Religious Language

Outline
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Language about God and theology. Words that are used in this sense are also used in everyday
language e.g. love, virtuous, miracle, perfect
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Is religious language factual or does it have some other purpose?
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Cognitive language expresses propositions that do not reference anything outside of
understanding
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Non-Cognitive language expresses a proposition that is unthinkable, a non-proposition, or
something beyond understanding
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Verication - that which is meaningful is what is analytically true or empirically veriable
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Falsication - that which is meaningful is what can be conceived of being proven false in some
situation
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Via Negativa - (negative way) to speak of God only by negation
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Symbol - points beyond itself; participates in that to which it points; unlocks a new level of reality;
unlocks new dimensions of our soul; is not intentional, it grows out of individual or collective
unconscious; is not inventible, it grows and dies.
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Analogy - univocal, language used in one sense only; equivocal, language used in multiple
distinct senses; analogical, used with related senses
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Myth - a contemporary way of expression; a way to explain the inexplicable (the divine) in human
terms; kerygma (proclamation) of God; demythologisation, a translation of ancient meanings for
modern man
Verification
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Originated in Logical Positivism (a scientic method of philosophy)
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Inuenced by science and a desire to make philosophy scientic
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Language about God is meaningless since it has no possible way of being empirically veried
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Practical verication: empirically conrmable as true or false now
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Verication in principle: possibly empirically conrmable as true or false in the future
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Strong verication: empirically conrmable with absolute certainty
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Weak verication: empirically conrmable with high probability
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Indirect verication: empirically conrmable via other directly veriable evidence
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Arguments for God (teleological, cosmological) cannot be veried from sense experience
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Religious experience is psychological
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Hicks eschatological verication
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Can anything be denitively veried? Or, only probably veried (problem of induction, history)?
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Many things have meaning without verication (love, art etc.), they are also not simply aesthetic
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Are facts more important than values?
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Is the verication principle itself a metaphysical statement?
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The totality of facts is not a denitive characterisation of human experience


1
Wittgenstein
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Ideas inuenced the Vienna Circle
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Later rejected his initial philosophy of language found in the Tractatus in favour of a less dogmatic
treatment of the meaning of philosophy
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Argued later that his own theory of language was itself self-contradictory
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Admitted elements of mysticism in the world: what is strange about the world is that it is. Many
people admit an awe about the world (the numinous) and when they make or are curious about
statements such as, Why are we here?, they are expressing this feeling, not asking for answers.
Hence reality cannot be limited to what can be spoken about meaningfully.
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Language games allow all language to be reasoned about meaningfully as long as the rules (the
usual context of the particular sort of language) are understood
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Hence it is possible to reason about religion, poetry, art and aesthetics
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D. Z. Philips argues that religious language could never be understood in terms of the verication
principle since that would admit God as a matter of fact. This overlooks the inherent mysticism of
His nature and the nature of religious inquiry, which is to gain a deeper personal understanding of
God and not to prove propositions about Him.
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God has to be objectively real. How does the concept of subjective language games impact on
this?
Falsification
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Karl Popper was interested in the the problem of demarcation: how to distinguish between
science and non-science, and later pseudo-science.
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The falsication principle is hence the criterion of demarcation, or the criterion to distinguish
between what is scientic and not.
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Anthony Flew argues that religious statements are themselves pseudo-scientic since they
purport to make scientic statements about God where the possibility of proving them false is not
admitted
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Religious believers ever qualify their beliefs in the face of criticism. This is evidence of pseudo-
science and hence religion dies a death by one thousand qualications.
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Is it important for believers to be dogmatic and hence not qualify their view?
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The statement that God does not exist is also not falsiable
Via Negativa (Apophatic Way)
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God is transcendent - above and beyond comprehension, reality, knowledge etc.
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Though denying all positive descriptions of God it avoids the possibility of misunderstanding or
misrepresenting Him.





2
Symbol (Paul Tillich)
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Difference between a sign and a symbol
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Symbol in language not solely pictorial
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Religious faith can only be expressed in symbolic language as it is ultimately concerned with
the ultimate. When we talk of God, the symbols used to describe Him must point beyond its literal
interpretation or God would be arbitrary and explicable.
