The Inherent Problems of Religious Language

Question 1

Inherent problem 1

Answer 1

Religious language isn’t used in the same way as normal language. “God is the father, the son and the holy spirit” this proposition doesn’t work but “Sophie is a student, a daughter and a prospective teacher” this works as she can be logically all of these at once.

Question 2

Inherent problem 2

Answer 2

God is beyond human experience, so we can’t talk about God because our language is limited and only based on human experience. However he created us being able to develop language, maybe so we could talk about him.

Question 3

Inherent problem 3

Answer 3

Religious language often refers to God in human forms (anthropomorphising), “God walked in the garden of Eden”, this can’t be literal because God is incorporeal (no body).

Question 4

What is meaning?

Answer 4

1. Made up of real words.
2. In a grammatically correct order.
3. Aim to communicate something clearly.

Question 5

Cognitivist theories

Answer 5

Only meaningful if linked in some way to the real world. They describe the world either truly or falsely.

Question 6

Non cognitivist

Answer 6

Statements can be meaningful even though they don’t refer to the real world and can’t be shown to be true or false. Look at complexity of language and the context.