The Pandora's box objection to skeptical theism

Skeptical theism is a leading response to the evidential argument from evil against the existence of God. Skeptical theists attempt to block the inference from the existence of inscrutable evils (evil for which we can think of no God-justifying reason) to gratuitous evils (evils for which there is n...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal for philosophy of religion
Main Author: Law, Stephen (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2015
In: International journal for philosophy of religion
Further subjects:B Miner
B Theism
B God Proof
B GOOD & evil
B OBJECTIONS (Evidence)
B Skeptical theism
B Defeat
B Skepticism
B BERGMANN'S rule
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Summary:Skeptical theism is a leading response to the evidential argument from evil against the existence of God. Skeptical theists attempt to block the inference from the existence of inscrutable evils (evil for which we can think of no God-justifying reason) to gratuitous evils (evils for which there is no God justifying reason) by insisting that given our cognitive limitations, it wouldn't be surprising if there were God-justifying reasons we can't think of. A well-known objection to skeptical theism is that it opens up a skeptical Pandora's box, generating implausibly wide-ranging forms of skepticism, including skepticism about the external world and past. This paper looks at several responses to this Pandora's box objection, including a popular response devised by Beaudoin and Bergmann. I find that all of the examined responses fail. It appears the Pandora's box objection to skeptical theism still stands.
ISSN:1572-8684
Contains:Enthalten in: International journal for philosophy of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s11153-015-9526-1