1. My Philosophy teacher wants to kill me! Ellie: I think Karen is going to kill me. Rosie: She doesn’t seem that bad to me; she never acts like she hates you. Ellie: She keeps her hatred of me well-hidden. Haneet: But she has no reason to kill you. Ellie: She has a reason, but she just hasn’t told anyone. She’s a killer alright. Hambel: She mustn’t have a criminal record though, or the college wouldn’t employ her. Ellie: This will be her first crime. She’s plotting it. I can see it in her eyes! Rosie: I think you’re imagining it. She’s not going to kill you. Ellie: That’s exactly what she wants you to think – see – her evil plan is working! AARRGGHH!!!!

2. VERIFICATION AND FALSIFICATION When absence of proof, is proof of absence of meaning

3. Verification Principle ‘The criterion we use to test the genuineness of apparent statements of fact is the criterion of verifiability.’ ‘The criterion we use to test the genuineness of apparent statements of fact is the criterion of verifiability.’ A statement that cannot be verified is either meaningless (i.e. not factually significant) or a tautology Language about God is meaningless because we cannot demonstrate its truth or falsity with sense observation and experiments

4. Verification principle Statements MeaninglessVerifiable Analytic (tautology)

5. Practice questions You have a couple of minutes to review your notes so far on religious language, before answering two 2-mark questions

6. Practice questions 1.What is logical positivism? (2 marks) 2.What does it mean to say that a statement is verifiable in principle? (2 marks)

7. Answers 1.What is logical positivism? (2 marks) Logical positivism adheres to the verification principle, i.e. that a statement is only meaningful if it is either analytic, or verifiable in principle). 2. What does it mean to say that a statement is verifiable in principle? (2 marks) That we know how to check whether it’s true, even if we can’t (yet) do this in practice. E.g. “there are aliens living on Pluto” is only verifiable in principle at the moment

8. Falsification Philosophers such as Antony Flew argue that a synthetic statement is meaningful if and only if it is falsifiable. Falsifiable, in this sense, means that we know what evidence it would take to prove it false to us.

9. StatementEvidence which would falsify it All crows are black Bilborough has a college in it Everybody loves Justin Bieber Water always boils at 100°C Adult tigers are bigger than adult lions Red and yellow makes orange It takes 100 years for a plastic bag to biodegrade

10. StatementEvidence which would falsify it All crows are black finding a crow that isn’t black Bilborough has a college in it walking all around bilborough and finding no college Everybody loves Justin Bieber finding a person who doesn’t love him Water always boils at 100°C a thermometer showing water boiling at another temperature Adult tigers are bigger than adult lions finding an adult lion that’s bigger than an adult tiger Red and yellow makes orange mixing red and yellow, and it turning into another colour It takes 100 years for a plastic bag to biodegrade watching a plastic bag biodegrade in less than (or more than) 100 years

11. Your own example Write an example of something (not to do with religion) which you believe, and write what evidence would convince you to abandon that belief.

12. Your own example I believe that I am the genetic mother of my son. If a genetic test showed we don’t share enough DNA to be mother and son, I would abandon my belief.

13. Your own belief Write whether you believe God does exist, or he doesn’t exist. Now write what evidence would convince you otherwise.

14. Your own example I believe that God does not exist. If a giant face appeared in the sky with a booming voice and spoke to me; and if a dead relative came back in spirit form and said there was a God and an afterlife – then I would abandon my belief.

15. Falsification principle Statements MeaninglessFalsifiable Analytic (tautology)

16. Death by 1000 qualifications Flew argued that religious statements such as “God exists” or “God is supremely good” are meaningless because they are not falsifiable. In other words, no evidence would possibly convince the believer to abandon their belief. Flew argues that all evidence – no matter how compelling it is – will be disregarded or reinterpreted by believers, to support their belief in God.

17. Imagine you have a friend who’s convinced Jennifer Lopez has romantic feelings for him… ‘Jennifer Lopez loves me’ ‘Jennifer Lopez loves me (but she is playing hard to get)’ ‘Jennifer Lopez loves me (but she is playing hard to get and it is a deeply secret love)’ ‘Jennifer Lopez loves me (but she is playing hard to get, it is a deeply secret love and her body guards are conspiring to prevent us from getting together)’ But she denies loving you and says you’re a stalker But she’s got a restraining order against you, and her body guards remove you from being near her But she never contacts you

18. Unfalsifiable For your friend, the statement “Jennifer Lopez loves me” is unfalsifiable, because no matter what evidence is presented, your friend always twists it to fit in with their claim that Jennifer Lopez loves them

19. Discussion Do you think there is any evidence that science could discover, which would make religious people abandon their beliefs? Are atheists equally stubborn in clinging to their beliefs? Do they also interpret evidence to fit their beliefs?

20. Falsification Principle Antony Flew: A statement is meaningless if there is no way it can be falsified (Popper argues that falsifiability distinguishes science from non-science) John Wisdom: The Parable of the Gardener Death by a thousand qualifications Video

21. Practice question What does it mean to say that a statement is falsifiable? (2 marks)