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Symbols allow us to access meaning and communication that we are otherwise incapable of.
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Beyond stating that God is being-itself all language about Him is symbolic
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A symbol participates in that to which it points: a ag participates in the power and justice that it
represents it does not simply signify it.
Analogy (St. Thomas Aquinas)
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When we use words like good to describe God we do not do so univocally, i.e. with the exact
same meaning, nor do we do so equivocally, i.e. with completely different meanings, but rather
analogically.
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There is a denite relationship between when the word good is used to describe a persons
actions and when used to describe the nature of God.
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We may say a dog is faithful in a similar but lesser way to how a man is faithful. This is similar to
the goodness of God, in that a man may also be good but in an innitely lesser way.
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Attribution: what is essentially existent or good is the cause of what participates in existence or
goodness. As an attribute, the goodness of man indicates a creator of innite goodness: God.
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Attributes may be extrinsic, in that there is not a similarity between the causes and the caused.
i.e. a mountain resort is healthy in the same way that food is healthy, but neither have a
relationship to the health that they cause, i.e. there is no literal relationship between the
healthiness of the food you eat and the health it causes in you.
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Attributes may also be intrinsic, in that there is a direct relationship or similarity between the
causes and the caused. i.e. if a mother is healthy, her children are also healthy, but in this case
this relationship is literally similar, or of the same kind.
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Proportionality: what is good in the world is good in a way that is proportional to its being
compared to normative goodness, but is not necessarily related by cause. i.e. a dog is intelligent
and a human is intelligent. They are of differing proportions but without a causal relation.
Myth (Rudolf Bultmann)
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Tried to demythologise the rst-century view of the New Testament so that modern man could
understand it.
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Neo-Orthodox: it is impossible for philosophy to bring a person to know God; revelation cannot be
understood without prior faith; everyone can perceive actions of God in the world but only the
faithful witness Gods revelation
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He dened myth as "the report of an event or occurrence in which supernatural, superhuman
powers or persons are at work. It is a way of man expressing himself in the world and time in
which he lives.
3
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Demythologisation is the interpretation of the New Testament in terms that contemporary man
can understand
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Must reinterpret the myths in a way that the original meaning is retained.
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Not eliminating or removing the myth but trying to serve modern man.
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Miracles do not happen because science has proven that they cannot be replicated by man.
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Also, if miracles did happen then they would become objective proofs for Gods existence, upon
which ones faith could be based and hence God existence becomes an objective fact associated
with history.
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However, it may be argued that instead miracles are a supplemental way in which God reveals
himself to man. Even though people may use miracles to prove objectively the existence of God
this is not a given.
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The Virgin Birth for example is scientically impossible, disposed of and the message of Jesus as
Son of God, not born, is preserved (the kerygma).
R.M.Hare and Bliks
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Originally believed religious language was meaningless
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Changed his belief upon realising that it has a real effect on the religious believers life and
behaviour
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Faith is a blik, or a conviction, that can never be shaken whatever the evidence that is presented
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Parable of university student: believes that all the dons are out to murder him but no evidence to
the contrary will shake this belief.
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Does this imply that religion is a neurosis?
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R.B.Braithwaite argued that the meaningfulness of religious language is demonstrated in the way
that it affects a persons moral outlook and behaviour.
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All people have bilks, not solely religious ones
John Wisdom
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Faith is consistent with patterns in the world and hence is not irrational.
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Parable of gardener: two people return to a neglected garden to nd some plants now growing.
One argues that this is indicative of a gardener coming to tend them. The other argues otherwise,
since the garden is not more well maintained.
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This demonstrates how a believer will always interpret that which can support his belief as such
and the non-believer will do the opposite (they are both still trying to support their own beliefs).
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Religious belief can be supported by an interpretation of evidence in the world but is
fundamentally non-cognitive, i.e. religious belief does not begin with evidence but instead faith.
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Non-falsiable but meaningful.
