4AB: Religious Language: Issues and Verification Flashcards
According to the Logical Positivists of the Vienna Circle, what makes it possible to say that a statement is meaningful?
If it could be related to experience; had to be logical and positive
What is meant by ‘eschatological verification’?
The existence of God can be verified when you die
How does eschatological verification support the idea that religious language might be meaningful after all?
The statement can be believed to be true until it is falsified
What is the via negativa?
The only way we can talk about God is by illuminating what ‘He is not’
What does it mean to say that religious language is a ‘religious game’?
It can be seen as adapting to our worldview
How has language developed?
• Animals may not be able to form words, but they can communicate. Birds use songs and calls, and other animals use a combination of sounds and movements to communicate.
• One widely held theory is that language came about as a random evolutionary adaptation: it helped groups of people to survive in its environment
- Language helps groups work together more efficiently i.e. to hunt, to farm, to defend themselves successfully etc
- Language is therefore a very useful survival trait.
What limits our language’s ability to discuss things beyond physical experiences?
The fact it is a physical experience; our language is based upon this
Give an example of a metaphysical concept in religious language.
God, heaven, hell
Explain why describing God’s omnipotence can be challenging with human language.
Because it goes beyond everyday physical experiences
What is the main problem for religious language?
It can be seen as impossible with the limitations of human language, or meaningless because it is not grounded in what we can adequately describe
Why doesn’t all religious language face the same problems as described earlier?
- Human language is able to describe physical things we can experience. Therefore, we would be able to successfully describe places of worship, the physical actions that a religious believer might undertake during prayer, the formal clothes a religious leader wears etc
When does religious language become vague or unintelligible?
Once it goes on to describe the God or God’s that are worshipped, the concepts of heaven and hell
Provide examples of religious statements that might be confusing to non-believers.
‘Jesus is the lamb of life’ or ‘God is everywhere’.
- these statements do not occur in everyday physical experiences and thus language is ill prepared to describe them
How has humanity developed with their words?
They have become more complex due to our understanding of the world around us
What could be argued to be the sole purpose of language?
To express what is happening in the physical world around us (any language that doesn’t do this is meaningless)
