Flew's articles on Religious Language

Question 1

What is Flew’s overall claims?

Answer 1

• Religious language “died a death of a 1,000 qualifications”
• Theists keeps asserting that “God exists” and nothing remains = meaningless

Question 2

Summarise Flew’s parable. (The Gardener)

Answer 2

One believers there is a gardener while the other is a sceptic (the gardener represents God). The skeptic sets up a barbed wire fence which doesn’t go off, and the believer claims the gardener has no form

Question 3

Provide some strengths of Flew’s falsification principle.

Answer 3

• corresponds well with science (good for modern-day society)
• useful for figuring out when to listen to different religious views
• considered a perfect test for whether a person’s beliefs are about reality or not

Question 4

What is Hare’s overall claims?

Answer 4

• Everyone has a blik
• Blik = hermeneutic (the way you see the world (e.g., through phobias and religion)
• The parable he narrates presents how religious believers refuse to give up beliefs and falsify them.

Question 5

Summarise Hare’s parable. (The Lunatic and the Don)

Answer 5

The lunatic believes that all dons are murderers. After he meets the kindest don, he refuses to falsify this beliefs, still believing the don he met is a murderer

Question 6

Provide some weaknesses for Hare’s blik theory.

Answer 6

• Hare doesn’t tell us whether religion is sane or insane, controversial for religious believers
• Hick objected that it makes no sense to call a blik sane/insane. However. The claim for bliks is that nothing can count against it (seems self-contradictory)

Question 7

What is Mitchell’s overall claims?

Answer 7

• Pain and evil count against God’s omnibenevolence, but the believers acknowledge this
• Disagrees with Flew ~ R.L is falsifable but they don’t deny it (but are still committed to belief)
• We will know about the truth once we die

Question 8

Summarise Mitchell’s parable. (Paritsan)

Answer 8

The partisan has evidence to believe that the stranger will always be there to help him. Even though others tell him doing such acts and even if he sees this, he has a valid reason on why he wants to maintain his faith.

Question 9

Provide some weaknesses of Mitchell’s theory.

Answer 9

• The comparison between God and an ordinary stranger seems weak (God is omnipotent and therefore beyond human understanding)

Question 10

What are Flew’s criticisms on Hare’s theory?

Answer 10

• Hare makes a contradiction ~ bliks are subjective (disregards truth claims)
• Following bliks would cease Christian beliefs, as bliks are personal and innate
• Also means that certain practices would also be meaningless
• Means moral demands are subjective not objective

Question 11

What are Flew’s criticisms on Mitchell’s theory?

Answer 11

• Certain acknowledgement factors go against God’s love
• Mitchell has given God attributes, which rules out his three “omnis”
• Stranger and God are disanalogies (humans make mistakes whilst God is perfect)

Question 12

What does Flew conclude overall?

Answer 12

• “Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs simultaneously” [links to Problem of Evil, God loves me etc]
• Theists do double think: science + scriptures = God works in mysterious ways
• Religious Language is oxymoronical