Religious Language

Religious Language

1. Part A

   • Introduction
     • Philosophers argue whether religious language has meaning or not
     • Individuals have different meanings of words which causes different interpretations
     • Aquinus - The problem is that we only have our everyday language to use.
     • Religious language is the communication of ideas about God, faith, belief and practice.
   • The verification principle
     • Developed by A.J Ayer from Mortiz Shlicks work in the 1920's,in his book "logical positivism" they were both part of the vienna circle, a group of logical positivists.
     • verification is the means to find the truth
     • The fundamental principle of the logical positivists was that only propositions that can be emperically verifyed have meaning - "the meaning of a principle is the method of verification"
     • The logical Ps accepted 2 types of verifiable language
       • analyctical propositions, knowledge which is gained from logical reasoning
       • synthetic propositions, knowledge which can be proven true or false through sense experience or experiment
     • This became the verification principle as the meaning of a statement is in its verification
       • if it isn't possible to prove a statement true or false then it is meaningless because its not logical to make a statement that cannot be tested.
     • A.J Ayers book is 'language truth and logic'
       • he introduced two types of verification
         • strong verification is that there is no doubt in the statement because it is made true by our senses
         • weak verification are statements about the past and future with a strong liklihood of being true.
   • Language Games
     • Wittgenstein in his book philisophical investigations
     • "dont ask for the meaning ask for the use"
     • " I see things in a different way, i have a different picture"
     • " where of one cannot speak, there of one must remain silent"
     • the meaning of word are in their use, function and use in community
     • each has its own language like a game with rules
     • people not in the game will not be able to understand the language
     • an outsider cannot claim the language doesnt make sense just because they dont understand it
   • The falsification principle
     • Antony Flew his book is "God and philosophy"
     • This principle suggests that religious language is meaningless because no evidence can be held against it
     • John Wisdoms parable of the invisible gardener
       • 2 guys come across a garden and one thinks there is a gardener the other doesnt. they try to find evidence for one but there is none
         • reffereing to religious believers
     • Hick "faith and knowledge"
       • "in order to say something with may possibly be true, we must say something which may possibly be false"

2. Part B

   • verification principle
     • strengths
     • weaknesses
       • it itself cannot be verified as there is no sense experience that can prove it to be true
       • opinions and emotions also cannot be verified therefore are deemed meaningless
       • John Hick, in his book "faith and knowledge" eschatelogical verification, religious language can be verified after death
       • the laws of science cant be verified but we still accept them as truth
   • language games
     • strengths
     • weaknesses
   • the falsification principle
     • strengths
     • weaknesses