The Verification Principle &
Religious Language
The Logical Positivists, led by the
philosophers of the Vienna Circle and then
further developed by A.J.Ayer claimed that
only factually verifiable statements are
meaningful.
Religious Language & Strong
Verification
God is…
• Metaphysical Being – “beyond the physical world”
there is nothing in the universe which corresponds to
God.
• Transcendent – beyond time and space. The laws of
nature cannot apply to God as God is not part of the
natural world
Therefore, there is no way we can use empirical methods to test
the truth of claims we make about God – any statement made
about God, afterlife, soul, the divinity of Christ etc are
completely meaningless according to the Strong VP.
Religious Language & Weak Verification
• The Weak version of the VP as put forward by
Ayer states that for any proposition to be
meaningful…:
• The probable truth of statements must be
established through observation
Or
• We know in principle what is necessary to
ascertain it’s truth, even if we cannot
currently do so.
Let’s have a look at this…
Look carefully at the following statements – can any
of them be verified according to the Weak VP?
• The universe is carefully and purposefully
designed by God
• Intelligent Design? Could order and design in the universe
count as evidence to verify the statement “God is the Creator”
• Richard Swinburne claims that when viewed together, the
classical arguments (cosmo, teleo, onto, rel exp) demonstrate
a cumulative probability of God’s existence.
• At death, we will face judgment which will
determine our afterlife.
– This particular point was picked up on by John Hick…
John Hick – Eschatological Verification
• Born 1922
• Religious Pluralist
• Believed that
statements about God
can be factual &
meaningful
• Used Ayer’s Weak
version of the
verification principle to
argue in favour of
religious statements
being meaningful.
John Hick – Eschatological
Verification
• Hick challenges the claim by Ayer that there are
claims that can in principle be verified.
– Eg: There is life on Planet Neptune
– This may not be verifiable at the moment, but
it may be verifiable in the future: it is in
principle, verifiable. We know what we would
have to do in order to establish the truth of
the claim.
John Hick’s The Parable of the Celestial
City
• Hick argues that the potential verifiability of
religious statements makes them meaningful
• ESCHATOLOGICAL VERIFICATION
(We find out when we die)
Many Religious statements rest on the claim that there
is an afterlife and that means they can be verified in
an afterlife.
NB: Hick’s Eschatological Verification only works if we
retain our consciousness & personal identity after
death. We will return to this in our next unit!