Apologetics · FaithLogic
Why Doesn’t God Make Himself Obvious? — The Hiddenness Argument
If God wants a relationship with people, why isn't his existence just obvious? Why is there room to doubt at all? This is the argument from divine hiddenness — the newest serious argument against God, developed by the philosopher J. L. Schellenberg. It overlaps with the problem of evil but is distinct: the complaint is not about suffering, it is about silence.
The Argument
Schellenberg’s argument (Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason, 1993)
1. If a perfectly loving God exists, he would always be open to a personal relationship with any person who is capable of it and not resisting it.
2. A personal relationship requires that the person at least believes the other exists.
3. So if a perfectly loving God exists, no person who is capable of relationship and not resisting it would fail to believe he exists.
4. But there are such people — "nonresistant nonbelievers," who are open to God and sincerely searching, and still do not believe.
5. Therefore no perfectly loving God exists.
The force of it is in premise 4: many honest people say they have looked and found nothing, and it is unfair — and cheap — to tell them they must secretly be resisting.
2. A personal relationship requires that the person at least believes the other exists.
3. So if a perfectly loving God exists, no person who is capable of relationship and not resisting it would fail to believe he exists.
4. But there are such people — "nonresistant nonbelievers," who are open to God and sincerely searching, and still do not believe.
5. Therefore no perfectly loving God exists.
The force of it is in premise 4: many honest people say they have looked and found nothing, and it is unfair — and cheap — to tell them they must secretly be resisting.
Responses
1. Overwhelming evidence would swamp a free response (epistemic distance)
John Hick argued that if God's presence were as unmistakable as the sun, genuine trust, love, and moral growth would be crowded out — you cannot freely come to love someone whose overwhelming presence leaves you no room to do anything else. A degree of "epistemic distance" — enough ambiguity that seeking God is a real choice — may be the precondition of the very relationship the argument says God wants. Blaise Pascal: "There is enough light for those who desire only to see, and enough darkness for those of a contrary disposition."
2. God may want more than assent — "belief that" vs "belief in"
Premise 2 assumes relationship needs propositional belief and little else. Paul Moser (The Elusive God, 2008) argues that the knowledge of God at issue is "volitional" — it engages the will and moral orientation, not just the intellect — and that God would reasonably make himself available in a way that a person can only receive if they are willing to be changed by it. On this view a certain hiddenness to the merely curious, which yields to the person actually willing to seek and submit, is exactly what a relational God would do: "you will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13).
3. Hiddenness is a biblical theme, not an embarrassment
Scripture does not present God as obvious. "Truly you are a God who hides himself" (Isaiah 45:15). The Psalms are full of "how long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?" (Psalm 13:1). God's presence is usually mediated — through a burning bush, a still small voice, a man on a road — not blazing. The Bible treats the experience of God's apparent absence as normal to faith, gives it its own genre (lament), and does not resolve it with a proof. A tradition that already contains the complaint is not refuted by it.
4. The story is not finished
The argument treats a person's current nonbelief as final. But a great many believers — including some who have written about it — describe long stretches of honest searching and silence followed by finding. If God exists and is patient, a period of hiddenness in a life is not the same as permanent abandonment, and the outcome cannot be assessed from the middle.
The Honest Position
What the argument gets right
Schellenberg is a serious philosopher and this is a serious argument — the responses above mitigate it, they do not dissolve it. It has the most force for the person who has genuinely, humbly sought and met only silence, and for that person it is not really a debate to be won but an experience to be honoured. What can be said is that a relational God might have reasons for not overwhelming, that Christianity has always expected seasons of God's felt absence, and that "I have not found him yet" is, on the Bible's own terms, a normal place to be standing — not proof that there is no one there.
💡 Divine Hiddenness — Reasonable Summary"Schellenberg argues that a perfectly loving God would ensure that everyone open to him believes he exists; some sincere seekers don't; so no such God exists. The responses: overwhelming, sun-bright evidence would crowd out the free trust and love that a relationship actually needs (Hick's epistemic distance; Pascal's 'enough light for those who desire to see'); the knowledge of God in question is volitional, engaging the will, and reasonably yields to the person willing to be changed rather than merely curious (Moser; 'seek me with all your heart'); and hiddenness is a biblical theme, not a bug — 'truly you are a God who hides himself' (Isaiah 45:15), the whole genre of lament, God's presence nearly always mediated rather than blazing. The argument has real force for the person who has honestly sought and found silence, and for them it deserves to be honoured rather than argued down. But on Christianity's own terms, 'I haven't found him yet' is a normal place to stand, not a disproof."
Related Sections
• Does God Exist? — The Case for a Creator.
• The Problem of Evil — the closely related argument about suffering rather than silence.
• Faith vs Evidence — what "faith" means when the evidence is not overwhelming.
• The Problem of Evil — the closely related argument about suffering rather than silence.
• Faith vs Evidence — what "faith" means when the evidence is not overwhelming.
This is part of the FaithLogic study library — the biblical, historical and manuscript case that Jesus is God, with every claim linked to its source. Open the interactive version for search, cross-references, read-aloud, and the full library.