Divine Hiddenness
I just finished a relatively short position paper for my Philosophy of Religion course. It is a Christian response to an argument which seeks to justify Atheism based upon divine hiddenness. You can read it if you would like. To provide the background for the paper, you may want to browse through the presentation Blake Wilbanks and I presented based upon the article and another response or you can purchase the book and read the article. Then you can read my position paper, Divine Hiddenness: A Christian Response to Schellenberg.
Labels: Christian Theology, Papers, School, Theology, Things that will put you to sleep late at night
posted by Jon @ 11:13 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Jonathan,
I enjoyed reading your paper. I like your argumentative approach and I agree with your first response to Shellenberg’s argument. I especially liked your response- about comparing a mother's love for her child to God's love for his creation. In our Hadith, the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him (PBUH)), he actually states that “God is more loving and caring than a mother to her dear child.” So comparing these two will not provide the answer. Is it even feasible to compare the two to each other?
And with your responses about us having free will, about understanding God, and about patience with God, I could not agree more. Not only are we given the free will to choose our paths, there is a very important peace of information that warrants acknowledgement. The fact that we are humans created by God, the almighty, means that we have the attributes of a creation and that we are limited, weak and needy. How can we comprehend everything that happens around us? We can try, but no matter how far we want to reach, we are still limited and we certainly cannot get anywhere without our creator’s permission. Maybe Our Creator has a larger plan for us, that is too complex and far from our simple reasoning and imagination to even began to comprehend or question. Allah the exalted says, “O mankind! It is you who stand in need of Allah. But Allah is rich, worthy of praise.” (Qur’an, 22:15). This is why at times of hardship and trial, Muslims are reminded through dozens upon dozens of verses to be patient and trust in God, even though it is very hard at times. “Seek Allah’s help with patient perseverance and prayer. It is indeed hard except for those who are humble.” (Qur’an, 2:45). Then God goes on saying, “Be sure we shall test you with something of fear and hunger, some loss in goods, lives, and the fruits of your toil. But give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere. Those who say when afflicted with calamity, ‘To Allah we belong, and to Him is our return,’ they are those on whom descend blessings from their lord, and mercy. They are the ones who receive guidance.” (Qur’an, 2:155-157)
I am sorry; I am going on and on and I feel like I am preaching, which is not my intension here. I love discussing these types of issues. I wish I can talk to you more and learn new things from you, because God has instructed us to do so: “O mankind! We created you from a single soul, male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, so that you may come to know one another. Truly, the most honored of you in Gods sight is the greatest of you in piety. God is All-Knowing, All-Aware.” (Qur’an, 49:13)-One of my favorite passages.
Here I go again, I can’t seem to stop writing, anyways, May God reward you for all the good work you do in His sake.
Your sister in Faith,
Fatima
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