1.2 Examine Hick’s argument that religious language is meaningful because it will be verified eschatologically. Flashcards
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1.2 Examine Hick’s argument that religious language is meaningful because it will be verified eschatologically.
The verification principle holds that religious language is meaningless, because statements such as, ‘God exists’, or ‘God has a plan for humans’, cannot be verified either in practice or in principle. There are no facts in this world that could verify or falsify them. Hick’s response is that the Christian concept of God is verifiable eschatologically. Eschatology is the doctrine of the Last Judgement, so Hick is claiming that the beliefs of the Christian religion will be verified or falsified after death. Hick holds that the meaning of life’s journey will be revealed at the end of life, both to believers and non-believers. For example, he uses the parable of the Celestial City to explain his argument. Two men are travelling along a road. One of them believes that it leads to a celestial city, so every part of the journey, pleasant or unpleasant, has meaning and purpose. The other believes that the journey is an aimless ramble. Nevertheless, at the last bend in the road it will be seen that all along, one of them was right and the other wrong. The meaning of life’s journey will be revealed, so the religious language of belief in God and the afterlife will be verified eschatologically. Hick’s argument is not accepted by all believers because normal factual claims are verified or falsified by the sense experiences of living people. If Hick’s claims about resurrection of the body are true, then they will of course be verified when the individual wakes up in a resurrection world; but if they are false they can never be falsified, because the individual will never wake up from death to know that they are false.
