Sample Material of UPSC Mains Philosophy (Optional) Study Kit
Topic: Philosophy of Religion (Theology and Verification)
JOHN HICK
To ask ‘Is the existence of God verifiable?’ is to pose a question which is too imprecise to be capable of being answered. l There are many different concepts of God, and it may be that statements employing some of them are open to verification or falsification while statements employing others of them are not. Again, the notion of verifying is itself by no means perfectly clear and fixed; and it may be that on some views of the nature of verification the existence of God is verifiable, whereas on other views it is not. Instead of seeking to compile a list of the various different concepts of God and the various possible senses of ‘verify’, I wish to argue with regard to one particular concept of deity, namely the Christian concept, that divine existence is in principle verifiable; and as the first stage of this argument I must indicate what I mean by ‘verifiable’.
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The central core of the concept of verification, I suggest, is the removalof ignorance or uncertainty concerning the truth of some proposition. That p is verified (whether p embodies a theory, hypothesis, prediction, or straightforward assertion) means that something happens which From Theology Today, 17 (1960), 12-31. Reprinted by permission of the author and the Editor of Theology Today. In this article I assume that an indicative sentence expresses a factual assertion if and only if the state in which the universe would be if the putative assertion could correctly be said to be true differs in some experienceable way from the state in which the universe would be if the putative assertion could correctly be said to be false, all aspects of the universe other than that referred to in the putative assertion being the same in either case. This criterion acknowledges the important core of truth in the logical positivist verification principle. ‘Experienceable’ in the above formulation means, in the case of alleged subjective or private facts (e.g. pains, dreams, after-images, etc.), ‘experienceable by the subject in question’ and, in the case of alleged objective or public facts, ‘capable in principle of being experienced by anyone’. My contention is going to be that ‘God exists’ asserts a matter of objective fact. makes it clear that p is true. A question is settled so that there is no longer room for rational doubt concerning it. The way in which grounds for rational doubt are excluded varies, of course, with the subject-matter. But the general feature common to all cases of verification is the ascertaining of truth by the removal of grounds for rational doubt. Where such grounds are removed, we rightly speak of verification having taken place.