144 ARGUMENTS: MONOTHEISTIC CONCEPTIONSrequires that makes it crucial for the critic to show that there are pointless
evils. If (P) is false, the monotheist can simply say: maybe there are
pointless evils – so what?
It is worth emphasizing that there are not two kinds of point, actual (or
metaphysical) and epistemological (having to do with imaginability); there
are simply actual points on the one hand, and our views about actual points
on the other.
It also deserves emphasis that appeal to:
(R*) If a case in which one wishes to apply reasoning of the sort 1–3
exhibits – Common Reasoning – is one dealing with natural objects,
artifacts, or other human persons, then applying it is reasonably
believed to be reliable; if a case in which one wishes to apply
reasoning of the sort 1–3 exhibits – Common Reasoning – is one
dealing with a person whose cognitive capacities, moral goodness, and
causal powers vastly exceed ours, it is reasonable to think that such
reasoning is as likely to be unreliable as it is to be reliable.
over
(R) (For Roweanism) If a case in which one wishes to apply reasoning of
the sort 1–3 exhibits – Common Reasoning – is one dealing with
natural objects, artifacts, the means and ends of human persons, or the
means and ends of a person whose cognitive capacities, moral
goodness, and causal powers vastly exceed ours, then the results of
applying it is reasonably believed to be reliable.
is not inconsistent with other claims we will make later. To prefer (R*) to
(R) involves rejecting the principle of Common Reasoning as applied to
God and evil. This is not inconsistent with offering arguments for the
existence of God. It is not incompatible with claiming that religious
experience is evidence for God’s existence. It is easier to detect the
existence of a human person, and to discover that she is self-conscious and
possesses intelligence, than it is to discern her intentions, motives, and
purposes. It is not inconsistent to hold that there is argument or evidence
to the effect that God exists but that tracking God’s reasons for allowing
what God allows is often beyond us.