What is meant by religious language?
The term “religious language” refers to statements or claims made about God or gods. The ambiguity in meaning with respect to the terms predicated of God is the “problem of religious language” or the “problem of naming God.” These predications could include divine attributes, properties, or actions. …
Who said religious language is symbolical?
It is still the same essential quality, even though God is perfect and humans are not. 22. Religious Language as Symbolic • Theologian Paul Tillich took a different approach in attempting to show that religious language can be meaningful. He focused on the manner in which symbols may effect humans.
What is the function of religious language?
The principal aim of research on religious language is to give an account of the meaning of religious sentences and utterances. Religious sentences are generally taken to be have a religious subject matter; a religious utterance is the production in speech or writing of a token religious sentence.
How is religious language cognitive?
Cognitivism is perhaps the ‘common-sense’ view of religious language. When someone says “God exists”, “God loves me”, or “God answers my prayers” then, according to cognitivism, they are making a statement that is intended to be taken literally as true or false.
Is religious language symbolic?
Philosopher Taede Smedes argued that religious language is symbolic. He argues that people can still believe in God, even though he cannot be compared to anything in the world, because belief in God is just an alternative way of viewing that world (he likens this to two people viewing a painting differently).
How is religious language symbolic?
Which is the best example of logical positivism?
The most famous example of this position is Ayer’s version logical positivism ( 2.1 ). Non-cognitive accounts, from which we have selected Braithwaite ( 2.2.1 ) and Berkeley ( 2.2.2 ), are similarly radical but are differently motivated and offer a more positive alternative account of the meaning of religious utterances.
What kind of philosophy is religious language and verificationism?
Religious language and verificationism AYER’S ARGUMENT In the 1930s, a school of philosophy arose called logical positivism, concerned with the foundations and possibility of knowledge. It developed a criterion for meaningful statements, called the principle of verification.
Why is the verifiability principle important to logical positivism?
The verifiability principle became for logical positivists a basis for attack on metaphysics, theology, and religion because those systems of thought make many statements which cannot, in principle or in practice, be verified in any way. These propositions might qualify as expressions of ones emotional state, at best but nothing else.
Is the language of religion inexpressible or meaningless?
So it is meaningless. Some philosophers argue that religious language attempts to capture something of religious experience, although it is ‘inexpressible’ in literal terms. Ayer responds that whatever religious experiences reveal, they cannot be said to reveal any facts.