What is religious language + theists view

Question 1

what does the term religious language refer to ?

Answer 1

Statements or claims made about God or gods

Question 2

Whats a typical philosophical problem with religious language?

Answer 2

• If God is infinite, then the words used to describe finite creatures might not adequately describe God.

Question 3

How can we speak about God when..

Answer 3

..human language is made of words which relate to this world and everything in it

Question 4

If God is so different from us is there..

Answer 4

.. a way that believers can speak about God so that what they say is true and meaningful

Question 5

What does this difficulty challenge us to do?

Answer 5

Articulate the degree that attributes use for finite beings can be used for God and what these attributes mean when they describe God.

Question 6

What is the ‘problem of religious language’ or the ‘problem of naming God’ ?

Answer 6

The ambiguity in meaning with respect to the terms predicated of God

Question 7

What do agnostic thinkers argue?

Answer 7

That God is not available to reason, not accessible to experiment and testing, and none of the words in human vocabulary can communicate anything about God; therefore they argue there is no point in discussing God or in making statements claiming that God is like or like that

Question 8

However what do theists always try to do?

Answer 8

communicate their understanding of God through language

Question 9

in Islam there are how many names for Allah?

Answer 9

99 names

examples - The Gracious, The Merciful

Question 10

In the Bhagavad Gita the Hindu God Krishna is described as?

Answer 10

the Goal of all knowledge
the cause of all causes
the supreme lord of all beings

Question 11

What do Jews describe their God as?

Answer 11

’ the creator’
the king of the universe
the father of all

Question 12

as well as trying to express and understanding of God, theists also try to?

Answer 12

communicate other aspects of belief which are outside our everyday experience

• examples
• belief about the afterlife
• nature of the soul

Question 13

every religion uses language in an attempt to ?

Answer 13

convey supernatural ideas

- normal language of ordinary life often seems to inadequate

Question 14

whats one issue for philosophers ?

Answer 14

whether religious language can communicate ideas effectively, even when these are ideas which go way beyond our normal experiences in everyday life