Criticisms of analogical religious language Flashcards
What do Aquinas and Ramsey both pre-suppose?
Both presuppose that God exists. However, Aquinas does attempt to address this issue with his ‘five ways’ work.
How are analogical theories on religious language non-cognitive?
Because there is no empirical proof God exists, any theory that presupposes God exists must also have no empirical evidence to support it.
What is David Hume’s criticism?
Human based analogies cannot demonstrate anything about non-human attributes.
An example of Hume’s criticism
If God is all-loving, how can any similarities be drawn between God’s infinite love and human’s finite love.
What is the ‘problem of evil’ challenge?
If God is the cause of human attributes, logically he must also be the cause of things such as moral evil.
The problem of using equivocal language
Isn’t this the root of the problem of religious language?
How do Ramsey’s use of qualifiers add to the challenge?
They serve to underline the fact that we do not fully understand what we mean when referring to God.
