The Biggest Reason God Appears Hidden (it might surprise you)

Sometimes it feels like God is hiding from us. What can Christians say about the so-called Problem of Divine Hiddenness?

Special thanks to Dr. Dustin Crummett for writing the philosophical portion of this script.

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#Apologetics #Hiddenness #ExistenceofGod

[ChristianityCommons]

Thanks for putting in the time and money to make this an evergreen video with quality scripting and animation!

[AbandonedVoid]

As an atheist, I would love to get to know God, but all I've found are people who claim to speak for him and ancient writings from people who claimed to speak for him. When you actually find the guy, let me know, but I have a feeling that I'm going to be waiting awhile on that one.

[JamesRichardWiley]

God knows that remaining hidden and forcing seekers to have faith that he exists is working against his stated intentions.
The excuses, tap dancing and rationalizing practiced by the faithful to avoid giving honest answers makes that very clear.

[logos]

All that for skeptical theism. Yes, I'd love to see Christians try that on Non Christians.

[photon]

While Divine Hiddenness doesn't refute God's existence, it does show that if God exists, there must be things more important to Him than propositional belief in Him. I think that has important implications for theology and religious practice, in particular for evangelism. (I feel like the video agrees implicitly to this, but doesn't really state it outright.)

[Chicken_of_Bristol]

Love the production value here. Looking forward to more videos like this.

[jonathan]

Cameron: “God does this because it’s good for you.”

Anyone not a christian: “What about when what God does is harmful?”

Cameron: “Then its your fault.”

[scottgodlewski]

Hiddenness is a huge problem. It's unreasonable to believe you can have a personal relationship with someone who never reciprocates.

[Tommy_XO]

4:19 is when a reason for expecting God to remain hidden is actually provided and it’s skeptical theism. I would strongly advise any theist against accepting skeptical theism. You‘ll be opening a skeptical Pandora’s box, see Stephen Law’s Pandora’s box objection.

[Porkflossbun]

Even as an atheist, I admire Cameron's works and am still deeply interested in theism and trying to understand the sides that thiests take.

But when I heard him say "If you want to form a healthy relationship with somebody, doing something that causes them to resent and fight you, would be counterproductive".
I wasn't paying very close attention the 1st time I heard it, but automatically I thought he was referring to God and his actions. Then I realized he was referring to non-believers...
I think the way I initially reacted to this kind of shows to me that this reason for God's Hiddeness is pretty ironic.

It's funny how it seems that God is actually comitting these mistakes such as not establishing his existence, thereby forming a trusting and loving relation with his creations. Things such as the problem of evil and unfairness in the world also contribute to the growing community of people who choose not to believe in God and maybe even perhaps, resent him. Which is counter productive in trying to get more believers and helping more attain salvation.

To me, this video seems to be targeted at people who are already of Faith and it's just trying to get them to huff a big puff of copium towards their doubts and concerns. I don't really feel very convinced after watching this as to why this wouldn't be a good argument against Christianity but maybe someone can help clarify on this.

Again, no hate to Cameron and any religions. Just felt that this video wasn't particularly compelling.

[reality]

A god who chooses to be invisible/undetectable is a god who encourages disbelief

[philosophicaljay]

I think there is one major aspect of Divine Hiddenness that gets overlooked, and is overlooked here as well.
What about people that were non-resistant non-believers that found theism, but the wrong religion?
For example, when I went from anti-theist, to apatheist, to eventually non-resistant non-belief, I found my way to polytheism and not to Christianity.
How is this accounted for? As a polytheist, it makes sense that people might find different gods as there are many, but for the monotheist, especially for the Christians that believe in salvation through faith in Jesus, how do you account for non-resistant non-believers finding the 'wrong religion'?

[noneofyourbusiness]

Our dogma makes no sense, and that shows it's true!
Yeah, no.

[eliaweberruss]

I was just reading the book of Schellenberg on the hiddenness argument and was deeply thinking about it when I got the notification of your video. Really cool animations and great summary of the main objections (I think there are even some more)! 👌🏼

[fuse]

This misrepresents the problem of divine hiddenness, though I appreciate the video. The argument is as follows:
' a loving God would ensure that there is no reasonable or inculpable nonbelief in his existence, since this belief is required for human beings to enter into a relationship with God, and since (according to theism) having such a relationship with creatures is a great good, and indeed is one of God’s most important goals. But, Schellenberg argues, since such nonbelief occurs among those capable of belief in God, theism should be rejected.'

[farrex]

Divine Hiddedness is not an argument against the exitance of God. But against the existence of the God of the bible.
Divine hiddenness wouldn't be that much of a problem if God was actually unable to show himself. But that would mean he is not all powerful.
Another huge problem is that Christians claim that God is a God that wants to have a personal relationship with EVERYONE. Yet he stays hidden, even from believers. When i was a Christian, I actively searched for him, every single day. He was the most important thing to me, yet he never showed to me. And I do not even mean, that he had to appear to me and talk in person, although that would have been cool. I just wanted to feel his presence and have a conversation, even if it was just in my head... and nothing. That was me for twenty years. If a father was like that, has all the time of the world yet decides to stay distant and hidden, to their children, he would be considered a bad parent.
But the worst part of it all, is that not believing in God is a sin big enough to warrant going to hell. If that weren't the case, then him being hidden wouldn't be that much of a problem.
But because not believing in God, somehow makes us deserve eternal suffering. Him being hidden, when he could just as easily show himself to us, means he is actively working against us. And that is not an action of an all-loving being.

[nahoalife]

This is a cool video! It still leaves some questions unanswered, but that's alright. I have to remember to be patient in my pursuit of truth.

[shinywarm]

It's quite right to say that "A good parent...wouldn't let their children think that they were gone, leave them in the dark about what they wanted, or refuse to comfort them in their pain". This is indeed one of the challenges of Divine Hiddenness. The response here that "mystics" "often report" DH deepens their faith is small comfort; not only is this an unquantified and vague claim, it hardly works for anyone who doesn't qualify as a "mystic." Worse, the argument is developed to assert that the desertion is the fault of the "child", and helps them to "appreciate their dependence" on the deserter. One is powerfully reminded of the kind of relationships in which a powerful abuser fails to offer consistent love and support, but then blames the victim for their abuse. It's not coincidental that the Catholic Church is the single largest child abuse organisation in history.

[KillmanPit]

Nice vid. Unfortunately, weirdly it doesn't address the actual argument from divine hiddennes at all.
In simplest of terms

Premise 1. All loving God wants as many people to believe in him as possible.
Premise 2. All knowing God knows sufficient evidence for non-reasisting person to believe.
Premise 3. All powerful God has the means to deliver sufficient evidence to all non resisting non-beleivers.
Premise 4 (definition): non resisting non believer would convert on receiving sufficient evidence.
Premise 5: at least one non resisting non-believer exist.
Conclusion:
Either:
God doesn't want to maximise amount of people in heaven (not all loving)
Or
God isn't aware of sufficient evidence for at least one personal conversion (not all knowing)
Or
God is unable to deliver evidence for at least one personal conversion (not all powerful)
Or
No non resistant non believers exist.

This video doesn't address validity, soundness nor any premises of the argument. (or implicitly endorses conclusion that there are no reasonable unbelievers. Which is ludicrous.)

[lilisanchez]

Great job, bravo! Keep up the good work dearest Cameron. God bless everything that has your name