eschatological verification

• whose theory is the eschatological verification?

  John Hick's
• the eschatological verification is Hick's response to what?

  these challenges from verification and falsification
• what does eschatological verification refer to?

  Hick's view that the "facts" of Christian religion will be verified (or falsified) at/ after death
• according to Hick, what is the only way you can verify the statement "there is a heaven"?

  by dying
• "there is a heaven" is a religious statement that has meaning, how?

  because we know how to verify it
• what is this view supported by?

  Ayer's weak form of verification
• what does hick believe religious claims are?


  cognitive (factual)
• what are those claims subject to?

  (eschatological) verification
• what is Hick's parable that runs in parallel to Flew's parable of the gardener?

  the parable of the celestial city (reaches an opposing conclusion to Flew)
• two men are travelling along a road, what do they each believe?

  one believes that the road leads to a celestial city and the other believes that the road leads to nowhere
• since this is the only road there is, what must they do?

  travel it
• during the journey, they are met with moments of both danger and delight, what do they each believe about this?

  one interprets the pleasant parts as encouragement and the obstacles as trials of his purpose and lessons in endurance (to be a worthy citizen) and the other believes none of this, and sees the parts of the journey as unavoidable
• since they have no choice, they carry on, yet when they turn the last corner, what will happen?

  it will be apparent that one of them has been right the entire time, and the other wrong
• the fact that one of them believes in the celestial city influences what?

  the way he encounters and deals with the events along the way
• what is that view and commitment that influences everything?

  meaningful
• (s) what does Hick's claim that the city (heaven) is a real possibility seem to be?

  undeniable, the statement "there is life after death" must be either true or false
• (s) the atheists argument that there is no life after death is not a normal factual claim either, why?

  because if there is life after death, he will know that his claim has been falsified
• (s) his argument seems to show that Christian truth claims are cognitive how?

  because if we do wake up in a resurrected body, we will know that Christian claims about life after death are true, but that many other claims made by the Christian religion are true (e.g. "God exists")
• (s) Hick can support this conclusion by his further argument about what?

  "experiencing-as"
• (s) Hick tries to show that interpretation is an essential element of all factual experience, what does he argue?

  that we experience things "as" something and as soon as we try to talk about things, we are interpreting them
• (s) how does Hick apply this to his parable of the celestial city and his eschatological verification?

  the believer/non believer are interpreting the same evidence differently, which are both equally valid things to do until at/ after death
• (w) if the believer and the non believer are interpreting the evidence in completely different ways then...?

  Hick's argument is no stronger than that of an atheist
• (w) Hick admits that if Christian factual claims about bodily resurrection are true, they will of course be verified when the individual "wakes up" to bodily resurrection. what is the problem with this?

  if they are false, then they can never be falsified because the individual will never wake up to know that they are false
• (w) therefore, Hick's claim that religious claims are eschatologically verifiable is...?

  not a normal factual claim