The Argument from (Reasonable) Nonbelief

1993 was a watershed year in the philosophy of religion generally and for atheological arguments specifically. In that year, Cornell University Press published J.L. Schellenberg's now classic book, Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason. Schellenberg's book contained the first book-length analysis and defense of the idea that the weakness of evidence for theism is itself evidence against it. At the heart of Schellenberg's argument is the idea that inculpable or reasonable nonbelief actually occurs; he labels his argument "the argument from reasonable nonbelief" for this very reason. In other words, there are people who do not believe in God whose nonbelief is not the result of culpable actions or omissions on the part of the subject. According to Schellenberg, a perfectly loving God would desire a personal relationship between himself and every human being, or at least every human being capable of it. Belief in God's existence is a logically necessary condition for such a relationship. Hence reasonable nonbelief is evidence for atheism.

The occurrence of reasonable nonbelief is linked to the idea of the hiddenness of God, and so Schellenberg's argument is sometimes also referred to as "the argument from divine hiddenness." This has been the source of some confusion and controversy. The label "divine hiddenness" is unsatisfactory, according to some atheists, because a "hidden God" implies that God exists. Schellenberg points out, however, that he is using the phrase "divine hiddenness" in a purely epistemic way: he is using the phrase solely in terms of the absence of strong evidence for God's existence.

Philosopher Theodore Drange introduced a related but distinct argument for atheism in his 1998 book, Nonbelief and Evil. Drange calls his argument simply the "argument from nonbelief" and bases it upon all nonbelief, not just reasonable nonbelief. (In "Nonbelief as Support for Atheism," Drange states he considers the distinction between culpable and inculpable nonbelief to be both unclear and irrelevant.)

-- Jeffrey Jay Lowder