Theology and Falsification

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Theology and Falsification

• Symposium published in 1955 with the British
  philosophers Anthony Flew, R.M. Hare, and Basil
  Mitchell

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Background

• The Problem of Verification by John Hick

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Ludwig Wittgenstein, the Vienna Circle, and
Logical Positivism

• Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922)
• General message What can be said at all can be
  said clearly, and what we cannot speak thereof we
  must remain silent.
• Following Wittgensteins Picture Theory of
  Meaning a proposition is meaningful if things in
  reality are as it depicts them.
• Metaphysical propositions are nonsense (i.e.,
  violations of the bounds of sense). They are
  ineffable, as are ethics, aesthetics, and
  religion.

Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
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Logical Positivism

• 1. Meaningful statements are reducible to
  observations or tautologies all metaphysical
  statements are meaningless.
• 2. Principle of verification meaningful
  statements are those that can be verified
  empirically. (Later the debate focused on the
  principle of falsification.)
• As Hick states, If a statements truth or
  falsity makes no difference that could possibly
  be observed, the proposition is cognitively
  meaningless it does not embody a factual
  assertion (473).

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Back to the Symposium What is the nature of
theological utterances?

• Flews position Theological utterances are not
  assertions they have no cognitive meaning.
• Hares position Flew is right that theological
  utterances are not assertions, but they are bliks
  (i.e., basic, unprovable assumptions that make
  explanations possible).
• Mitchells position theological utterances are
  meant as assertions and they are very meaningful
  to those who hold them.

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Flews position

• John Wisdoms Parable of the Gardener in Gods
• Is some gardener must tend this plot an
  assertion?
• No, since it is not falsifiable it denies nothing
  and consequently asserts nothing.
• Similar utterances include God has a plan, God
  created the world, God loves us, etc.
• What could disprove God or his love?

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Hares position

• Flew is completely victorious on the ground he
  covers, so Hare shifts the ground (465).
• Another Parable A Lunatic and Dons
• All dons are murderous is a blik.
• A blik is not an assertion, but it is very
  important to have the right blik.
• Bliks found what we count as explanations and
  there are great differences between people with
  different bliks.

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Mitchells position

• Flews unfair theologians intend their
  utterances as assertions and take the evidence
  against them very seriouslythis is why we have
  the problem of evil.
• Another parable The Stranger and the Partisan
• The Stranger is on our side.
• Unlike a blik, there is a reason for this view
  (the meeting) and things do count against it.

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Flews Response

• Repeats challenge and reasons that theological
  utterances are actually bogus and vacuous
  (470).
• Contra Mitchell The Stranger is very different
  from God and looking for explanations leads to
  death by a thousand qualifications.
• Contra Hare although fresh and bold, the
  concept of a blik is fundamentally misguided.
• Unorthodox to consider religious utterances as
  bliks.
• As such they could scarcely do their job theyd
  be silly.
• Are religious persons guilty of Doublethink?

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Hicks View

• The Idea of Eschatological Verification The
  Survival Hypothesis
• It is possible for a proposition to be in
  principle verifiable if true but not in principle
  falsifiable if false (476).
• A new parable Two Travelers and the Celestial
  City
• There are big differences between the believer
  and the non-believer in their view of the
  universe as a totality, but not from their
  present standpoints.

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Timed Writing

• Whose view do you find most persuasive and why?
  Whose view do you find least persuasive and why?
  Briefly explain the reasons for your views.

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On Religion by John Caputo

• One The Love of God
• Religion is for Lovers
• On Religion the subject matter doesnt exist
• Religion is the love of God, but What do I
  love when I love my God? (Augustine)
• Thesis Religion may be found with or without
  religion (3).
• The mark of really loving someone or something
  is unconditionality and excess, engagement and
  commitment, fire and passion (5).
• The yes

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The Impossible

• First, a distinction between the future present
  and the absolute future
• The former is what we plan for, what we invest
  in, what we expect, what we an see coming it is
  the possible.
• The latter is the unforseeable, which takes us by
  surprise like a thief in the night (8) it
  takes us beyond the possible to the impossible
  (see 10).
• Through the absolute future and the impossible we
  enter the religious sphere of existence.

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Religion without Religion

• That religious edge to experience, that notion
  of life at the limit of the possible, on the
  verge of the impossible, constitutes a religious
  structure, the religious side of everyone of us,
  with or without bishops and rabbis and mullahs.
  That is what I mean by religion without
  religion, the main idea I shall be defending
  throughout these pages (11).