4. Religious Language: Falsification Principle
- Created by: Alasdair
- Created on: 17-06-17 11:23
View mindmap
- 4. Religious Language: Falsification Principle
- A principle for assessing whether statements are genuine scientific assertions by considering whether any evidence would disprove them
- Karl Popper
- Conjectures and Refutations - 1963
- Differentiate between genuine science and pseudoscience
- Any theory that is impossible to disprove is an invalid theory
- e.g. Freud's psychoanalysis (theory by which empirical data was interpreted, not tested against)
- Einsten's theory of relativity is genuine science in Popper's view
- Anthony Flew
- Religious statements cannot be falsified
- Therefore religious language is meaningless
- A believer gives reasons why God remains good
- So religious statements "die the death of a thousand qualifications"
- Parable of the Gardener
- A theist will allow nothing to count against his belief, instead interpreting observations in terms of belief
- Religious statements cannot be falsified
- Criticisms
- Basil Mitchell
- Religious statements are meaningful even if they aren't straightforwardly verifiable or falsifiable
- Believers have a prior commitment to trust in God based on faith
- Parable of the Partisan and the Stranger
- Trials of faith do occur but a believer's prior commitment means that nothing counts decisively against belief
- Partisan does not deny evidence against his belief, he must accept the reality of this evidence, if not he is "guilty of a failure of faith as well as knowledge"
- R. M. Hare
- Falsification can be used to verify cognitive statements, but not non-cognitive statements, which are religious statements
- Religious statements can't make factual claims but that doesn't mean that they are meaningless
- Religious beliefs are bliks
- Thoughts that significantly alter life and are falsifiable
- Parable of the Paranoid Student
- Bliks affect the way a person perceives the world
- The paranoid student has a 'wrong' blik, whereas the normal student has a 'right' blik
- Braithwaite
- Religious language is meaningful because it is prescriptive
- Recommends a course of action
- So, for example, phrase 'God loves me' has meaning because it advises you to live your life in a loving way
- It is not necessary for the believers t have a truth to follow religious statements
- Basil Mitchell
Comments
No comments have yet been made