Analogy

Analogy

1. Non-Cognitive

   • Statements that can be interpreted in a anti-realist way, such as symbols, metaphors and ethical commandments. Statements understood by the community. The truth or falsity depends on the context.

2. St Thomas Aquinas

   • Background
     • Uses of Language
       • Univocal Language
         • Words are used in broadly the same sense in 2 situations
           • God is good
           • Muminah is good
         • Can't be applied to God
           • It would mean that God was finite, temporal & spatial like human - but he is not
       • Equivocal Language
         • The same word is used in 2 different situations & with totally different meaanings
           • Cricket bat
           • Bat
         • Would not know anything about God is this type of language was applied to him
   • Analogical Language
     • Analogy of Proportion
       • good qualities belong infinetley to God
         • a plant has life
           • a human has life
             • God has life
         • There is a propotianate reltionship
           • We cannot full understand God but we can begin to understand his nature
     • Analogy of Attribution
       • God is the cause of all good things
         • God's attributes are simply a higher level of our own
         • e.g Catherine is good
           • Because God created Catherine he has the minimum goodness Catherine has
       • John Hick
         • 'Upwards' Analogy
           • Dog's faithfulness
             • then going up in human's faith for God
     • There is some connection between the way word are used in one sense & the way they are used in another
       • When a word is applied to God it has a different meaning
     • e.g
       • 1. The bull is healthy
       • 2. The bull's urine is healthy
       • By examining the Bull's sample of urine, it was found to be healthy, one can deduce that since the urine came from the bull, that the bull was healthy
         • Connection between the state of the urine & healthy of the bull

3. Ramsey

   • Models
     • A model is something to help us express something about God
       • e.g God is good
         • Good is the model
           • it is a model for understanding God's goodness
   • Qualifiers
     • we need to adapt the model to qualify it
       • e.g add 'infinately' good
         • it will make us think about God's goodness in a greater and greater depth
           • Give us more insight

4. Strengths

   • We can talk about God without bringing him down to our level
   • Analogy accepts that huamsn language cannot adequately describe God
     • It is useful to an extent, it indicates the possibility for people to come to know about God
   • more convincing than negation
     • nagation = we can only talk about God, if we say what he is not

5. Weaknesses

   • Analogy of Attribution
     • Talk of God is still unclear
     • Weak
       • It does not give us an adequate grasp of God's nature to work
   • Just because made us loving, it does not mean God has to be loving
   • Some statements made by believers are not annological
     • e.g Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday
     • Roman Catholics - Transubstantiation