Out of the Different Analyses of Falsification and Its Relationship to Religious Belief Given by Flew, Hare and Marshall, Which Do You Think Is Best?

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There are numerous analyses of falsification and its relationship to religious belief that act as parables with similar messages, but the three that give the clearest representations are given by Flew, Hare and Mitchell. R.M Hare’s theory concerns a certain lunatic who is convinced that all dons want to murder him. His friends introduce him to all the mildest and most respectable dons that they can find, and after each of them has retired, they say, ‘You see, he doesn’t really want to murder you; he spoke to you in a most cordial manner; surely you are convinced now?’ But the lunatic replies, ‘Yes, but that was only is diabolical cunning; he’s really plotting against me the whole time, like the rest of them; I know it, I tell you.’ However many kindly dons are produced, the reaction is still the same. Mitchell however told a parable that started in time of war in an occupied country. A member of the resistance meets one night a stranger who deeply impresses him. They spend that night together in conversation. The Stranger tells the partisan that he himself is on the side of the resistance and that he is in command of it, urging the partisan to have faith in him no matter what happens. The partisan is utterly convinced at that meeting of the Stranger’s sincerity and constancy and undertakes to trust him. They never meet in conditions of intimacy again. But sometimes the Stranger is seen helping members of the resistance, and the partisan is grateful and says to his friends, ‘He is on our side.’ Anthony Flew‘s story starts with two explorers in the jungle find a clearing in which weeds and flowers grow. One of them suggests that there is a gardener who looks after the clearing (as flowers are present); the other suggests that there is no gardener. The two gardeners set a watch, use dogs to hunt for the gardener and even put up an electric fence to detect

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