Lottery puzzles and Jesus' "Return"

This paper is about a puzzle - I'll call it "the Return" - that puts considerable pressure upon Christians to accept a very robust scepticism about the future. Those familiar with work on so-called "lottery puzzles" will notice much similarity between those puzzles and the R...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Religious studies
Main Author: Smith, Donald (Author)
Format: Electronic/Print Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge Univ. Press 2009
In: Religious studies
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Parousia
RelBib Classification:AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
NBQ Eschatology
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:This paper is about a puzzle - I'll call it "the Return" - that puts considerable pressure upon Christians to accept a very robust scepticism about the future. Those familiar with work on so-called "lottery puzzles" will notice much similarity between those puzzles and the Return. However, there is an important difference that renders the Return an especially difficult problem for a Christian who believes that he has much knowledge about the future. After introducing the Return, I'll argue that it is immune to the most promising non-sceptical approaches to more familiar lottery puzzles.
ISSN:0034-4125
Contains:In: Religious studies
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S0034412508009645