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Anthony Flew argued for a reinterpretation: that instead watchtowers are placed around the
clearing and there is still no evidence for the gardener coming. The believer still does not change
his belief (blik).


4
John Hick
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Religious belief is founded on trust of future conrmation.
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Parable of Celestial City: two men are walking to an unknown destination. One believes that the
road leads nowhere, the other that it leads to the Celestial City. They are both walking the same
road in the same direction but each has different expectations. Along the way they may encounter
hardships. The believer believes that these are trials of worthiness and preparation, the other
dismisses them as misfortune and bad luck. Neither are justied in their belief till the end.
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Eschatological verication/falsication: until one reaches the end, neithers beliefs are provable
false but the believer demonstrates the benets of his faith on the journey.
Basil Mitchell
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Parable of partisan: a resistance ghter meets a partisan and after a conversation the resistance
ghter believes the partisan to be on his side. The partisan may appear to be a double agent and
so may be seen with the enemy doing things that are apparently against the cause, but the
resistance ghter must maintain belief.
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Illustrates the concept of faith as a test.
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Mitchell argues that faith in this situation is reasonable, even if it is in the end proven false. Hence
in practice a believer encounters things that could falsify his belief (problem of evil) but chooses
to maintain faith instead.
























5
Religious Experience
Outline
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Direct experience: visions or voices
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Meditated experience: an awareness or communication of some ultimate/divine reality
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Overwhelming revelation of lifes purpose
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Experience of self-transcendence
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Union with the divine - a sense of peace and wellbeing
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A feeling of absolute and complete dependence before a great mystery
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Experience of something tremendous and fascinating
Importance of Religious Experience
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Religion must take account of the experiences of real people in their lives
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Religion would not exist without religious experience
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The nature of God as personal is revealed in the awe and love that people are aware of during a
religious experience
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Through a religious experience people may nd solace from their difculties and suffering
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If people nd this life painful and difcult, experience offers hope of a truer and more ultimate
alternative reality (Heaven, Nirvana, Nibbana etc.)
William James and The Varieties of Religious Experience
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the feelings acts and experience of men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to
stand in relation to whatever they consider the divine
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Individuality is important
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Religious experience should be the primary reason for belief rather than secondary factors such
as dogma, practices etc.
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Pluralism: there is no way of pinpointing a denitive source to experience; the aim of experience if
not to prove the existence of any one God; can help us to understand the existence of a God
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Cognitive: a real source of truths about some other reality existing beyond this world
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The truth or relevance of experience is demonstrated in the real effects it has on real peoples
lives (pragmatism)
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Experiences are: ineffable (impossible to describe); noetic (a genuine source of knowledge/
truths and bring new insight); transient (short lived); passive (not initiated and overwhelming)
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The aim is to defend religious experience against the view that philosophy is the backbone to
religious life and make the reader believe that experience is mankinds most important function
Conclusions:
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Experience is a part of human nature (nature to be spiritual)
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Language is inadequate when trying to explain religious experience (St. Theresa of Avila)
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Experience makes us aware of a more ultimate reality
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Provides a source and grounding for all religions
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Has the power to transform a persons life for the better
6
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Demonstrates the existence of a previously unknown aspect of human (un)consciousness
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We all have some snippets of religious experience that can be developed (prayer, awe at nature
etc.)
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The existence of this hidden part of our unconsciousness is evidence for a natural human
spiritual tendency
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Experience is not a source of objective truth but has great relevance for the individual
Richard Swinburne
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Religious experience is one important contributor to the body of proofs for the existence of God
alongside cosmological, teleological arguments etc.
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It is true to assume that when a person has a religious experience it is denitely God as we know
him who causes it?
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Principle of credulity: if there is no reason to disbelieve experience, one should accept what
appears to be true
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Principle of testimony: if there is no reason to disbelieve the person, one should accept the
testimony of people who have had religious experiences
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Public - a believer 'sees God's hand at work', whereas other explanations are cited (e.g., looking
at a beautiful sunset).
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Public - an unusual event that breaches natural law (e.g., walking on water).
