’ Surprisingly, they have paid rather less attention to this distinct – but also very important – question: ‘Would God's existence be a good thing?’ The latter is an axiological question about the difference in value that God's existence would make (or does make) in the actual world. Perhaps the most natural position to take, whether or not one believes in God, is to hold that it would be a very good thing if such a being were to exist. After all, God is traditionally thought to be perfectly powerful and good, and it might seem obvious that such a being's existence would make things better than they would otherwise be. But this judgment has been contested: some philosophers have held that God's existence would make things worse, and that, on this basis, one can reasonably prefer God's non-existence. We first distinguish a wide array of axiological positions concerning the value of God's existence which might be held by theists, atheists, and agnostics alike. We next construe these positions as comparative judgments about the axiological status of various possible worlds. We then criticize an important recent attempt to show that God's existence would make things worse, in various ways, than they would otherwise be.

Keywords

GodtheismatheismagnosticismaxiologyvalueGuy Kahane
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , 2013 , pp. 157 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Chaplin, C. Jr. Rau, N. and Rau, M. 1960. My Father, Charlie Chaplin, New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Dougherty, T. 2011. Recent Work on the Problem of Evil. Analysis, 71: 560–573.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falls-Corbitt, M. and McLain, F. M. 1992. God and Privacy. Faith and Philosophy, 9: 369–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasker, W. 1992. The Necessity of Gratuitous Evil. Faith and Philosophy, 9: 23–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hitchens, C. ed. 1997. The Portable Atheist, Philadelphia: Da Capo Press.Google Scholar
Jordan, J. 2004. Divine Love and Human Suffering. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 56: 169–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahane, G. 2011. Should We Want God to Exist?. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 82: 674–696.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahane, G. 2012. The Value Question in Metaphysics. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 85: 27–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kenny, A. 1979. The God of the Philosophers, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lackey, D. 1984. Divine Omniscience and Human Privacy. Philosophy Research Archives, 10: 383–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leftow, B. 2010. “Divine Necessity”. In The Cambridge Companion to Christian Philosophical Theology, Edited by: Taliaferro, C. and Meister, C. 15–30. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Leftow, B. 2012. God and Necessity, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, M. and Monnier, R. eds. 2003. The Impossibility of God, Amherst: Prometheus Books.Google Scholar
Mawson, T. 2012. On Determining How Important It Is Whether or Not There Is a God. European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 4: 95–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McBrayer, J. 2010. Skeptical Theism. Philosophy Compass, 5: 611–623.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagel, T. 1997. The Last Word, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Patrick, G. and Chapman, F. eds. 1935. Introduction to Philosophy, London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd.Google Scholar
Plantinga, A. 1974. The Nature of Necessity, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Rowe, W. 1996. “William Alston on the Problem of Evil”. In The Rationality of Belief and the Plurality of Faiths, Edited by: Senor, T. 71–93. Cornell: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Rachels, J. 1997. “God and Moral Autonomy”. In Can Ethics Provide Answers?: And Other Essays in Moral Philosophy, 109–124. Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.Google Scholar
Schweizer, B. 2011. Hating God: The Untold Story of Misotheism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Swinburne, R. 1994. The Christian God, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swinburne, R. 1998. Providence and the Problem of Evil, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stump, E. 1990. “Providence and the Problem of Evil”. In Christian Philosophy, Edited by: Flint, T. 51–91. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Tooley, M. 1991. The Argument from Evil. Philosophical Perspectives, 5: 88–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tooley, M. 2009. “Helping People to Think Critically about their Religious Beliefs”. In 50 Voices of Disbelief, Edited by: Blackford, R. and Schüklenk, U. 310–322. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Inwagen, P. 2006. The Problem of Evil, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wielenberg, E. 2005. Value and Virtue in a Godless Universe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar