Religious responses to the verification principle have been largely unsuccessful. Evaluate this claim.

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‘Religious responses to the verification principle have been largely unsuccessful.’ Evaluate this claim. (20 marks)

        The Verification Principle claims that it is meaningless to talk about God and ethics etc, as these cannot be verified using empirical evidence or scientific experiments. There have however been many responses to this theory, for example the falsification principle. This is a theory developed by Anthony Flew who says that for a statement to have meaning it must be able to be proven false. So that not religious meaning. This theory is similar to the verification principle but just to prove something wrong instead, however it’s a stronger argument, as it does not go beyond our understanding of God and religion.

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In response to the falsification principle, R.M Hare criticised it with his theory of the ‘blik’, which is an individual’s own personal opinion and meaningful statements. He says that you cannot falsify the blik because it holds meaning to the individual. Christians will think in their minds that God is good; this is their own thought so we cannot prove their ‘blik’ wrong. However, Flew replies to this criticism saying that this is not relevant and cannot be applied to religious language as it has not happened in real life, just in someone’s mind.
Another response to the verification principle ...

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