Abstract

Martin believes that "mathematic statements, scientific statements, and moral statements are not themselves in conceptual disorder, though philosophical accounts of them regularly are." In this book he sets out to show that most religious statements share this defect. Martin uses linguistic analysis, but his aim is primarily to criticize the content of religious statements, not to discover the logic of religious discourse. Much of his argument depends upon the contention that many assertions are meaningful only if their negation is logically possible and that such assertions cannot be meaningfully transferred from the contingent realm to apply necessarily to God. Martin writes well, and uses dialogue to illustrate his point effectively and entertainingly.--L. S. F.