Love: An Evidential Argument for Theism

In this paper, I argue that love is best explained by the hypothesis of theism (HT)—i.e., there is a God who is all-loving, all-powerful, and all-knowing. To this end, I present four observations relating to love, namely: (O1) We live in a world with beings who have a conceptual understanding of love; (O2) we live in a world with beings who have an affective experience of love; (O3) we live in a world with beings who can respond to love; and (O4) we live in a world in which love has immense transformative potential. Given these observations, I evaluate HT against an alternative hypothesis, the hypothesis of naturalism (HN)–i.e., there is no God; there are only natural causes, beings, and forces, all of which are located within the natural world. I draw on the tradition of Islamic theism and argue that the probability of the four observations is greater on the assumption that HT is true than on the assumption that HN is true. Accordingly, this gives us reason to prefer HT as a better explanation of love. This argument is open to several philosophical and theological challenges. I outline three of these challenges and respond to them by drawing on the resources available within the tradition of Islamic theism. I also consider whether this argument lends weight to Islamic theism.