The Puzzle Of God by Peter Vardy (Chap 2)
What is Truth?
The correspondence theory of truth
This theory maintains that a statement is true if it corresponds to a state of affairs which is independent of language and of the society which we live in.
This theory of truth has been adopted by realists. Realists maintain that reality is separate from out language.
Sometimes we make errors (eg. The earth was once believed to be flat - the earth was never flat, the error lay in people thinking the claim to flatness correctly represented the world).
KEY WORD: Bivalence - a statement is either true or false, regardless of whether we have evidence of its truth or falsity.
The realists will maintain a statement is either true or false to affirm bivalence. A statement is true if it successfully corresponds to some reality.
“God Exists” is true because it corresponds or refers to the God who created and sustains the universe.
The coherence theory of truth
This theory maintains that a statement is true if it coheres with other true statements. This theory is held by anti-realists.
Language is the jigsaw into which words and expressions have to fit.
The statement about the world being flat was once true because it formed an integral part of the way in which the world was then seen. It was once true, but it no longer is.
What makes a statement true is that it is a part if or fits in with a particular form of life. There can be different truths in different communities; truth is not absolute it is relative.
Anti realists deny bivalence.
Morality evolves to meet the needs of society. You cannot judge one society by the ideas of another.
Someone can be a realists about some things and an anti realist about others.
Anti realists claim that “God Exists” is true because the statement coheres or fits in with other statements made by religious believers.
