Assertiveness

Continuing the speech, Flew touches upon many other statements, such as “God’s plan” or “God made the world”. He calls them dangerous for theological utterance. He also states that at first sight they are like statements, but in fact they are not sure to be real statements. Flew sticks to the point that every assertion should be denied. It means that if the person states something, there must be someone who will deny it. Further he moves on by saying that anything, counting against the statement or anything, which can make the speaker consider it as the mistake must be partially the negation of the statement… and if there is nothing to be denied by the statement, there is also nothing to be accepted by it. So, it can not be called as an assertion. What does it mean? He proves the idea, that the statement may be regarded as meaningless when it is not supported by facts and evidence, counting against it.

As the illustrating example he used the conversation between the Skeptic and the Believer. The Skeptic said that everything he Believer called invisible, eternally elusive gardener differ from the gardener at all, and from the imaginary in particular. The Skeptic was arguing with the Believer that there was no gardener, as they examined the territory very carefully and none was found. The evidence witnesses against the gardener. The statement of the Believer was crushed by the counterpart that it was not assertion at all. That statement was considered to be meaningless, because it was not proved somehow. People may say different things, but not all of them deserve to be the meaningful assertions. Antony Flew claims that fact that every belief should be proved in order to be meaningful. In other way it would not be regarded as the assertion at all.



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