- Wittgenstein propounded the ‘language game theory’ – this was the idea that different aspects of life have their own language and their own rules and unless you were familiar with them you could not play them properly.
- For example you cannot hope to examine religious claims by using scientific method any more than you could referee a football match using netball rules.
- Concept of life after death is a part of the religious language game
- And some would argue that it can only be fully understood by those who play that game i.e. believers
- Yet it is a subject of concern to most people.
- In a debate between a non-religious person and a believer the latter will often retreat because his claims are based on non-empirical evidence and apparently illogical arguments.
- Logical Positivists wondered whether the language of life after death was meaningful at all?
- Since life after death is a subject without empirical proof and beyond experience it cannot
be verified and it cannot be falsified.
- Believers can be charged with not allowing anything to count against their belief and therefore this makes analysis of their claims pointless.
- Believers would counter this claim as John Hick did by claiming that verification is
indeed possible – eschatologically – i.e. at the end, at death!
- Non-believers should not be demanding only proof in the here and now – doing so will only ensure that the concept of life after death will forever remain incomprehensible.
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