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29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 1. Religious Commitment / c. Religious Verification

[whether a religious claim could be verified]

3 ideas
The 'truths' expressed by theists are not literally significant [Ayer]
     Full Idea: There cannot be any transcendent truths of religion, for the sentences which the theist uses to express such 'truths' are not literally significant.
     From: A.J. Ayer (Language,Truth and Logic [1936], Ch.6)
     A reaction: Ayer claims that only tautologies or empirically verifiable statements have literal significance. I say speculations, wild theories and fantasies are perfectly meaningful. Nevertheless, the words of many hymns and prayers look like empty rhetoric.
Belief in an afterlife may be unverifiable in this life, but it will be verifiable after death [Hick, by PG]
     Full Idea: Religion is capable of 'eschatological verification', by reaching evidence at the end of life, even though falsification of its claims is never found in this life; a prediction of coming to a Celestial City must await the end of the journey.
     From: report of John Hick (Theology and Verification [1960], III) by PG - Db (ideas)
It may be hard to verify that we have become immortal, but we could still then verify religious claims [Hick, by PG]
     Full Idea: Verification of religious claims after death is only possible if the concept of surviving death is intelligible, and we can understand the concept of immortality, despite difficulties in being certain that we had reached it.
     From: report of John Hick (Theology and Verification [1960], IV) by PG - Db (ideas)