Editing Argument from nonbelief (section)

=== Nonresistant nonbelief, lack of evidence, and sin ===

When asked what he would say when facing God on judgment day, [[Bertrand Russell]] famously replied that he would say "Not enough evidence, God! Not enough evidence!" Some nonbelievers may have hidden from themselves what seems to them to be possible evidence of the divine, but the view of the hiddenness argument is that others have tried hard to believe in God. Schellenberg addresses this difference with his distinction between culpable and ''inculpable'' nonbelief, with the latter defined as "non-belief that exists through no fault of the non-believer."<ref name="jl2005a" />

Historically, the [[Calvinist]] tradition has placed the blame on nonbelievers, who are [[predestination|predestined]] by God towards nonbelief. Calvin's religious [[epistemology]] is based on the ''[[sensus divinitatis]]'' (Sense of Divinity), the view that the presence of God is universally perceived by all humans. [[Paul Helm]] explains, "Calvin’s use of the term 'sense' signals that the knowledge of God is a common human endowment; mankind is created not only as capable of knowing God, but as actually knowing him."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Helm |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Helm|year=1998 |title=John Calvin, the ''Sensus Divinitatis'', and the noetic effects of sin |journal=International Journal for Philosophy of Religion |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=87–107 |doi=10.1023/A:1003174629151|s2cid=169082078 }}</ref> According to this tradition, there is no inculpable or nonresistant nonbelief. [[Jonathan Edwards (theologian)|Jonathan Edwards]], the 18th century American theologian, claimed that while every human being has been granted the capacity to know God, successful use of these capacities requires an attitude of "true benevolence", a divinely gifted willingness to be open to the truth about God. Thus, the failure of non-believers to see "divine things" is in his view due to "a dreadful stupidity of mind, occasioning a sottish insensibility of their truth and importance."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Edwards |first=Jonathan |year=1970 |title=Original Sin |author-link=Jonathan Edwards (theologian) |editor=Clyde A. Holbrook |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0-300-01198-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/originalsin0003edwa }} As quoted and represented in Howard-Snyder (2006).</ref>