RT Article
T1 Compassionate Deism and the Grammar of Permission
JF Religions
VO 12
IS 3
A1 Hall, Ronald
LA English
PB MDPI
YR 2021
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1753206359
AB Both theism and atheism assume that God permits evil. But neither theism nor atheism make this assumption with due attention to what I call, following Wittgenstein, the grammar of the term ‘permission’. When this grammar is examined, it becomes clear that this assumption cannot avoid the atheistic force of the argument from evil. To rescue belief in God, I propose the adoption of a position I call compassionate deism. This position is a combination of Christian theism and traditional deism. The combination is produced by making a slight deistic modification of Christian theism in the direction of non-intervention, and a slight modification of deism in the direction of compassion. Such a compassionate deism denies the common assumption made by both Christian theism and atheism, namely, that God permits evil, and thus avoids the theistic denial of the reality of evil and the atheist’s denial of God’s goodness.
K1 Wittgenstein
K1 Compassion
K1 Deism
K1 Grammar
K1 Intervention
K1 permission
DO 10.3390/rel12030200