Religious Language Flashcards
What is the Via Negativa?
Only can say what god isnt
What kind of language does Aquinas reject?
UNIVOCAL LANGUAGE - language which we use to describe normal things like LOVE
Cannot be applied in the same sense to God
EQUIVOCAL LANGUAGE - words which have two completely different meanings.
Why did Aquinas reject univocal and equivocal language?
This language means there is no connection between the way language is used in the world and language about God. Makes the language meaningless.
According to Aquinas what is the link between God and the universe?
God created the universe
What did Maimonides think about religious language?
We cannot speak about God, best to stay silent.
What did Aquinas say about fulfillling nature?
We all have the potential to fulfill our nature, we can fulfill the nature of what we are,
I.E - good mouse = 100% of what it is to fulfill the nature of a mouse.
According to Aquinas, why is God perfect?
God is 100% whatever it is to be God
He perfectly fills his nature
God could be nothing else than what God is
What did Paul Handley say about linguistic definitions and God
‘God is not a lump of matter which will conform to our linguistic definitions.’
What did Aquinas and Maimonides agree on?
Can speak of what God is not
God exists & God explains the universe
God is wholly simple, timeless and spaceless
What did Aquinas and Maimonides disagree on?
We can talk about God
What is a myth?
a story which expresses spiritual truth
What did Bultman say about myths?
We need to get rid of them, thinks they are outdated stories written in completely different world view.
What is cognitive language?
Language that conveys information
What is non cognitive language?
Language which conveys emotion, gives an order
What is the verification principle?
For a statement to be meaningful, it has to be able to be verified by sense experience.
What the issue with verification principle?
Not everything can be checked against sense experience, eg metals expanding when heated.
What type of verification principle is generally rejected
Strong verification principle
What did AJ Ayer argue for?
The weak verification principle
For a statement to be meaningful it is sufficient just to be able to know what sense experience would make the statement probable.
Verified in principle
Criticisms to the verification principle -
Cannot be verified
Keith Ward - it excludes nothing, everything can be verified in principle.
Who came up with the falsification principle
Anthony Flew
What is the falsification principle
A statement is meaningful if no statement can ever count against it - if nothing could prove it false.
Meaningful if some state or event could be specified which if it occurred, would falsify the statement.
Criticisms of the falsification principle?
Swinburne thought statements can have meaning and not be falsified.
According to Wittingstein, what defines the meaning on a word?
Its use and context
What is Hicks Eschatological Verification
proving something to be true after death - life after death / god
What did Maimonides think about God? (3)
- God is outside time and space
- God is one
- God is wholly simple
Whats good about the via negativa
it avoids trying to fit a transcendent God into a description which is only suitable for something limited in this world.
Why does Aquinas reject equivocal language?
its meaningless, it doesnt reveal any information
Why does Aquinas reject univocal language?
Reduces God to something ordinary and human like.
It limits God
Whats wrong with using symbolic religious language? (4)
- Open to interpretation.
- Could be taken literally
- Out of date - written ages ago in different circumstances
- Real message lost or trivialized
whats wrong with myths? (2)
- they tend to be culturally determined
- Bultman thought religious language should be demythologised, thought it was out of date, written with a different world view.
Why is it good to use metaphors?
less likely to be misinterpreted
Whats wrong with using metaphors
can lack substance
What are the two types of analogies that Aquinas thought we could use to talk about God
analogy of attribution
analogy of proportionalism
What is the analogy of attribution
Human qualities derive from God, so we can talk about god in terms of the qualities he has given us
good, loving, kind.
What is the analogy of proportion
description is proportional to respective nature
Words mean different things when related to God.
What is the verification principle
in order for statements to be meaningful they need to be verified against experience and evidence (empirically verifiable)
What is the weak verification principle
statements are meaningful if they can be verified in principle
Why did Ayer reject the verification principle?
Because it is impossible to check everything empirically
What is the problem with ‘death by a thousand qualifications’. ??
Believers give too many excuses about why God doesn’t pass tests. Theres always a reason why God cannot be proven in that way.
Believers keep qualifying their claims ‘yes,but..’
What did Hare say?
Religious statements are meaningful, they are bliks, which means unfalsifiable conviction.
What story does Hick use to explain eschatological verification
Two people walking alone a road, one thinks there is a celestial city at the end, so all obstacles are tests and lessons of endurance.
The one who doesnt thinks that its an aimless ramble.
What does eschatological verification mean?
Hicks thinks it means we can verify religious language in principle.
Which makes religious language meaningful
Why does Wittgenstein develop language games?
He doesnt think all meaningful language acts as a factual picture of something.
For example, the word ‘five’ doesnt represent anything in the world, but is still meaningful.
What did Braithwaite think about religious language?
The use of religious language it to express intention to behave in a certain way.
Why does religious language have meaning according to Braithwaite?
Because its being used to assert an intention to live a certain way of life.
What could be said against Braithwaite?
Not expressing intention!
Religious language is trying to say something about the world, making a statement about the world which is factually meaningful, and therefore could be falsified and verified.
What did Nicola Slee say about patriarchal God language? (2)
- It reinforced patriarchy in society.
- Denies the presence of a female God language.
According to Nicola Slee, what are the effects of patriarchal God language?
- Physiological effects on women, sense of identity and wellbeing. Implicit message that masculinity is more God like. Damaging for men because they think too highly of themselves.
- Sociological effects, reinforces patriarchal structures.
What does Sally McFague suggest about patriarchal language?
God is mother, friend, lover.
Thomas Kung on myths
- shape and Regulate moral and social behavior
- expresses an older more original reality which determines the entire life and destiny of the human race.
How should myths be understood according to Malinowski?
- ‘narrative resurrection of primeval reality’
- it expresses belief and contains practical rules for guidance of moral and social behavior.
- ‘a vital ingredient of human civilization
