The Argument from reasonable Non-Belief (ANB)

DefinitionsChristian God - Omnipotent, omniscient, omni benevolent personal creator of the universe.Reasonable non-belief - non-belief in Christianity which is largely based on sincere and rational thought, which is amenable to reason. IntroductionThe ANB, simply put, is the problem that non-belief causes for the God described, assuming of course that He values belief in the first place. Now, what I will try to show in this debate is that given Christian doctrines, and so forth, we would not expect non-belief to exist, if God wants us to be saved (1 Tim 2:4). Now, clearly one could always point to sinful pride or other kinds of dogmatic non-belief, which do exist and may be answered simply with a free-will type defence. However, the belief I want to focus on here is sincere, open-minded non-belief. The kind which is at least as honest and intellectually respectful as Christianity can be. Given that such belief does exist, it seems to me we have a problem. The argument runs like this:P1 - If the Christian God exists, we have good grounds for thinking that reasonable non-belief in Christianity does not exist.P2 - Reasonable non-belief in Christianity does existC - Therefore, we have good grounds for thinking that the Christian God does not exist. What I’ll do in the remainder of my post is to summarise why I think both premises are true, beginning with P1.Defending P1A) Knowing GodAs the first commandment states:“I am the Lord your God . . . You shall have no other Gods before me.” (Ex 20:2-3)Or as Jesus put it:“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” (Matt 22:37-38).Clearly, the personal relationship and devotional aspect to God is an important one even today. As Bill Craig point out, it is the single most reason for our existence on the Christian worldview (1), and given that some Christians do claim to have “properly basic“ knowledge of God, it seems certainly possible that all who seek shall indeed find. Also, given the traditional aspects of Christianity (prayer and communication with God, divine revelation and so forth), the importance of this point cannot be understated - God seeks a relationship with us in many different ways and for many different reasons. This part at least seems undeniable. Indeed the very foundation of the Christian faith (the resurrection) embodies this contention more than any other:“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).So why is this relevant? Well, given that God wants us to know Him, the existence of reasonable non-belief is problematic in a couple of ways. To develop a meaningful and loving relationship with Him, we have to believe that he exists in the first place. Now, anyone who has had a personal relationship before knows that a necessary condition for the relationship described above is at the very least believing that they exist. I assume this all straightforward. Further, given that reasonable non-belief BY ITS VERY NATURE conflicts with God’s desire to develop this relationship, we see that the existence of such inculpable non-belief is troubling. For these reasons, it seems that we have good grounds for thinking that if God exists, reasonable belief does not. B) The consequences of non-beliefIn this section, I will attempt to argue both that the Christian concept of Hell gives us reason to doubt that reasonable non-belief would exist, given the Christian God, by arguing firstly that the most popular take on Hell is correct; and secondly that Con’s position is equally problematic.B1 HellThe traditional concept of Hell, described by Christian philosopher Thomas Talbot as a “torture chamber”, has extensive biblical support, with the Gospel of Matthew alone having around 20 or so references to it (2). Passages from John 3:18, Mark 16:16 and so on reveal that the construct of Hell is both frequently and explicitly mentioned in the NT. As Christian philosopher Jerry Walls explains:“Since the doctrine is routed in the teachings of Jesus Christ Himself, it cannot easily be eliminated from Christian belief without undermining the very foundations of Christianity.” (3)Now given this, obviously, reasonable non-belief creates a serious problem for an all-loving God who wishes all to be saved (1 Tim 2:4), because such a state of affairs both increases the likelihood of damnation (assuming we are rational to a degree), as well as eliminating culpability for action, as these people will be acting on what they justifiably believe to be true. Such a predicament impresses upon us that given the realisation of Hell, we have grounds to expect that reasonable non-belief does not exist, given the nature of God.B2 No HeavenEven if Con is successful with the predicament above, what makes us think that annihilationism is any better. Instead of the eternal torture chamber, we have the destruction of souls, again (at least in part) by reasonable non-belief. Providing that Heaven is an “unspeakable joy”, and that God wants everyone to be saved, we still have a massive problem here. As such, given the will of God explicitly expressed in the Bible and implicitly demanded by His own nature, we have good grounds for affirming P1. Defending P2Knowing my opponent I doubt he will contest P2, but I feel I owe it to the readers to give a brief defence of P2, as this is a crucial part of the ANB. In order to deny P2, the Christian has to hold that the truth of Christianity is so beyond question that all forms of non-belief (atheism, agnosticism, or different religions) are necessarily and transparently unreasonable. Obviously this is not the case. There are great philosophers, scientists and so on who doubt Christianity, and are sufficiently warranted in their non-belief in Christianity. Notice this argument does not assume which is more rational, merely that non-belief can be rational.Another point here is religious diversity. Members of other religions (such as Islam) show a willingness to serve a God, and do so usually on the same kind of basis that the Christian does - be it through faith, reason or what they believe as personal experience of God. Obviously, the denial of such “properly basic” experiences would seem either self-defeating (as Christians usually base their own faith on this factor, among others) or incredibly selective, if one wants to deny that other religious adherents really do have such experiences. The last point I want to mention here is ignorance. The most obvious kind is where an individual has never heard the Christian message, and I think we would all agree both that this exists and that one is reasonable to not believe in this case. But what of the unbeliever who has no connection with God, in terms of personal experience, even after seeking such a relationship. I myself I’m one such case and there are many others.We can see that the case for non-belief here (though brief) is particularly strong, given that much of what constitutes reasonable non-belief in Christianity also allows Christians to reasonably reject alternatives to their own position, thus, as Schellenberg concludes:" Given these different forms of support, it would take something like wilful blindness to fail to affirm that not all nonbelief is the product of wilful blindness (even if some of it is)."(4)ConclusionGiven the support for P1 and P2, the fact is that we do seem to have strong reasons to believe that non-belief of the relevant kind is a problem for Christianity. Now, there are a couple of ways Con can tackle the problem, but, as far as I can see, there seems to be problems whichever way one turns. Sources1. God? Debate between a Christian and an atheist. P1202. Contemporary debates in philosophy of religion. P2883. ibid, P2694.http://en.wikipedia.org...