Religious Language Anthology Summary

Anthony Flew

Begins the debate using a garden parable which states:

• Two people are going on a holiday for two weeks, and after they return, the garden has some areas that are well-kept with flowers and some that are overgrown, unkept with weeds. One friend claims that there must have been a gardener to maintain the garden while they were gone, whereas the other strongly disagrees. To prove his point, both friends set up a camp to look out for a gardener, but none appear. The friend claims that it must be an invisible gardener, so they set up bloodhounds + an electric wire, but no wire had move,d nor any sounds from the bloodhounds. The friend then claims that the gardener must be: invisible, have no scent, silent, intangibl,e to take care of the garden. The other friend states that there is no difference between the gardener he had stated and no gardener at all.

Explanation: Flew explains that the use of ‘qualifying claims’ can allevite the argument altogether. After someone qualifies their claims repeatedly, there remains nothing left of the original argument so it then becomes invalid. He says that an initial statement that is understandable + comprehensible to begin with can be killed by death of a thousand qualifications.

He uses the problem of evil to also contratict the idea of religious people defending God’s actions. He uses the bible quote that “God loves us as a Father loves his children” but when there is an illness and suffering within the world, the same Heavenly Father displays no signs of concern. Religious people then qualify this by saying that God’s love is not the same as human love or that we as humans are unable to comprehend God’s love / plans for us.

• To this, Flew argues, what would have to happen to disprove the lvoe or ecistence of God?

R.M Hare

He begins his argument witht he paranoid student parable:

• A particular student is convinced that everyone wants to muder him. To try and alleviate his paranoia, his classmates introduce him to the nicest teachers they could find. After meeting the teachers, they ask him, “Arent’t you convinced they don;t want to murder you now? They spoke to you in such a kind manner.” To which the student replies, “Yes, they were kind but that was part of their plan to kill me like the rest of them.”

Explanation: It is important to remember that he doesn’t deny that the people are kind, jus tthat they have an alterior motive. Hare explains that every human has a ‘Blik’ which is a mental filter that determined how we respond/react to things and also changes our view on the world. The student in the parable has a paranoid blik and we have a sane one. This makes us view the world differently to each other. However, the mystery of bliks cannot simply be explained through observation and experience, there must be more to it. Without a blik, there can be no explanation as through our own bliks we determine what is and isn’t as an explanation. Similarly, some people havea religious blik that they link everything back to God. This allows them to discover their own explanations foe everything, using God as a reason.

A key difference between Flew and Hare is that the two friends are not bothered by the garden but instead are curious however the paranoid student care about the people around him due to his blik.

Basil Mitchell

Religious people recognise that pain exists in the world and that is goes agaisnt their doctrine however, they still do not allow it to go against their faith or their trust in God. Mitchell focuses ont he belivers faith in God, not on God himself. He demonstrates this usig the parable of the stranger and the partisan (a member of a secret resistance:)

• One night a partisan meets a stranger and they form a bond after a deep conversation. The stranger tells the partisan that he is also on the side of the resistance + to have faith regardless of what happens. The partisan is convinced that the stranger is sincere. After this, they never meet privately again but the stranger is occasionally seen helping memebers of the resistance + other times helping people in power. Sometimes the partisan asks for help and receives it, other times he doesn’t. Despite the partisan’s companions havinf doubts about the strnager, the partisan never loses trust in the stranger.

• The Stranger: Represents God or a divine being. 

• The Partisan: Represents a religious believer, demonstrating the strength of faith. 

• Asking for Help: Represents a religious experience or a conversion experience. 

• Helping the Resistance: Represents blessings, miracles, or answers to prayers. 

• Helping the Enemy: Represents evil or suffering, and the challenges to faith. 

• The Partisan's Persistence: Highlights the strength of faith and the believer's commitment to their belief system, even when faced with evidence to the contrary. 

Explanation: Regardless of what happened with the stranger, the partisan never lost faith and always claimed, “The stranger is on our side”. Although he acknoledges that the strangers behaviour goes against what he believes, he still has faith in the stranger which shows how the partisan is tested on his faith and belief in the stranger.

In contrast to the bliks, the partisan has a reason for trusting the strnager whereas there is no actual resonaing behind having a blik.

The idea of humans keeping faith in God is linked to the same parable, as we do not know God’s plan or intention, the most important thing is to keep faith in him no matter what.