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Private-describable using normal language (e.g., Jacob's vision of a ladder).
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Private-indescribable using normal language, usually a mystical experience (e.g., "White did not
cease to be white, nor black cease to be black, but black became white and white became
black.").
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Private-non-specic, general feeling of God working in one's life.
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It is perhaps a fallacy to assume that it is God that causes the experience if we have pre-existing
belief in Him (anticipation)
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A person may think that they have seen a UFO but this goes against what is usual and hence it is
normal to question it. The same goes for religious experience: it is normal to inquire to some
extent as to other possible causes.
Numinous Experience (Rudolf Otto)
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Religious experiences are transcendent or an observation of something transcendent and hence
cannot be explained or described adequately using language
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Numen: divine presence
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An immediate experience of God
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A perception of holiness (Das Heilige)
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Reveals a human sense of contingency and ultimate dependence (existential crisis?)
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Mysterium: totally beyond rational thought (non-cognitive)
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Tremendum: awe and dread of the overpowering majesty of God
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Fascinans: captivating and attractive
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Universal
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Examples
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Julian of Norwich: hermit; came at a time of illness; visions of blood owing from crucix; inner
visions of Mary and Christ on the Cross; words formed in her mind by Christ; female imagery; a
feeling that all will be well
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Children of Fatima: Pope called Catholics to pray to Mary for end of WWII; in Portugal three girls
experienced a ashing light and a gure holding the rosary; people came and saw the sun
dancing in the sky; declared worthy of belief
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St. Bernadette: validated Christian doctrine of Immaculate Conception;
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St. Paul: Saul on the road to Damascus. Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
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St. Augustine: converted after hearing voices instructing him to read verses from Romans
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Attending mass and receiving the Eucharist
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Experience of the enthusiasm of a preacher (evangelism)
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Toronto Blessing: Holy laughter after pastor Randy Clarke gave a sermon in 1994 - Holy Spirit or
cultural virus?
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Glossolia: speaking in tongues; Pentecostal movement
Revelation
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Natural Theology: use of sole human reason to gain an understanding of God; God intends for
His nature to be revealed in Creation
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Revealed Theology: truths available because God has specically revealed them to us
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The Bible as a Human book:
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Non-propositional
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Contains human errors because humans are fallible
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Each part requires an understanding of the context and intent with which it was written
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An historical error does not mean God was mistaken. It is meaning conveyed that is important,
not a literal interpretation
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Non-cognitive truths
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The Bible as the Word of God:
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Propositional
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Not dictated by God but perhaps inspired (Holy Spirit)
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Gods nature is ineffable and hence can never be fully expressed in writing: it is necessarily
inadequate
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Jesuss message is very human
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D.F.Strauss: Bible is a reection of contemporary culture (mythical); an historical record
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Karl Rahner: revelation is a disclosure of something previously unknown
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Vatican I: Bible is written with the inspiration of the Holy Ghost
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Billy Graham: Bible is a book written by God through 30 secretaries
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Christ is the ultimate revelation of God
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Propositional vs non-propositional is an argument between understanding revealed theology
through faith with the assistance of the Magisterium or favouring individual interpretation
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Through the fall all humans have a sense of something decient in their lives. It is therefore
necessary that some truths are revealed to us.
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Link to existentialism - angst, guilt imply the necessity of the salvation of God
8
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We require God and His revelation in order to live our lives fully and authentically (original sin
demonstrates our deciency)










































9
Miracles
Outline
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Things that are not possible to explain may sometimes be describes as miraculous but this is not
the case. Description in this way leads to many problems with criticisms of miracles
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A miracle is an action of God that goes against the laws of nature and has a religious signicance
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Miracles may be considered to go against Gods omniscience i.e. why does He need to intervene
if He already knows what will happen? And, how can a timeless God intervene in this way (or how
could he not be able to)?
