Religious Language

Question 1

why is RL paradoxical in nature?

Answer 1

you are using finite words to describe infinite things

Question 2

what is RL (Peter Donavon)

Answer 2

RL is the way we use words in some kind of religious context or observance

Question 3

what is a cognitive statement?

Answer 3

factual, can be shown to be true or false objectively

Question 4

what is a non-cognitive statement?

Answer 4

can’t be tested, more to do with emotion and subjective.

Question 5

what did the logical positivists test and what was it called?

Answer 5

the verification principle tested the meaningfulness of RL (in Vienna 1920)

Question 6

who were the 3 of the logical positivists?

Answer 6

Ayer, Cornap, Schlick

Question 7

what was one test in the verification principle? (A)

Answer 7

analytical testing-if a statement can be shown to be true or false mathematically it passes the test. or if its a logically necessary statement e.g. girls like pink etc.

Question 8

what was another test in the verification principle?(E)

Answer 8

empirical testing-using your senses to test if the statement is true or false

Question 9

what is a problem for the verification principle in respect to RL?

Answer 9

RL does not pass either tests e.g. “God is all loving”. Logical positivists think that RL is meaningless.

Question 10

what were some problems with the verification principle according to Ayer? how did he solve them?

Answer 10

there are things that we know to be true that the tests say were meaningless. he produced another form of VP called verification in principle.

Question 11

what was the test in the verification in principle?

Answer 11

say how you would empirically verify a statement.

Question 12

how does eschatological verification from Hick challenge the VP?

Answer 12

e.g. the afterlife. this would be a way of testing RL because you would want to know if what you said was meaningful or not. uses the celestial city example (one traveller thinks there is a CC but another doesn’t-the belief that there is a CC is meaningful)

Question 13

what is the falsification challenge?

Answer 13

used to test RL scientifically because the VP was flawed. idea that something is only meaningful if you are prepared to consider what might count against it. when we make a cognitive statement we are saying two things e.g. I am wearing a red jumper and I am not not wearing a red jumper-considered what counts against it.

Question 14

how does Flew develop the falsification challenge?

Answer 14

applied the idea of falsification to RL. religious believers make what they say meaningless as they aren’t prepared to consider what might count against it. uses the example of the parable of the gardener

Question 15

what is the response to falsification from Basil Mitchell?

Answer 15

argues falsification doesn’t work because religion is about having faith. uses the example of a partisian (someone who favours you) and the resistance example

Question 16

what is the response to falsification from Hare?

Answer 16

we have a world view (blik) so what we say is meaningful to us. RL is meaningful to believers because of their blik.

Question 17

what is Wittgenstein’s not cognitive view on religious language (older and younger)?

Answer 17

younger-language had meaning when it related to the physical world (picture theory of language). older-language is given meaning by the context in which it is being used (language game theory)

Question 18

what are some criticisms of Wittgenstein’s language game theory?

Answer 18

Ayer-meant all language games were equally meaningful (witchcraft and religion were equal)
and that atheism and religion is equal

Question 19

what are some criticisms of Wittgenstein’s picture theory?

Answer 19

picture language suggests a realist view of language e.g. words relate to something real. God is metaphysical so if you interpret language as only being valid if related to the real world, God becomes invalid