Skeptical Theism and the Threshold Problem

Yishai A. Cohen

Skeptical Theism and the Threshold Problem

Article

18/1 - Spring 2013, pages 73-92

Date of online publication: 10 décembre 2013

Date of publication: 10 décembre 2013

Abstract

In this paper I articulate and defend a new anti-theodicy challenge to Skeptical Theism. More specifically, I defend the Threshold Problem according to which there is a threshold to the kinds of evils that are in principle justifiable for God to permit, and certain instances of evil are beyond that threshold. I further argue that Skeptical Theism does not have the resources to adequately rebut the Threshold Problem. I argue for this claim by drawing a distinction between a weak and strong version of Skeptical Theism, such that the strong version must be defended in order to rebut the Threshold Problem. However, the skeptical theist’s appeal to our limited cognitive faculties only supports the weak version.

Keywords

Cite this article

Cohen, Yishai. "Skeptical Theism and the Threshold Problem." Forum Philosophicum 18, no. 1 (2013): 73–92. doi:10.35765/forphil.2013.1801.05.

Bibliography

Adams, Marilyn McCord. Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999.

Almeida, Michael J. “Theistic Modal Realism?” In Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion, edited by Jonathan L. Kvanvig, vol. 3, 1–15. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Boyd, Gregory. “Neo-Molinism and the Infinite Intelligence of God.” Philosophia Christi 5 (2003): 187–204.

Bergmann, Michael. “Skeptical Theism and Rowe’s New Evidential Argument from Evil.” Noûs 35, no. 2 (2001): 278–296.

Bergmann, Michael. “Skeptical theism and the Problem of Evil.” In The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Theology, edited by Thomas P. Flint and Michael C. Rea, 374–400. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Bergmann, Michael and Michael C. Rea, “In Defence of Sceptical Theism: A Reply to Almeida and Oppy.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 83, no. 2 (2005): 241–251.

Burrell, David. Deconstructing Theodicy: Why Job Has Nothing to Say to the Puzzle of Suffering. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2008.

Davies, Brian. The Reality of God and the Problem of Evil. London: Continuum, 2006.

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1990.

Gleeson, Andrew. A Frightening Love. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Hasker, William. “The Necessity of Gratuitous Evil.” Faith and Philosophy 9, no. 1 (1992): 23–44.

Heller, Mark. The Ontology of Physical Objects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Holland, R. F. Against Empiricism: On Education, Epistemology, and Value. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980.

Huemer, Michael. “Lexical Priority and the Problem of Risk.” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 91, no. 3 (2010): 332–351.

Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. “China: Treatment of Children of Falun Gong Practitioners; Whether Children of Falun Gong Practitioners are Subject to Sanctions, Including Reduced Access to Education and to Health Care.” Accessed November 30, 2013. http://www.refworld.org/docid/48d2237fc.html.

Kvanvig, Jonathan L., ed. Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion. Volume 3. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Lewis, C. S. The Problem of Pain. New York: Touchstone, 1996.

Lewis, David. On the Plurality of Worlds. Oxford: Blackwell, 1986.

McBrayer, Justin. “Skeptical Theism.” Philosophy Compass 5, no. 7 (2010): 611–623.

Parfit, Derek. On What Matters. Vol. 2. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Peterson, Michael L. “Lewis and the Necessity of Gratuitous Evil.” In C. S. Lewis as Philosopher: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, edited by David Baggett, Gary R. Habermas, and Jerry L. Walls, 175–192. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2008.

Phillips, D. Z. The Problem of Evil and the Problem of God. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004.

Portmore, Douglas W. “Consequentializing.” Philosophy Compass 4, no. 2 (2009): 329–347.

Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. Revised ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999. Rowe, William. “Evil and Theodicy.” Philosophical Topics 16, no. 2 (1988): 119–132.

Rowe, William. “Evil and Theodicy.” Philosophical Topics 16, no. 2 (1988): 119–132.

Rowe, William. “Skeptical Theism: A Response to Bergmann.” Noûs 35, no. 2 (2001): 297–303.

Rowe, William. “The Evidential Argument from Evil: A Second Look.” In The Evidential Argument from Evil, edited by Daniel Howard-Snyder, 262–285. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.

Seachris, Joshua and Linda Zagzebski, “Weighing Evils: the C. S. Lewis Approach.” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 62, no. 2 (2007): 81–88.

Sider, Theodore. Four-Dimensionalism: An Ontology of Persistence and Time. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Surin, Kenneth. Theology and the Problem of Evil. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986.

Taurek, John. “Should the Numbers Count?” Philosophy and Public Affairs 6, no. 4 (1977): 293–316.

Todd, Patrick. “Geachianism.” In Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion, edited by Jonathan L. Kvanvig, vol. 3, 222–251. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Trakakis, Nick. “Antitheodicy.” In The Blackwell Companion to the Problem of Evil, edited by Justin McBrayer and Daniel Howard-Snyder, 363–376. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.

Trakakis, Nick. “Theodicy: the Solution to the Problem of Evil, or Part of the Problem?” Sophia 47, no. 2 (2008): 161–191.

Van Inwagen, Peter. The Problem of Evil. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Copyright

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License