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Sceptical theism, the parent analogy, and many goods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2022

Gabriel Reis de Oliveira Open the ORCID record for Gabriel Reis de Oliveira [Opens in a new window]
Gabriel Reis de Oliveira*
Affiliation:
Philosophy, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
*
Email: reisgabri@gmail.com
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Abstract

William R. Rowe argues for the low probability of the existence of God given our ignorance of the goods that come from apparently gratuitous evils. After exploring this argument, I present Stephen Wykstra's response, which is known as ‘sceptical theism’, focusing on the evocation of the so-called ‘parent analogy’. According to the parent analogy, God's knowledge, compared to ours, is analogous to the comparison between a parent's knowledge and a one-month-old infant's. After pointing out some difficulties with this analogy, I develop an improved version of sceptical theism. My main point is that the most valuable disinterested love and awe for God can be best developed in a world with two evils: our ignorance about most of the justifying goods and the apparent divine absence to sufferers. Moreover, since disinterested love and awe for God bring numerous benefits to human beings, God has good reasons for creating a world with these two evils.

Keywords

Godevilsceptical theismparent analogy
Type
Original Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 59 , Issue 4 , December 2023 , pp. 748 - 761
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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