J. L. Schellenberg est un philosophe canadien dont le développement précoce d'un argument tiré de la dissimulation divine en faveur de l'athéisme a été influent. Dans ses travaux ultérieurs, il a développé une forme de religion appelée ‘religion sceptique’, qu'il considère comme compatible avec l'athéisme. Ses écrits explorent les questions profondes de la croyance, du doute et de la nature du divin.
In this book, J. L. Schellenberg argues that humanity has developed spiritually and morally in a way that would have been reflected in Christian doctrine if that doctrine had been inspired by a good and all-knowing God, and that Christian doctrine cannot therefore be related to such a God in the way that it purports to be.
Schellenberg's argument is unique in bringing developmental ideas into contact with human religion, which is often treated as exempt from their influence; also radical is the suggestion that much of religion's development has yet to occur and that religion can and should become a human project as monumental as science.