There never comes a point where a theory can be said to be true. The most that one can claim for any theory is that it has shared the successes of all its rivals and that it has passed at least one test which they have failed.
A.J. AyerRead
If 'god' is a metaphysical term, then it cannot be even probable that a god exists. For to say that 'God exists' is to make a metaphysical utterance which cannot be either true or false. And by the same criterion, no sentence which purports to describe the nature of a transcendent god can possess any literal significance.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote argues that if God is defined in metaphysical terms, assertions about God's existence cannot be meaningful or true.
A.J. Ayer's quote challenges the coherence of metaphysical claims about God, suggesting that if God is a metaphysical concept, then statements about God's existence cannot be proven true or false. This perspective aligns with logical positivism, which holds that meaningful statements must be either empirically verifiable or analytically true, thereby rendering metaphysical claims, including those about a transcendent God, as lacking literal significance.
Themes
GodExistenceMetaphysicsPhilosophyTruthSignificance
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophy class discussion about the nature of God and existence.
More from A.J. Ayer
All quotes →In other words, the propositions of philosophy are not factual, but linguistic in character - that is, they do not describe the behaviour of physical, or even mental, objects; they express definitions, or the formal consequences of definitions. Accordingly we may say that philosophy is a department of logic. For we will see that the characteristic mark of a purely logical enquiry, is that it is concerned with the formal consequences of our definitions and not with questions of empirical fact.
A.J. AyerRead
It is time, therefore, to abandon the superstition that natural science cannot be regarded as logically respectable until philosophers have solved the problem of induction. The problem of induction is, roughly speaking, the problem of finding a way to prove that certain empirical generalizations which are derived from past experience will hold good also in the future.
A.J. AyerRead
The ground for taking ignorance to be restrictive of freedom is that it causes people to make choices which they would not have made if they had seen what the realization of their choices involved.
A.J. AyerRead
The only possible basis for a sound morality is mutual tolerance and respect: tolerance of one another’s customs and opinions; respect for one another’s rights and feelings; awareness of one another’s needs.
A.J. AyerRead
The traditional disputes of philosophers are, for the most part, as unwarranted as they are unfruitful.
A.J. AyerRead
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