Today's powerpoint at Manwood school - religious language

n  Religious Language

n  Stephen Law

n  Verification, Falsification, Wittgenstein

n  In this session we will:

n  Outline Ayer’s Verification Principle and his attack on the meaningfulness of religious language (plus criticisms)

n  Outline Flew’s use of falsification (plus criticisms).

n  Outline some Wittgensteinian moves to defend religion (plus criticisms).

'Has Science Buried God?' Opening statement from my debate in Trondheim Norway

 
(Photo - hall starting to fill before the debate)
 

Here's my opening statement from today's debate with Christian evangelist and debater Peter Payne in Trondheim, Norway today.

 

HAS SCIENCE BURIED GOD?

 

Thank you to the organisers for inviting me to participate in this excellent event. I'm delighted to be here.

 

In one of his online resources Peter Payne says, and I quote:

 

"The net of scientific method, namely the net of hypothesis and experimental/observational test, is unable to demonstrate either the truth or falsity of the Christian faith, for it is simply the wrong kind of net to capture what is relevant."

 

Peter is not alone in thinking Christianity is off limits to science, of course. Many Christians would agree with him. However it seems to me Peter's claim is pretty clearly wrong. Science can be a threat to religious beliefs, and indeed to Christian belief. I'm going to explain how. Continues here.