Theological noncognitivism
Overview
Theological noncognitivists claim that they are not able to understand why theists, atheists, and agnostics all seem to believe that the theists' capitalized row of three alphabet letters "God", when spoken or written by Christians, Jews or Muslims, is a meaningful word. Theological noncognitivists claim not to know of any reason to believe that it is. Theological noncognitivists do not claim, as do atheists, that "God" refers to something nonexistent. Theological noncognitivists do not claim to know of any reason to believe "God" refers to anything at all, whether existent or nonexistent. In other words, atheists believe "God" is like the meaningful word "unicorn", referring to something nonexistent. But theological noncognitivists claim not to know of any reason to believe that. They claim not to see any difference between "God" and, say, the meaningless row of alphabet letters "Gop" -- except for:
- 1. the last letter of "Gop" is "p" and not "d",
and
- 2. theological noncognitivists have observed that"God" seems to cause theists to get into a certain emotional state of humbleness, fear and awe, whereas "Gop" doesn't seem to have that or any effect upon theists.
Theological noncognitivists claim not to be able to see any difference(s) between "God" and "Gop", other than the above two.