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Perceptions of Ultimate Reality > Religious Language > Flashcards

Religious Language Flashcards

1
Q

What is the Via Negativa?

A

Only can say what god isnt

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2
Q

What kind of language does Aquinas reject?

A

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.

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3
Q

Why did Aquinas reject univocal and equivocal language?

A

This language means there is no connection between the way language is used in the world and language about God. Makes the language meaningless.

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4
Q

According to Aquinas what is the link between God and the universe?

A

God created the universe

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5
Q

What did Maimonides think about religious language?

A

We cannot speak about God, best to stay silent.

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6
Q

What did Aquinas say about fulfillling nature?

A

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.

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7
Q

According to Aquinas, why is God perfect?

A

God is 100% whatever it is to be God
He perfectly fills his nature
God could be nothing else than what God is

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8
Q

What did Paul Handley say about linguistic definitions and God

A

‘God is not a lump of matter which will conform to our linguistic definitions.’

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9
Q

What did Aquinas and Maimonides agree on?

A

Can speak of what God is not
God exists & God explains the universe
God is wholly simple, timeless and spaceless

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10
Q

What did Aquinas and Maimonides disagree on?

A

We can talk about God

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11
Q

What is a myth?

A

a story which expresses spiritual truth

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12
Q

What did Bultman say about myths?

A

We need to get rid of them, thinks they are outdated stories written in completely different world view.

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13
Q

What is cognitive language?

A

Language that conveys information

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14
Q

What is non cognitive language?

A

Language which conveys emotion, gives an order

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15
Q

What is the verification principle?

A

For a statement to be meaningful, it has to be able to be verified by sense experience.

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16
Q

What the issue with verification principle?

A

Not everything can be checked against sense experience, eg metals expanding when heated.

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17
Q

What type of verification principle is generally rejected

A

Strong verification principle

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18
Q

What did AJ Ayer argue for?

A

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

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19
Q

Criticisms to the verification principle -

A

Cannot be verified

Keith Ward - it excludes nothing, everything can be verified in principle.

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20
Q

Who came up with the falsification principle

A

Anthony Flew

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21
Q

What is the falsification principle

A

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.

22
Q

Criticisms of the falsification principle?

A

Swinburne thought statements can have meaning and not be falsified.

23
Q

According to Wittingstein, what defines the meaning on a word?

A

Its use and context

24
Q

What is Hicks Eschatological Verification

A

proving something to be true after death - life after death / god

25
Q

What did Maimonides think about God? (3)

A
  • God is outside time and space
  • God is one
  • God is wholly simple
26
Q

Whats good about the via negativa

A

it avoids trying to fit a transcendent God into a description which is only suitable for something limited in this world.

27
Q

Why does Aquinas reject equivocal language?

A

its meaningless, it doesnt reveal any information

28
Q

Why does Aquinas reject univocal language?

A

Reduces God to something ordinary and human like.

It limits God

29
Q

Whats wrong with using symbolic religious language? (4)

A
  • Open to interpretation.
  • Could be taken literally
  • Out of date - written ages ago in different circumstances
  • Real message lost or trivialized
30
Q

whats wrong with myths? (2)

A
  • 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.
31
Q

Why is it good to use metaphors?

A

less likely to be misinterpreted

32
Q

Whats wrong with using metaphors

A

can lack substance

33
Q

What are the two types of analogies that Aquinas thought we could use to talk about God

A

analogy of attribution

analogy of proportionalism

34
Q

What is the analogy of attribution

A

Human qualities derive from God, so we can talk about god in terms of the qualities he has given us
good, loving, kind.

35
Q

What is the analogy of proportion

A

description is proportional to respective nature

Words mean different things when related to God.

36
Q

What is the verification principle

A

in order for statements to be meaningful they need to be verified against experience and evidence (empirically verifiable)

37
Q

What is the weak verification principle

A

statements are meaningful if they can be verified in principle

38
Q

Why did Ayer reject the verification principle?

A

Because it is impossible to check everything empirically

39
Q

What is the problem with ‘death by a thousand qualifications’. ??

A

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..’

40
Q

What did Hare say?

A

Religious statements are meaningful, they are bliks, which means unfalsifiable conviction.

41
Q

What story does Hick use to explain eschatological verification

A

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.

42
Q

What does eschatological verification mean?

A

Hicks thinks it means we can verify religious language in principle.
Which makes religious language meaningful

43
Q

Why does Wittgenstein develop language games?

A

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.

44
Q

What did Braithwaite think about religious language?

A

The use of religious language it to express intention to behave in a certain way.

45
Q

Why does religious language have meaning according to Braithwaite?

A

Because its being used to assert an intention to live a certain way of life.

46
Q

What could be said against Braithwaite?

A

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.

47
Q

What did Nicola Slee say about patriarchal God language? (2)

A
  • It reinforced patriarchy in society.

- Denies the presence of a female God language.

48
Q

According to Nicola Slee, what are the effects of patriarchal God language?

A
  • 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.
49
Q

What does Sally McFague suggest about patriarchal language?

A

God is mother, friend, lover.

50
Q

Thomas Kung on myths

A
  • shape and Regulate moral and social behavior

- expresses an older more original reality which determines the entire life and destiny of the human race.

51
Q

How should myths be understood according to Malinowski?

A
  • ‘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

Perceptions of Ultimate Reality (6 decks)

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