Why does God hide himself?

#invisible

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I would certainly begin to believe in God if I were to witness an unambiguous manifestation of the divine, and the vast majority of atheists probably would as well . . . What further harm could it possibly do for him to appear and attempt to convince them otherwise?

‘Ebon Musings’

‘Not enough evidence, God. Not enough evidence.’

Bertrand Russell

Is absence of evidence

the same as evidence of absence?

Is there a rhinoceros in the room?

© Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P., used under a Creative Commons licence

‘good epistemic position’

epistemic = relating to knowledge

© Kim Carpenter

Is there a mouse in the room?

© Susanne Nilsson, used under a Creative Commons licence

Is there a spider in the room?

© Sankax, used under a Creative Commons licence

Why do you believe people did/didn’t land on the moon?

© NASA. Used by permission.

Why do you believe in the past?

Image from Crestock.com

How do you know other people are real?

Image from Crestock.com

Are we in a good enough epistemic position to say

there’s no God because he’s not obvious to us?

noetic effects of rebellion against God

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I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers....

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...It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want a universe like that.

Thomas Nagel

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As to why God doesn’t make it demonstratively clear: are we sure that He is even interested in the kind of Theism which [would] be a compelled logical assent to a conclusive argument?

C.S. Lewis letter to Sheldon Vanauken, 23 Dec. 1950

God is not like something one buys in a shop, or like a piece of property.

Søren Kierkegaard

Is there a lack of evidence?

GODISNOWHERE

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He has willed to make himself quite recognisable by those; and thus, willing to appear openly to those who seek Him with all their heart, and to be hidden from those who flee from Him with all their heart . . .

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There is enough light for those who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition.

Pascal Pensées (tr. W.F. Trotter), 430

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Sunlight, though it has no favourites cannot be reflected in a dusty mirror as clearly as a clean one.

C.S. Lewis

Something rather than nothing

Fine-tuning of the universe

Transformed lives

God makes himself clear in Jesus

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