Inspecting the Relations between the Problem of Divine Hiddenness and the Problem of Evil

Document Type : Original Research

Authors
Hossein Khatibi 1
Amirabbas Alizamani 2
Rasoul Rasoulipour 3
1 Ph. D. Candidate in Philosophy of Religion, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
2 Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy of Religion, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
3 Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran.
10.30497/prr.2024.243347.1782
Abstract
The problem of evil has always been a challenge against theism and there has been a lot of disputation about it. What can be considered as a newer challenge to theism is the very problem of divine hiddenness. There are multiple similarities between the two arguments which have caused some thinkers to reduce one to another and to count only one of them as original. It is possible that one of the very concepts of evil or hiddenness be reduced to another one, or one of the arguments that is grounded on them, or the reduction occurs in both phases. Regarding the vastitude of the domain of each problem, what we solely aim at is inspecting the reasons of ones who hold that divine hiddenness is nothing but one articulation of the problem of evil and it is not necessary to be regarded as independent. These reasons range from a sort of resemblance of their logical structure, methodology, conclusion, or responses in order to show that either the problem of divine hiddenness is not independent at all or if it is, it makes a much less severe case against theism in comparison to the problem of evil so it’s not worthy of any concern. What will be eventually concluded is that despite having plentiful available similarities, this kind of reduction is not justified and each problem, regardless of their ability to prove what they claim, is independently precious, inspection-worthy, and original.
Keywords
Divine hiddenness
problem of evil
theism
atheism
reductionism
Subjects
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