In recent work on the philosophy of religion, there has been a great deal of concentration on what John Hick, in his Philosophy of Religion [Prentice Hall International Editions, 1990, Chapter 7] calls "the peculiarity of religious language".
What Hick is referring to is the fact that when language is used either to describe God, or to make any kind of religious statement, it is used in ways that quickly reveal inherent difficulties of meaning. These problems have to do with the fact that while religious statements seem to have all the authority of factual statements, it is quite clearly not possible to regard them as actually being equivalently authoritative. It is not difficult to demonstrate this:
a) Jesus loves Bob and Edna. Edna loves Bob.
b) God has ordered me to do this.
c) My parents have ordered me to stay in this evening.
In the case of statements a), it would be straightforward, in all kinds of ways, to discover evidence for or against the truth of the statement that "Edna loves Bob". If one could listen to their private conversations over dinner, for example, it would not be difficult to interpret the affection of Edna for Bob and, hopefully, of Bob for Edna. If Bob were ill or unhappy, Edna's conduct towards him would demonstrate her love.
We could go on with this list and, without any difficulty, lengthen it considerably in ways which, despite the theoretical possibility of our being deceived, would be generally verifiable and agreeable not only to Bob and Edna, but also to anyone else not devoutly sceptical to whom we might talk about Bob and Edna and their relationship. It would, though, surely, be rather more difficult to provide similar validation of the statement that "Jesus loves Bob and Edna", for, in attempting to do so, one would need to address such intractable questions as the following:
how would we go about demonstrating either the truth or the falsity of this statement
if Bob said that he did not believe it was true and Edna said that she did, who would be speaking the truth
if the statement were made by a friendly neighbour, worried about Bob and Edna never attending church, on what basis might the statement be said to be veritably either true or false
if Bob and Edna won a large amount of money in the national lottery, would this demonstrate that Jesus loved them
Religion has been a controversial topic among philosophers and in this paper I am focusing
When truth and falsehood are combined, after awhile, it becomes a challenge to distinguish between the two; evidently true to herself.
Peterson, Michael - Hasker, Reichenbach and Basinger. Philosophy of Religion - Selected Readings, Fourth Edition. 2010. Oxford University Press, NY.
In a chapter of Disputed Questions, entitled "Jews, Christians, Muslims: Do We All Worship the Same God?" Hick evaluates the plausibility of the claim that all religions worship the same God and merely refer to him by different names. He notes that the difficulty with this position is that the various descriptions must be compatible. The same criticism Hick applied against that position can be applied to Hick's own hypothesis. The differences between religions are far too great for his hypothesis to be plausible.
The growth of religious ideas is environed with such intrinsic difficulties that it may never receive a perfectly satisfactory exposition. Religion deals so largely with the imaginative and emotional nature, and consequently with such an certain elements of knowledge, the all primitive religions are grotesque to some extent unintelligible. (1877:5)
In the following pages I will discuss this metaphor, as well as Rudolf Otto and his theories on the creation of religion, Peter L. Berger’s theory of “the sacred canopy,” and finally the intermingling of these two theories in the evolution of religion.
This paper will discuss the facts about lying and point of view of different philosophers on the act of lying. Lying is the act when a person provides a false statement or it also refers to the untruthfulness of the person (dictionary.com). The reasoning for lying may differ according to the situation. It may also depend on the characteristic of the person lying. Different philosophers have different opinion on lying and based on their theory and arguments, lying can be either good or bad based on the situation.
Paley, William. “Natural Theology,” in Introduction to Philosophy. 6th edition. Perry, Bratman, and Fischer. Oxford University Press. 2013, pp. 47-51.
Mrs. Saunders reports the neighborhood has had a positive impact on Marlon. This officer believes the neighborhood has had a positive impact on Marlon. Marlon has not
I begin by describing the Hickean account of religious pluralism. Essentially Hick aims to explain religious plurality through the shared salvific experiences and values of the Real. I then give Hick’s conception of what the Real is and how it relates to major religions. Hickean religious pluralism faces what I consider to be fatal criticisms with regards to the nature of the Real, the result is that either the Real is contradictory or fails in its explanatory value. I, therefore, conclude that Hickean religious pluralism is not a plausible philosophical position.
Oxtoby, Willard G., and Alan F. Segal. A Concise Introduction to World Religions. Oxford, Canada: Oxford University Press, 2007.
1) Oxford Readings in Philosophy. The Concept of God. New York: Oxford University press 1987
Geertz defines religion as ‘(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.’ In this essay, I will focus on the Geertz’s idea, and Asad’s subsequent critique, of symbols. (Geertz, Clifford, and Michael Banton. "Religion as a cultural system." (1966).)
Polygraphs are viewed by the public and presented by the media as the ultimate lie detectors, but those familiar with its scientific dynamic recognize that the popular allegations of its accuracy are not entirely true themselves. This paper will briefly discuss the significance and importance of polygraphs, which may have given rise to the spurious belief in its accuracy. It will then cover the basics of the most common method of polygraph testing before proceeding to elaborate on the accuracy of polygraphs. Finally, due to the importance of an accurate lie detector for our society, an alternative and more promising method of lie detection is briefly discussed, along with its limitations.
Lutzer, Erwin. The Doctrines That Divide: a Fresh Look at the Historic Doctrines That Separate Christians. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1998.