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Miracles may departures from the ordinary i.e. response to prayer etc. or interpreted miracles
(anti-realist)
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Miracles may exceed the power/method/process of nature
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A manifestation of Gods glory
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E.g. raising of the widows son; the saving of the three Holy youths from the furnace
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Miracles are not intended to make people believe. Some may say they only occur as a result of
faith.
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Necessary criterion for canonisation
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Jesus resisted temptation from the devil to perform arbitrary miracles
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Miracles may serve a purpose to reveal God or to strengthen faith.
St. Thomas Aquinas
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Against the law of nature (walking on water)
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Against the usual order of nature (life after death)
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Against the usual mode of nature (instant curing of an illness)
John Hick
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Laws of nature are inductive. If a miracle occurs it demonstrates a way in which this law is
insufcient and hence it must be adapted to incorporate it.
R.F.Holland
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Anti-realist: a disclosure
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Depends largely upon interpretation
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If a coincidence is interpreted by a believer it may be a miracle.
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Religious signicance is important - divine providence
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E.g. train analogy
Hermann Reimarus
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Biblical writers distorted the accounts of Jesus performing miracles
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If it is possible to give natural explanations for miracles then they should be accepted. E.g. Jesus
walking on a sandbank rather than on water. (Why would He do this?)
10
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It is a demonstration of contemporary superstition
Rudolf Bultmann
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Biblical miracles are mythical.
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We must endeavour to elicit a spiritual meaning or explanation through the demythologisation of
the accounts. E.g. The Virgin Birth
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Require a reinterpretation that ts with modern mans new scientic knowledge
Richard Swinburne
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Miracles are not trivial - God does not intervene because somebody prays for riches
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They may be interpreted as signs from God
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Though, they are not an end in themselves and may act as a catalyst for discovery or point
beyond to a greater understanding
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Some may ask if God is good why are there so few miracles?
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We dont have a comprehensive knowledge of the laws of nature
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We must accept on interpreting a miracle that there is the possibility of our being mistaken
John Polkinghorne
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If we cannot accept miracles as valid historical evidence then what is our reason for accepting the
testimony of any other historical sources
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The evidence may become stronger if there is a perceived causal relationship. E.g. prayer for a
particular even to occur and then it happening
Maurice Wiles
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Why did God create natural laws that needed to be broken?
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Are miracles arbitrary?
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Miracles appear trivial and spontaneous, and appear to have no obvious reason
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Why does God not prevent events like the Holocaust if he is all-good? (How can we know that
preventing the Holocaust was necessarily a lesser evil if we ourselves are not omniscient?)
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Miracles seem to go against Gods nature as all loving
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How can we understand Gods reasoning or intentions for performing a miracle?
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Believes in God but rejects miracles
David Hume
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Untrustworthy sources/witnesses
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Why decide to revise a law for only one apparent piece of evidence?
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It is always more reasonable to believe that a miracle is false. (This holds for many other
situations but is not always correct)
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No equivalent to Biblical miracles today hence why should we assume they occurred
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There is never enough empirical evidence
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People in the past and now are inherently superstitious
11
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The Gospel writers and many other miracle witnesses are biased towards credulity











































12
Nature of God
Outline
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God is the supreme spirit who exists of Himself
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All of His attributes must be consistent with one another
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Eternal: without beginning nor end
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Innite: without bounds
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Omnipotent: all-powerful
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Omniscient: all-knowledgeable; all-seeing
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Omnibenevolent: all-loving; all-good
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Unique: irreplaceable; incomparable
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Personal: having a relationship with man
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Simple: indivisible; irreducible; inexplicable
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One: all parts are one in harmony
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Sustainer: maintainer of all that exists
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Omni characteristics naturally lead to inconsistency and contradiction
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Is God beyond logic? Is this question meaningful in any way?
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Are omni characteristics simply a human way of trying to explain Gods supreme perfection
which is inherently inexplicable. Does this demonstrate the transcendence of God?
Eternal
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Endless duration
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Revelation: Alpha and Omega
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What is the nature of time?
