RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE: The Falsification Principle

Question 1

Who is Karl Popper?

Answer 1

Austrian-British philosopher of science

Question 2

What is the falsification principle?

Answer 2

A sentence is factually significant if there is some evidence which could falsify it

Question 3

Popper quote

Answer 3

‘In so far as a scientific statement speaks about reality, it must be falsifiable’

Question 4

Who is Antony Flew?

Answer 4

English philosopher

Question 5

What did Flew develop the Parable of the Gardener for?

Answer 5

To challenge the meaningfulness of religious language

Question 6

What is the conclusion made by Flew with the Parable of the Gardener?

Answer 6

The gardener’s (God) existence ‘dies the death of a thousand qualifications’- the believer qualifies what he means by his gardener every time he fails to be detected e.g. can’t be seen: invisible, can’t be touched: intangible. Therefore statements about belief in God are vacuous

Question 7

Strength of the FP: The emptiness of factual claims made by religion about God

Answer 7

They are empty because all the evidence against such claims is ignored by the believer

Question 8

Weakness of the FP: Confines meaningfulness to factual propositions

Answer 8

Human experience can’t always be defined this way; what about the world of drama, art, poetry?

Question 9

Weakness of the FP: Statements about God

Answer 9

Statements about God are metaphysical rather than scientific

So it is inappropriate to demand that they should be empirically falsifiable