Religious Language Flashcards
What is religious language
“religious language” refers to statements or claims made about God… This difficulty challenges us to articulate the degree that attributes used for finite beings can be used for God and what these attributes mean when they describe God.
Name three examples showing religious language to be unrelatebale to most
Have you been washed in blood
Purifying an individual soul
Eating the bread and wine body and blood of Jesus
Name the perspective that reads religious language as littoral and objective
Fundamentalist argue a literal understanding of language interpreting it in a symbolic way
Why is the quote from Genesis got is walking in the garden and Adam asks where he is problematic for a literal view of RL
God is believed to be omniscient so why would Adam ask where he is meaning we don’t know which parts of religious language are symbolic and what is literal
Why can religious language be believed to be exclusive
It only makes sense and has value if you belong to that religion for example Jesus been the saviour of the world relies on understanding of sin The Fall and the Trinity religious language is specific to the individual or community
You cannot use words to describe God as he is totally ineffable instead we can say what God is not e.g. not limited not mortal what is this known as
Via negativa
What is the definition of univocal language
Literal and has one meaning
What is the definition of Equivocal language
Open to interpretation and can have many meanings
What is the definition of cognitive language
Deals with fax things that can be true or false for example God loves us they seem to be making a factual claim and is therefore cognitive
What is the definition of Noncognitive language
Deals with feelings and opinions it cannot be said to be true or false tends to be subjective and serves a function rather than expressing true claims
What is an example of noncognitive language in the Bible
The cross serves as a symbol of Christian faith but actually expresses the full reality of Jesus‘s death
What do logical positivists believe
Claim that any metaphysical language is essentially meaningless as it does not relate to anything we can physically empirically experience
What is ayers view on religious language
For statements to be meaningful they must be verifiable
What does Ayer claim an analytic statement is
They are true by definition and do not require empirical evidence to support them for example the bachelor is unmarried
What does ayer claim a synthetic statement is
This can be verified shown to be true through empirical evidence for example it is raining outside
What are the criticisms of ayers verification principle
The verification principle itself does not meet its own criteria
Strong scientific fax would not be accepted in strong verification
Universal statements cannot be verified all humans are mortal you would have to kill everyone to find out
Historical statements cannot be properly verified such as the Battle of Hastings in 1066
Who is the scholar who claims universal statements cannot be verified so would be meaningless and uses the example of killing humans to find out if they are mortal
Swinburne
Which scholar says ayers principal itself cannot be verified
Brian Davies
What is John Hicks concept of eschatological verification
Claims the week verification principle may not make religious statements meaningless due to this verification religious statements could in theory be verified when we die
Which parable does hick use in his eschatological verification
Parable of the celestial city
What is the parable of the celestial city
Two men are walking one believes at the end of their journey there will be a celestial city and the other beliefs that will not their beliefs will be verified as true or false when they reach the end of their journey
What is the summary of Hicks eschatological verification argument
Take demonstrates that whilst the knowledge of the existence of God may not be immediately verifiable there is a possibility it can be verified in the future when we die based at four meets the criteria of the week verification principle
What is poppers view on religious language
A statement is only meaningful if there was some method which it could be theoretically proved wrong falsified
Which example does popper use in his view on religious language
Barack Obama was the first black US president there is a method to falsify this we could check American historical records if you did that she would see the statement is true but now it is meaningful because it was open to the possibility of being falsified
How does Anthony flu apply poppers view of religious language to his theory of falsification
Plus claim statements like God exists it’s not open to the possibility of fortification for the believer because no amount of evidence would convince to believe that God does not exist
Which parable does flew use in his theory of falsification
Parable of the Gardener 
Explain flews parable of the Gardener
To explorers are in a garden one claims there must be a gardener the other denies it they wait no garden it appears so one claims there is a gardener who is invisible and undetectable flue therefore argues in the same way if I believe this statement about God can be made to fit into any circumstances it is not meaningful and has no empirical implications
Why did flew say religious believers weee moving to the goalposts
Because one might start by saying God loves all humans but if one were to witness a child dying of cancer one would be right to use that as evidence to falsify the claim that God loves all humans yet religious believers would then claim God loves all humans in an inch destructible way a different way to the way we love flu this has no meaning because it does not allow anything to falsify it