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Early Church fathers saw God as outside of time; sees all things as present; does not change;
His nature is to exist
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Boethius:
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God is changeless
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God experiences the whole eternal present
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Gods life is unending and perfect
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Something that has a beginning and end and simply lives forever (everlasting) experiences
past, present, and future and is hence not eternal because what is eternal has no past or future
lacking from it.
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Omniscience necessitates knowledge of future
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If God experiences time or exists in time does this contradict His changeless nature?
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Since we have no concept of eternity we must discuss this aspect of God in terms of analogical,
symbolic, etc. language.
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Anthony Kenny criticised simultaneous presence of all knowledge of time: how can every event
that occurred in time be happening presently?
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Paul Helm: God does not possess all of time simultaneously but is timeless and cannot intervene
in time (omnipotence?)
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How can a personal God not act in time and respond to prayer etc.
13
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Personal language used about God may be symbolic or mythical and should not be interpreted
literally
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Prayer:
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Anselm: prayer is an awareness of God in the world and is not necessarily petitionary
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Wiles: God is continually acting in the world and not only in response to prayer
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Everlasting God: time passes for Him but it has no end
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What about eschatology and the end of time?
Omniscient
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There are no limits to Gods knowledge
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Why does God not intervene if He knows that we will sin (free will)?
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If God knew the evil that would be caused in the world then why create it?
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How can humans know, with their limited knowledge, that if certain evils such as the Holocaust
were eliminated there would necessarily be less evil in the world now? Surely only God has this
knowledge and we should not assume that we are correct.
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Aquinas: Gods knowledge is self-knowledge
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God knows all the possibilities of all of our choices
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Is knowledge of the future knowledge at all? If not, does this necessitate that God is outside of
time?
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Is all knowledge abstract?
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Gods knowledge is not empirical
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If God is everlasting then He must gain new knowledge - process theology
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Even if God has knowledge of our choices we still are the ones that choose them
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Schopenhauer: I can will what I do, but I cannot will what I will
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Boethius: God does not have foreknowledge but all knowledge in an instant
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Augustine: God knows our choices; free-will is not relevant
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Aquinas: God has a perspective of our world; a birds-eye view; a walker on a road can see
forward or behind - God is above and sees all
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G.E.M.Anscombe: it isnt logical to talk of what may have happened in the future - it is not an
object of knowledge
Omnibenevolence
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God is perfect goodness and only wills goodness
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Goodness; love; justice; beauty; holiness
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Reward and punishment are aspects of goodness (justice)
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Is God the normative good?
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If God commands things because they are good then does he work to a higher ideal, or are
things good because God commands them?
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How can the idea of hell and eternal punishment be compatible with Gods goodness
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Can punishment for sin be good? No one would question that it is good in the long term for a
parent to punish a child for doing wrong so that the child learns what is right and wrong, but can
eternal punishment ever be justied?
14
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Swinburne: true free-will must contain the possibility that we dam ourselves. i.e. without the
potential for punishment we are not truly free
Omnipotence
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Gods power has no limit in regard to what is logically possible
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Why does God not transcend logic (Kierkegaard, deism)
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Can God create a stone that is too heavy for Him to lift? (God is not anthropomorphic)
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Anthony Kenny: omnipotence is a statement that God has the power to do all that is logically
possible
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Can God change the past or would this impact on what He knows? i.e. Can God change His own
knowledge? - again omni characteristics seem to lead to paradoxes
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Anselm: sin is a lack of control/power over ones actions hence God cannot sin






























15
Life After Death
Plato
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Dualist: non-physical soul; physical body
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Soul is more important; body is limiting.
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The goal of the philosopher is to achieve the primacy of the soul over the body and it is in this
way that we may achieve our true purpose
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Soul has three aspects: reason, spirit, and desire. It is best when three aspects are in harmony
and reason leads
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Soul pre-existed the body in the realm of the forms - Allegory of The Cave
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Soul is immortal
Aristotle
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Three degrees of soul:
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Plants: nourishment and reproduction
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Animals: additional self-perception and self-motion (action)
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Humans: additional intellect (mind or rational soul)
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How does theory of evolution impact on this conception of the soul?
