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Religious Studies Ethics A2 > Religious Language > Flashcards

Religious Language Flashcards

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1
Q

how is religious language used?

A

to express both personal experiences and concepts that are largely indescribable in human language

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2
Q

what do most people have as a primary experience?

A

the feeling of something being ‘out there’, a sense of what could be called a spiritual dimension, something one would call God

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3
Q

what does religious language include?

A

paradox and contradictions

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4
Q

people do talk about God but what is the problem?

A

philosophically what this language means

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5
Q

why is it problematic for humans to talk about God?

A
  • because God is outside time and space and we are within

- human language is limited to our experiences of being in time and space

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6
Q

how do people justify God being described as anthropomorphic?

A

it is seen as a metaphor

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7
Q

why can language not be used to apply to God?

A

it is rooted in temporality

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8
Q

quote from Maimonides:

A

“there is nothing both literal and positive that we can say about God”

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9
Q

what language does Aquinas reject?

A
  • univocal

- language that puts God in the same category as humans

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10
Q

how does Aquinas say we can talk about God?

A

-analogy of attributes and analogy of proportion

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11
Q

God is … … and has no … ?

A

God is pure actuality and has no potential

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12
Q

if God can’t change what does that make him?

A

he fulfils his nature and therefore is perfect and ‘good’

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13
Q

if God fulfils his nature what saying does Aquinas believe this means?

A

“I am that I am”

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14
Q

why are metaphors good to describe God? (2)

A
  • acknowledges his otherness

- express theological truths for which there is no literal equivalent

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15
Q

what has to happen to make a statement meaningful?

A

-has to be capable of being verified by sense experience

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16
Q

what is a problem with religious language? (meaning)

A

the literal meaning may be understood but the concept behind it may not

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17
Q

what do some say is the best way to describe God?

A

silence

18
Q

what isn’t religious language’s primary purpose?

A

give understanding at a rational level

19
Q

what are some types of statements/language used to describe God?

A
  • cognitive statements
  • metaphors
  • symbolic language
  • mythological language
20
Q

what is the via negative?

A

only negative terms can be used to describe God

21
Q

what does it mean when one says God is simple?

A
  • He is not made up of parts

- He is not made up of goodness and power but He is goodness and power

22
Q

what is the problem with only saying negatives?

A
  • we can’t figure out what it is

- you can say a kettle is not a lot of things but that still doesn’t give you an indication of what a kettle is

23
Q

via negative and the Bible:

A
  • the Bible is full of positive statements about God
  • if it is the word of God, then God wants to be described in positive language
  • so the via negativa could be said to oppose God’s wishes of how He wants to be perceived
24
Q

what is the logic behind the via negative?

A
  • human language arises from human experience

- if God is beyond human experience then human language is meaningless

25
Q

what is univocal language?

A

a word used in different contexts but with the same meaning

26
Q

can or can’t we use univocal language to describe God?

A

we can’t because that would mean that His attributes are the same as human ones and God isn’t human

27
Q

what is equivocal language?

A

the same word has different meanings

28
Q

can or can’t we use equivocal language to describe God?

A

we can’t because we don’t know what we the meaning of the word is, it’s meaningless

29
Q

what is the analogy of attribution?

A

God is the cause of all things, so all attributes are God’s just on a higher level

30
Q

what philosopher came up with univocal, equivocal and analogy of attribution?

A

Aquinas

31
Q

what is the problem with analogy of attribution to do with God?

A

we can infer that God is evil

32
Q

what is Aquinas’ response to the problem with the analogy of attribution? but what is an argument against that?

A
  • that evil isn’t a quality in itself, it is the absence of good
  • however, some things are ugly, diseased, disorganised, lazy etc, these are negative qualities and not just the absence of good
33
Q

what two ways can God be described? to do with symbolism

A
  • in a cognitive non-symbolic way as ‘Being itself’

- any other way of linguistically speaking of God is symbolic

34
Q

what is a problem with using symbolic language?

A

we are saying that God isn’t literally a lot of things, so what is God literally

35
Q

why is mythological language meaningful?

A

because it is perspective, it provides instruction of how we should behave, motivates us towards moral action

36
Q

language games and religion:

A
  • religion is a collection of games - prayer, rituals, expressing faith
  • language has meaning for those playing the games
  • it doesn’t have meaning to those outside the group
37
Q

what makes religious language as a game a good argument?

A
  • religious language can’t be criticised by people of other games such as Stephen Hawking
  • because the language is based on faith and belief not on evidence or logic so it doesn’t need evidence to prove it, it’s not part of the rule book
38
Q

what are analytical statements?

A

true by reason

39
Q

what are synthetic statements?

A

true by experience

40
Q

what is a problem with symbols?

A

they are not universal

41
Q

what is the verification principle?

A

that statements that can’t be verified are meaningless

42
Q

what is the falsification principle?

A

that if a statement can’t be proved wrong it is meaningless

Religious Studies Ethics A2 (7 decks)

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