ABSTRACT
Very few people will claim that God’s existence is an obvious feature of reality. Not only atheists and agnostics, but theists too generally acknowledge that God is, at least to some extent, hidden. The psalmist, for example, exclaims in apparent frustration, using words later uttered by Jesus on the cross: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out by day but you do not answer’ (Psalm 22: 1-2). For theists divine hiddenness can be a source of anxiety or despair. Some atheists, on the other hand, view hiddenness as fodder for an argument against the existence of God. Recently, the Argument (for atheism) from Hiddenness has taken a new, more rigorous form, most notably in the works of philosopher John Schellenberg. The simplest version of Schellenberg’s argument looks like this:
1 If there is a God, he is perfectly loving. 2 If a perfectly loving God exists, reasonable non-belief in the existence of God does
not occur. 3 Reasonable non-belief in the existence of God does occur. 4 No perfectly loving God exists. 5 There is no God.
