Religious Language
- Created by: _alf24
- Created on: 03-11-14 19:08
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- Religious Language
- Verificationism
- Vienna Circle
- Influenced by Wittgenstein
- Raised the question of the meaning of language.
- During the 1920's and 1930's
- People were then starting to criticize religion
- Moritz Schlick
- August Comte
- God is the 'God of the gaps'
- Science has answered questions we used to use God as an answer to
- Known as logical positivists
- Influenced by Wittgenstein
- If a statement is neither analytic nor empirically verifiable. It says nothing about reality and is therefor meaningless.
- Ayer
- Since the existence of God cannot be rationally demonstrated, it is not even probable.
- Any statement that talks about God is meaningless
- Talk of all types of religious language are meaningless
- Meaningless is when a statement is not factually significant
- Verifiability in Principle
- Should be verifiable but we lack the ability e.g. 'there is life on other planets'
- Strong and weak verification
- Doesn't work
- Directly verifiable
- When you can observe something yourself
- Indirectly verifiable
- Someone else directly witnessed and passed it on
- Swinburne
- Whilst people generally accept ravens are black, there is no way we could ever confirm this statement
- There can always be another black raven
- Hick
- Religious truth claims are verifiable because they are 'eschatologically verifiable'
- We can know when we die
- Statements regarding beauty cannot be verified as we all have different views on beuty
- Vienna Circle
- Falsificationism
- Hare
- Parable of the lunatic who believes all university dons want to kill him
- All of the evidence is against him but he still believes.
- Created the work 'blik
- The lunatic has an insane blik
- Everyone has a blik - some are sane some are insane
- Bliks are not falsifiable
- If religious beliefs are bliks they could be sane or insane
- He is a lunatic because his views differ to everyone else.
- Parable of the lunatic who believes all university dons want to kill him
- Flew
- Parable of two explorers in a jungle
- The gardener is like God - no matter what evidence is put against him Christians hold their faith.
- God died a 'death by a thousand qualifications'
- Religious people alter their beliefs to avoid criticism
- Mitchell
- The partisan and the stranger
- The partisan has faith in the stranger no matter what
- The stranger knows best
- When Christians say 'it is Gods will' they are not ignoring the bad things but they trust God
- Religious statements are significant articles of faith
- The partisan and the stranger
- Popper
- Came up with the falsification theory
- Example of astronomy against astrology
- Mystic astrologers are vague
- Gravity can be falsified
- Hare
- The Language Games
- Wittgenstein
- "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must remain sitent"
- We shouldn't talk about things we are unsure of
- Wrote at the same time as the Vienna Circle
- Language statements, including religious ones, are not intended to be true or false for everyone, but only for those who are within that form of life.
- Came up with the language games
- "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must remain sitent"
- D.Z.Philips
- Developed Wittgensteins approach
- Religious statements cannot be understood in a literal way
- Strengths
- Enables different peoples beliefs to be meaningful
- Truth is understood to be relative
- Weaknesses
- It alienates those outside of the game
- Any statement can become meaningful
- Wittgenstein
- Via Negativa
- Suggested that people can only talk about God in negative terms
- God is above and beyond our understanding
- Davies
- Saying God is not a wombat doesn't help you to describe what God is
- Pseudo - Dionysius
- If we talk about God being good, we don't really know what it means
- God cannot be described in the same way that you describe things
- Maimonides
- Supported via negitiva
- We can know God exists but not know anything about God
- You have to have a presupposed idea of God in mind
- Saying 'God is not evil' is better than saying 'God is good'
- Analogy
- Aquinas
- We should talk about God in terms of analogy
- Univocal language - when a word has the same meaning wherever it is used.
- Aquinas thought this was problematic as this limits God
- Equivocal language - when a word is used in different ways depending on the context.
- Aquinas thought this was meaningless
- Analogy of attribution
- Words may be applied to God and humans - e.g. 'just'
- Analogy of proportionality
- Words used of God are proportional to Gods extended rationality - e.g. good is better for God
- Aquinas
- Symbol
- Paul Tillich
- Religious language is symbolic, God cannot be known personally but symbols help.
- Symbols can lose their meaning if societies change
- They can be reinterpreted e.g the swastika was originally from Buddhism and Hinduism
- Paul Tillich
- Myth
- A myth is not to be taken literally
- Cosmogony - explanation of the origin of the universe
- Aetiological myths - seek to explain the origins of the universe and its components
- Sarah Tyler
- Myth is a literary form
- Bultman
- Tried to demytholise the new testament to make it relevant
- The resurrection of Jesus is a myth according to Bultman
- Verificationism
- The Language Games
- Wittgenstein
- "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must remain sitent"
- We shouldn't talk about things we are unsure of
- Wrote at the same time as the Vienna Circle
- Language statements, including religious ones, are not intended to be true or false for everyone, but only for those who are within that form of life.
- Came up with the language games
- "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must remain sitent"
- D.Z.Philips
- Developed Wittgensteins approach
- Religious statements cannot be understood in a literal way
- Strengths
- Enables different peoples beliefs to be meaningful
- Truth is understood to be relative
- Weaknesses
- It alienates those outside of the game
- Any statement can become meaningful
- Wittgenstein
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