The Hiddenness Argument, for the nonexistence of God, as quoted from John L. Schellenberg's 1993 book, Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason.
The Hiddenness Argument
- If there is a perfectly loving God, all creatures capable of explicit and positively meaningful relationships with God who have not freely shut themselves off from God are in a position to participate in such a relationship, that is, able to do so just by trying to.
- No one can be in a position to participate in such relationship without believing that God exists.
- If there is a perfectly loving God, all creatures capable of explicit and positively meaningful relationships with God who have not freely shut themselves off from God believe that God exists (from 1 and 2).
- It is not the case that all creatures capable of explicit and positively meaningful relationships with God who have not freely shut themselves off from God believe that God exists: there is non-resistant nonbelief; "God is Hidden."
- It is not the case that there is a perfectly loving God (from 3 and 4).
- If God exists, God is perfectly loving.
- It is not the case that God exists (from 5 and 6).
