Religious Language
- Created by: Lottie
- Created on: 30-05-12 09:17
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Religious Language
Meaningless
- A. J. Ayer and others commonly know as the logical positivists made the bold claim that God talk was meaningless.
- Verification Principle (Strong)
- For any statement to be meaningful it must be verifiable by sense experience (morality, metaphysical etc. statements – meaningless)
- What about visiting mars?
- For any statement to be meaningful it must be verifiable by sense experience (morality, metaphysical etc. statements – meaningless)
- Verification Principle (Weak)
- For any statement to be meaningful it must be verifiable by senses experience or we must know how to verify the statement
- In Language, Truth and Logic Ayer said of God talk that ‘the notion of a person whose essential attributes are non-empirical is not an intelligible notion at all’
- For any statement to be meaningful it must be verifiable by senses experience or we must know how to verify the statement
Criticism
- The VP cannot be verified itself – self refuting
- LP claimed that it was just a recommendation for a use of words
- Well…we decline their recommendation!
- LP claimed that it was just a recommendation for a use of words
- Swinburne – Toys example
- Also, in principle ‘If I were god I would be able to check the truth of my own existence’
- Verify after death? Difficultly that we can have no disproof.
Falsification
- Parable of the gardener
- Two men, clearing in jungle, one of the men claims an invisible gardener maintains the clearing. All tests fail to show the…
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