The Argument from reasonable Non-Belief (ANB)

IntroductionMy thanks to Con for what was an excellent response to the argument presented. I will try to tackle the 2 points raised by Con together (as many criticisms apply to both points simultaneously) and to try to show that neither one of these points is successful against the ANB and as Con never attacked any explicit support for P1 and P2, all that is required for me to do here is to combat these 2 points in this round.Now, Con’s position is to question whether de dicto belief is a necessary condition for a relationship with God, and also to maintain than even a certain level of non-belief is either compatible with (or at least not incompatible with) a relationship with God. This counter to the ANB usually leads to a defence of epistemic distance through a kind of greater goods response, not unlike the gratuitous evils in the PoE, but as yet Con has not really offered an account of this as such. What I can do however is to proceed to counter what Con has put forth and give several reasons why his response doesn’t seem plausible.RelationshipCon argues that the assumption of the ANB that de dicto non-belief and low degrees of belief are not necessarily incompatible with a relationship with God. He uses the examples of the prisoner and a masked man type scenario to try and demonstrate that this is the case. But the problems with this response are plentiful, and even best demonstrated by Con’s own example. In the case of the prisoner, he hears the tapping, and Con concludes that there is “some SORT of personal relationship.” What we can say about such a relationship is that it most certainly isn’t a personal one, nor is it optimal or fulfilling. There is no epistemic certainty that this is a relationship between persons, no ability to interact, no ability to discern particular properties of the tapping ,etc. Now, Con might be able to justify that this may be a significant relationship (in the context of the prisoner), but is this really the kind of relationship that involves love, trust, worship, etc. Hardly the relationship the bible, or most Christians for that matter have in mind, but more crucially, not the kind of relationship the ANB argues for. Now given the points I made about the first commandment and so forth, we are compelled to seemingly affirm that while low degrees of belief and belief de re may be compatible “with some sort” of relationship, it is abundantly clear that this is such a relationship described by Con is misleading as it is obviously not the kind of personal relationship an all loving father has with His children, and this it is argued, is what’s affected absent high degrees of belief and de dicto belief in Him.Some benefits to de dicto belief in GodAn addendum to this point is the benefits to be had with a relationship with God. Now, not only is such a relationship necessarily beneficial in its own terms, but surely knowledge of the Good and so forth help in other ways. As Trakakis explains:"Other things being equal, someone who is consciously aware of the existence and presence of God has greater opportunities for developing morally and (especially) spiritually than someone who has no such conscious awareness . . . here are two such benefits: (i) acquiring true beliefs regarding the nature of ultimate reality, and (ii) acquiring a conscious awareness of the unconditional love of God, which awareness provides one with a deep sense of happiness, security, and peace of mind, because this (and only this) awareness affords one with the knowledge that the world is under the providential control of a perfectly loving being." (1)As well as the benefits to belief in the Christian God, we also have the problems which are caused by de dicto (and possibly de re) non-belief. Things like nihilism, Social Darwinism, religious wars and so forth curtail any development expressed above through a de dicto denial of the Good, and thus we have a problem of evil of the back of a problem of non-belief. Now, there may be a greater goods response forthcoming from Con, but absent this, and all other things being equal, his distinction of belief cuts no ice, due to the absence of de dicto belief preventing goods or causing ills, and even arguably destroying de re beliefs about the Good and so forth. Again, absent a huge burden from Con, it seems reasonable to conclude, given all various problems associated with an absence of de dicto belief here, that non-belief is inharmonious with both a personal relationship with God and an acknowledgement of the Good.RationalityThe point I want to make here is that Christians like Plantinga believe we have a guarantor of our cognitive faculties as they are given by God. Now, if de dicto beliefs are not necessary to have a relationship with God, they most certainly are for rationality, and if we hold that epistemic distance is either allowed or actually sought for some greater good, which is what Con’s response implies, then our grounding for rationality has gone, as it may be possible (and indeed some situations would necessitate) false de dicto beliefs, and thus goes our confidence in cognitive faculties. The idea that God would implant or tacitly allow false beliefs for some higher good is prima facie implausible, given His attributes, and as we have no justification for this, and plenty of reason to doubt it. Thus, de dicto non-belief on its own presents various problems, and again, absent a defeater gives us grounds to reject Con's response.More criticismsNow, even these criticisms such as they are accept Con’s assumption that non-belief is not incompatible with a relationship with God, given de re beliefs, but surely this is contentious? Con’s own position not only necessarily assumes the truth of Christianity, but also requires that all non-belief (whatever its degree) is necessarily rescued by belief in God de re, but it seems to me that this claim, if not just patently false, is at the very least unjustified, and if this is the case, then this alone shows that it does nothing to account for non-belief and the consequences therein.With regards to Acts, I would submit that it is at least inconsistent with various other messages in the bible (the first commandment, beatitudes and so on). But it seems to me that even the very next verse shows that such ignorance was regarded as (at the very most) temporary, and in the context of the passage, such belief was de re, but seen as necessary to be de dicto now that God had commanded an end to ignorance in Him:Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:29-32)So, it seems that while there may be biblical support for Con’s position, the passage given would suggest (agreeing with many others besides) that de dicto non-belief exists, and that it is malevolent with respect to knowing God. Heaven and HellHere Con relies on his epistemological objections, but even if these were firm objections, it is unclear that de re belief in God is sufficient, with John 14:6 and Mark 16:16 being pretty clear that de dicto belief was required for salvation. As Con has completely neglected the consequences of belief section of my justification for P1, his epistemic objection to P1 is at best successful only for justification A, and is completely irrelevant to points B1 and B2.ConclusionWith all of the points raised by Con extensively addressed, and the support for P1 and P2 given in R1, we must affirm that given the existence of non-belief, we have grounds for supposing God does not exist.Sources(1)http://prosblogion.ektopos.com...