Arguments that can be used in any Philosophy of Religion essay!

Issues:

·         Is the topic meaningful?

·         Can we discuss metaphysical concepts?

·         Does it hold any truth?

·         Can it be verified/falsified?

·         Is faith based on something more than empirical evidence?

Arguments:

·         Verification Principle – A.J. Ayer argues that a statement is only “factually significant” if empirical evidence can go some way, if not all the way, to verifying it.

o   i.e. statements regarding God, a metaphysical being, cannot be empirically verified so are not “factually significant”. That is not to say that they don’t have meaning for the person saying it, it’s just they don’t hold a universal fact.

·         Falsification Principle – Anthony Flew argues that for a statement to have meaning you have to be able to falsify it; that is you can state the circumstances that would lead this statement to be untrue.

Flew recognises that…