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Soul is not some disembodied concept but more the essence or form of a living thing
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Materialist: the soul is not distinct from the body
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It is a soul that makes an organism an organism and it is impossible to conceive of a body without
a soul (it would not be denable as a body)
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May be better to translate the soul as life-force
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Mind:
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Only the mind/intellect is immaterial and able to exist disembodied after death
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Immortal
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The mind is immaterial because if it werent then it would have a physical organ. Since all the
sense organs are accounted for and the mind/intellect is not a sense it must be immaterial
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The mind is immortal because it is immaterial. Only what is material is matter, and only matter
can be corrupted.
Dawkins
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Belief in an immortal soul is anachronistic, a result of a time that was without the scientic
knowledge that we have now
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There is clear empirical evidence that the body perishes at death and so why should we postulate
anything beyond this?
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Humans are not dened or unique by virtue of some immaterial soul or animus but their DNA.
The selsh gene is concerned solely with survival
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Soul is a mythical way to explain consciousness because it is unobservable. Eventually science
of psychology will explain it away
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Consciousness is when we are self-aware
16
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Soul is now better redened/understood as a lasting description of our intellectual identity
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Memes are genetic replicators of our culture
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We are immortal through our inventions that live on after death
Gilbert Ryle
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Soul doesnt refer to a concrete object
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Materialist - soul is a set of personal characteristics or dispositions
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Example of visiting a collegiate university: it is a mistake to ask where the university is as it has
no identity that is distinct from the sum of its parts
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The soul is the ghost in the machine
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All mental events a physical events interpreted in a physical way. What about self-
consciousness?
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Identity theory: the mind and brain have different meanings but they are one and the same thing
John Hick
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Dualism in Christianity is simply a result of a reinterpretation of Plato
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Soul is a name for our moral and spiritual selves
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Soul is our personality; set of behavioural dispositions
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We are unique due to our DNA? (what about twins?)
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We are dependent upon God for our identity
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Replica theory
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The key to identity is true memories
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What about the break in continuity between death and replication
Other
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Aquinas: soul is the anima, or being that survives after death
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Descartes: mind-brain distinction; the mind is existential and unique; mind is associated with
consciousness and self-awareness; mind is immaterial
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Hegel: history is the development of the spirit over time; zeitgeist
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Christian: Jesuss resurrection is a prototype for the redemption of all humans at the end of time;
the resurrection may be reinterpreted as mythical or symbolic
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Hell is a state of eternal punishment and damnation
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Purgatory is a temporary state of preparation for heaven
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Good is rewarded and evil punished



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Reincarnation
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Transmigration of spirit from body to body
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Can be released into a higher realm
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Hindu: Brahman is pure thought; all other matter is maya and illusion; all souls (Atman) seek
union with Brahman in Nirvana
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There is no personal identity or, rather, no emphasis on personal identity
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Reincarnation is determined by karma: the natural consequences of our actions
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Buddhism: rebirth of spiritual matter from one living entity to another; there is no self; through a
number of lifetimes the spirit learns the truth which then leads to Nibbana
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Neither can be veried. What if a person claims to remember a past life?
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There is no reward or punishment and hence it does not fall foul of the problem of evil
Near Death Experiences
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Raymond Moody: similarities in the descriptions of people who have almost died; moving towards
a light; meeting God, perception of the Divine etc.
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Could be explained biologically e.g. deoxygenation of the brain
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Are the witnesses reliable or are they biased by prior religion
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NDE may be a conversion experience - does this have signicance?
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J.H.Price: mediums may be evidence for disembodied souls existing after death on earth; what is
the point or purpose of these souls if they exist?
Problem of Evil
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Worldly suffering requires a reward or punishment in an afterlife for it to be justied
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Summum Bonum: if we must act in a good way then we must be rewarded for it
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Augustine: the dammed will be raised and burn forever in Hell
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Irenaeus: this life is for soul-making; suffering allows us to develop and reach ultimate happiness
with God
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How is the existence of evil compatible with Gods nature as good and loving?
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