Logic and the Basis of Theology : an Investigation into the Help Logic Can Give to the Understanding of Different Theologies, Following the Contributions to Both Disciplines of Arthur Prior, 1914-1969.

Abstract

My thesis is that modem symbolic mathematical logics have an important contribution to make to theologies. I demonstrate this firstly in a 'theoretical section' (i) by showing what logics are and why they can be trusted; (ii) by showing how all theologies may be correctly treated as axiomatic systems; (iii) by outlining some modern logics which can assist theological thinking, including a logic I construct for this purpose called the Theologic. I demonstrate this, secondly, in an 'applied logic' section, by looking at (iv) the theology of one current branch of Christianity in detail, outlining its logical problems and the consequences of trying to avoid them; (v) 'post-modern' Christian theologies, firstly those that suggest that the word 'God' is a symbol rather than a name, and secondly at three feminist theologies two of which are logically quite radical; (vi) pantheism, in particular at Spinoza's ideas and Lovelock's Gaia; (vii) two religions, Buddhism and Confucianism, which, in their basic religious thinking, can be said to have no gods. I find that all religions I have studied - and they are representative of religions actual, proposed and imagined - have serious logical flaws, some known of old, others brought to light by the modern logics. The consequences of making the religions more logically sound are generally unacceptable to the members of the faiths. The suggestion that the gods use a different sort of logic to us is generally logically unacceptable. This does not leave abandoning religion as the only other possibility: the work of theologians in future, assisted by mathematical logic, may be (a) to bring about changes in basic beliefs, and (b) to assist in the birth of new, logically sound, religions. These investigations are carried out in the spirit of A N Prior, who came to logic through a Christian upbringing which gave him an interest in theology, a desire to make that theology more consistent, and as Professor of Philosophy at Canterbury College (as it then was) taught me. My upbringing was similar. We both, in the end, found conventional Christianity too illogical to believe. Time having past, I have been able to examine the logic of other, and newer, theologies.