God & Philosophy of Language (w/ Joseph Lawal)

About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of the philosophy of language on the understanding of God, particularly challenging classical theistic views.

Does philosophy of language give us reason to think that God, if he exists, is more like us than classical theists expect? I’m joined by philosopher of language Joseph Lawal to discuss an argument from his paper, 'God An Alien or An Alien God?' His argument aims to push us away from the strongest versions of divine simplicity and aseity, but is also potentially a problem for theistic personalists who affirm God's timelessness. The argument, which focuses on the otherness of God (on non-finitist views), leads us to the conclusion that ordinary theological language is either false or meaningless on classical theism. (E.g., “God loves you” would either be false or meaningless.) This poses a major problem for the religious theist and destroys their ability to make predictions and inferences about God based on his attributes. This would not only undermine natural theology, but also harm the sorts of inferences we make about God in ordinary life. *In the conversation, I use the word “prediction” at a few points where it probably would have been clearer to use the word “inference” instead. *There is a lot of information packed into this episode; it may be beneficial to listen more than…

People in this episode

Host: Emerson Green

Guest: Joseph Lawal

Topics covered

• philosophy of language
• theism
• divine simplicity
• aseity
• theological language
• God's attributes

Keywords

• philosophy of language
• God
• theism
• divine simplicity
• aseity
• theological language
• inference
• natural theology

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: God An Alien or An Alien God?

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