Religious language Flashcards
Give a quote from Hume on the inherent problems of religious language.
“Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter or fact of existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.”
Give a quote on the inherent problems of religious language by Ayer.
“No statement which refers to a ‘reality’ transcending the limits of all possible sense experience can possibly have any literal significance… those who have striven to describe such a reality have all been devoted to the production of nonsense.”
Give a quote to counter Ayer’s statement on the inherent problems of religious language.
“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”” (Psalms 14:1)
Give a Bible quote supporting the infiniteness and timelessness of God.
“How great is God? - Beyond our understanding! The number of years is past finding out.” (Job 36:26)
Give a quote from Aquinas on the abstract concept of God.
“All I have written seems like straw.” (When Aquinas had a religious experience and realised the true nature of God, he stopped writing Summa Theologica, realising he would never capture the nature of God with human language).
Give a Bible quote evidencing religious pronouncements as unintelligible/ paradoxical/ contradictory.
“The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.” (John 11:25)
Give a quote from Ayer on verification.
“A proposition is said to be verifiable… in the weak sense, if it is possible for experience to render it probable.”
Give a criticism of Ayer’s verification by Hick.
“Two men are travelling together along a road. One of them believes that it leads to a celestial city, the other that it leads nowhere… Yet, when they turn the last corner, it will be apparent that one of them has been right all the time and the other wrong.” (eschatological verification)
Give a quote on falsification from Flew.
“How does what you call an invisible, intangible, eternally elusive gardener differ from an imaginary gardener or even from no gardener at all?”
Give a criticism of falsification from Basil Mitchell.
"”Well what would we have to do for you to admit that you were wrong and that he is not on our side?” But the Partisan refuses to answer. He will not consent to put the stranger to the test.” (Partisan and the stranger analogy)
Give a criticism of falsification from Hare.
“Our whole commerce with the world depends upon our blik about the world; and that differences between bliks about the world cannot be settled by observation of what happens in the world.” (Bliks not falsifiable, but still valuable).
Give a quote from Randall on the uniqueness of symbolic language.
“Religious symbols in particular can be said to ‘disclose’ or ‘reveal’ something about the world in which they function.”
Give an analogy to criticise falsification from Swinburne.
“Some of the toys which to all appearances stay in the toy cupboard while people are asleep and no one is watching, actually get up and dance in the middle of the night and then go back to the cupboard leaving no traces of their activity.”
Give a quote on analogical language from Aquinas.
“There is a certain mode of likeness of things to God. It remains, then, that names are not said of God in a purely equivocal way.”
Give a quote on analogial language from Ramsey.
“Let us always be cautious of talking about God in straighthood language. Let us never talk as if we had privileged access to the diaries of God’s private life… so that we may say quite cheerfully why God did what, when, and where.”
Give a distinction between religion and science from Randall.
“The cultural functions of religion and of science are so different that it is difficult to see how… they can seriously compete. Both functions are clearly indispensable.”
Give a quote on symbolic language from Tillich.
“MAn’s ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically, because symbolic language alone is able to express the ultimate.”
Give a quote on myths from John Hick.
“A myth is a story which is told but which is not literally true, or an idea or image which is applied to someone or something but which does not literally apply.”
Give a myth from the Bible.
“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep.” (Genesis 1:1)
Give a quote on myth from Momen.
“if one studies the common themes in the different mythologies of the world, one can find the basic rhythms by which all human beings live.”
Give Wittgenstein’s definition of language.
“The speaking of language is part of an activity, or of a form of life.”
Give a quote on language games from Wittgenstein.
“Consider… the proceedings that we call ‘games’. I mean board games, card games, Olympic games, and so on. What is common to them all?… If you look at them you will not see something that is common to all, but similarities, relationships, and a whole series of them at that.”
Give a quote on religious language from Wittgenstein.
“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must remain silent.”
