Nature of Belief

Question 1

What is Ayer Verification principle

Answer 1

A sentence is only meaning iff it was either:
1 It is a tautology – true by definition e.g. unmarried bachelor
2. It can be proved true or false in principle i.e. verifiable

Question 2

Why can’t we meaningfully speak about God

Answer 2

Because we cannot, even in principle, verify the existence of God through empirical proof

Question 3

What is his strong and weak version of his principle

Answer 3

Strong - statements are only meaningful if we can verify it by observation and establish its truth for certain
Weak – statements are meaningful if there are some observations that can establish the probable truth of a statement – science fell in this category

Question 4

Sutherland’s criticism

Answer 4

The principle renders most of what humans talk about meaningless – art, beauty, inner feelings, any subjectivity. Sutherland compares Ayer’s principle to that of George Orwell’s Newspeak from 1985: Newspeak is a language created by a totalitarian government which forces people only to speak about practical matters and restricts them from talking about anything that would promote heretical behavior

Question 5

Why is the principle itself meaningless

Answer 5

The principle is also itself meaningless by its own definition – it is not a tautology or verifiable thus it is meaningless

Question 6

What is John Hicks Eschatological verification

Answer 6

In terms of religious statements, you can never falsify them – if you died, you wouldn’t be able to exclaim there is no afterlife or God as you are dead. However, as long as we could verify religious statements, then they are meaningful i.e. if you died and there was an afterlife, then you would be able to verify these statements

Question 7

What is the parable of the celestial city

Answer 7

Two men travel down a road, one believes it leads to the celestial city, the other thinks it leads nowhere. Since there is only one road, they both must travel it, and there are lots of dangers and delights along the way – one believes this the test of pilgrimage, the other thinks it is for nothing but enjoys the delights and endures the bad, as he must travel down this road. At the end they turn a corner, and one of them will be proved right

Question 8

What does the parable of the celestial city show?

Answer 8

This parable points towards the possibility of Hicks’ eschatological verification – (eschatology concerns what happens at the end of things) – we could verify the truth of religious statements if when we died there was an afterlife, which would remove all rational doubt about the existence of God.

Question 9

What is Hick’s case for the survival of PI after death

Answer 9

1. A person X disappears in America while instantaneously someone else, who is a replica of X appears in Australia. If this happened, Hicks thinks we would consider the person in Australia to be X
2. Instead of X disappearing, he now dies while his replica appears in Australia – Hicks thinks if we accept he was the same as X in the first scenario, we must accept he is the same in the second scenario
3. Finally, imagine someone dies in America, and the replica appears in heaven – we must accept this is the same person

Question 10

Replica criticism

Answer 10

If we imagine in all these cases the original sticks with the replica, then we can see that they are distinct and not the same – therefore a replica cannot be used to show personal identity survives as it isn’t “me” which survives, but a replica

Question 11

Comprehension criticism

Answer 11

God may be beyond our comprehension, and thus because we don’t have the skills to recognize God, we are unable to verify it is God and heaven before us and therefore we may not be able to verify religious statements

Question 12

What does Exegesis mean

Answer 12

“Reading out” of the bible - the test has a meaning which we can interpret - what does the text mean

Question 13

What does Eisegesis mean

Answer 13

“Reading into” the bible - we have an agenda which we may apply to the bible to make it relevant to an particular audience - what does the text mean for me

Question 14

What can we do with exegesis and eisegesis

Answer 14

Used to accommodate the bible for a contemporary readership - makes it easier to read in modern times

Question 15

Why does interpreting the bible undermine it?

Answer 15

It weakens the authority if we can simply pick and choose which part of the bible is meaningful and relevant

Question 16

What do fundamentalists believe

Answer 16

We should take the bible at face value and except it’s truth

Question 17

What is synchronic exegesis

Answer 17

Interprets the bible in its final form (excepts the text as it is - not as it has developed)

Narrative criticism - look at the plot, characters, links and stories and the role of the narrator

Deconstructionism - focuses on what has not been said and lies beneath the surface

Question 18

What is diachronic exegesis

Answer 18

Focuses on way text had developed over time - analyses to find intentions of what final form of the bible should mean

Form criticism - looks at genre to see why and who wrote certain passages

Source criticism - looks at historical sources and draws conclusions about authors in that basis

Redaction criticism - how many different editors there was

Question 19

What does eisegesis entail

Answer 19

Process whereby reader become involved in text when the text becomes meaningful - no intrinsic authority in the bible or meaning, meaning is created by accommodating the bible to a worldview

Question 20

What is hermeneutics?

Answer 20

The art of interpretation

Question 21

What are the eisegesis reader criticisms

Answer 21

Reader response - draws attention to aspects the reader brings to the text (imagination, creativity, desire etc). One fills gaps to create meaning - Kierkegaard interpreted the texts to create meaning

Gender, race and social - construct meaning by discerning how the text affects or speaks to a specific audience - e.g. feminist critics interpreting the lack of women apostles

Question 22

Key features of fundamentalism/literalists

Answer 22

• Comes from a fear of losing authority of the bible
• extreme propositional Reading
• the bible is the true word of god
• we should therefore not try and interpret or change the bible in any way
• reject all claims which contradict the bible as anything that contradicts it contradicts God, and therefore is incorrect

Question 23

Criticisms of fundamentalism

Answer 23

• Harmonisation: so many different accounts of same events in the Scripture, which one is right, and how can there be multiple if written by God (multiple accounts of resurrection of Christ)
• Use of Old Testament: Jesus continually interprets the Old Testament