Religious Language

Question 1

how is religious language used?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

what do most people have as a primary experience?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

what does religious language include?

Answer 3

paradox and contradictions

Question 4

people do talk about God but what is the problem?

Answer 4

philosophically what this language means

Question 5

why is it problematic for humans to talk about God?

Answer 5

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

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

Question 6

how do people justify God being described as anthropomorphic?

Answer 6

it is seen as a metaphor

Question 7

why can language not be used to apply to God?

Answer 7

it is rooted in temporality

Question 8

quote from Maimonides:

Answer 8

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

Question 9

what language does Aquinas reject?

Answer 9

• univocal

- language that puts God in the same category as humans

Question 10

how does Aquinas say we can talk about God?

Answer 10

-analogy of attributes and analogy of proportion

Question 11

God is … … and has no … ?

Answer 11

God is pure actuality and has no potential

Question 12

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

Answer 12

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

Question 13

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

Answer 13

“I am that I am”

Question 14

why are metaphors good to describe God? (2)

Answer 14

• acknowledges his otherness

- express theological truths for which there is no literal equivalent

Question 15

what has to happen to make a statement meaningful?

Answer 15

-has to be capable of being verified by sense experience

Question 16

what is a problem with religious language? (meaning)

Answer 16

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

Question 17

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

Answer 17

silence

Question 18

what isn’t religious language’s primary purpose?

Answer 18

give understanding at a rational level

Question 19

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

Answer 19

• cognitive statements
• metaphors
• symbolic language
• mythological language

Question 20

what is the via negative?

Answer 20

only negative terms can be used to describe God

Question 21

what does it mean when one says God is simple?

Answer 21

• He is not made up of parts

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

Question 22

what is the problem with only saying negatives?

Answer 22

• 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

Question 23

via negative and the Bible:

Answer 23

• 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

Question 24

what is the logic behind the via negative?

Answer 24

• human language arises from human experience

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

Question 25

what is univocal language?

Answer 25

a word used in different contexts but with the same meaning

Question 26

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

Answer 26

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

Question 27

what is equivocal language?

Answer 27

the same word has different meanings

Question 28

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

Answer 28

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

Question 29

what is the analogy of attribution?

Answer 29

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

Question 30

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

Answer 30

Aquinas

Question 31

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

Answer 31

we can infer that God is evil

Question 32

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

Answer 32

• 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

Question 33

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

Answer 33

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

- any other way of linguistically speaking of God is symbolic

Question 34

what is a problem with using symbolic language?

Answer 34

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

Question 35

why is mythological language meaningful?

Answer 35

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

Question 36

language games and religion:

Answer 36

• 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

Question 37

what makes religious language as a game a good argument?

Answer 37

• 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

Question 38

what are analytical statements?

Answer 38

true by reason

Question 39

what are synthetic statements?

Answer 39

true by experience

Question 40

what is a problem with symbols?

Answer 40

they are not universal

Question 41

what is the verification principle?

Answer 41

that statements that can’t be verified are meaningless

Question 42

what is the falsification principle?

Answer 42

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