Falsification

• What is the falsification principle? 


  Religious language must be able to be proven wrong
• Who came up with the falsification principle?

  Anthony Flew
• What was Flew’s parable?

  • 2 explorers (believer and sceptic) come across a garden. The believer says someone must look after it. The sceptic disagrees
  • They wait for the gardener to arrive and he never does
  • The believer says he must be invisible, and they set traps to catch him
  • When they don’t catch him, the believer adjusts his beliefs to fit with what they have found, but still says there is a gardener
  • The sceptic asks “what remains of your original assertion? How does an invisible, intangible gardener differ from and imaginary gardener or no gardener at all?”
• What does Flew say happens when we try and describe God?


  He dies a death of a thousand qualifications - we define him out of existence
• What makes a statement meaningful for Flew?


  It must assert something, and deny the opposite of that assertion
• What does Flew ask?

  “Under what circumstances would you change your mind?”

  If you don’t have an answer there is no point in saying anything at all
• Who came up with ’bliks’?

  R. M. Hare
• What is a ’blik’?


  A belief we have that may be right or wrong, but impacts the life of the individual with that blik
• What is Hare’s example of a blik?


  A lunatic is convinced all university dons are out to get him, despite all counter-evidence for this
• What are religious claims to Hare?

  Expressions of personal attitudes. They are not testable
• Who came up with the parable of the partisan?

  Basil Mitchell
• What is the parable of the partisan?

  • A country is occupied by the enemy during war and the partisan is a resistance fighter
  • A stranger asks the partisan to trust him
  • The stranger is sometimes seen to be working against the partisan, but the partisan continues to trust the stranger
  • The partisan convinces himself there is an explanation
• How does Mitchell use the parable of the partisan?

  Religious language is cognitive - there is evidence for belief we just don’t know it yet. The stranger is on one side or another, we just don’t know
• What is cognitive language?


  Language is true or false
• What is non-cognitive language?

  Language is not true or false it is just an expression