If you would like a diffi cult concluding question, consider one of the following passages, identify the inferences being discussed and comment on how strong they are.
8.9.1 It is often said … that although there is no positive evidence for the existence of a God, nor is there evidence against His existence. So it is best to keep an open mind and be agnostic. At fi rst sight that seems an unassailable position … But on second thoughts it seems a cop-out, because the same could be said of Father Christmas and tooth fairies. There may be fairies at the bottom of the garden. There is no evidence of it, but you can’t prove that there aren’t any, so shouldn’t we be agnostic with respect to fairies? The trouble with the agnostic argument is that it can be applied to anything. There is an infi nite number of hypothetical beliefs we could hold which we can’t positively disprove. On the whole, people don’t believe in most of them, such as fairies, unicorns, dragons, Father Christmas, and so on. But on the whole they do believe in a creator God. (See Questions appendix, passage 57 [Dawkins])
8.9.2 It is important not to confuse my view that religious claims are meaningless with the view that is adopted by atheists, or agnostics. Atheists deny that God exists and agnostics say they do not know whether He exists. Thus, my view that all claims about the nature of God are meaningless is actually incompatible with each of these familiar positions. For if the sentence ‘God exists’ is meaningless, then the atheist’s claim, ‘God does not exist’, is meaningless too, since only meaningful claims can be meaningfully denied. As for the agnostic, although he says he does not know whether ‘God exists’ or ‘God does not exist’ is true, he must think both claims are meaningful because he thinks that the question ‘Does God exist?’ is a genuine, meaningful question. Since I have insisted that such claims (and questions) are meaningless, my view is incompatible with the agnostic’s position too. (Adapted from the writings of A.J. Ayer, The Existence of God, ed. Hick)