My talk at the Atheist Alliance International conference in Burbank has been rescheduled. I’ll be speaking Friday, October 2nd at 5:00 PM. Here is an abstract.

Roy Sablosky: On the Profession of Religious Belief
As Wittgenstein observed, “one cannot mean a senseless series of words.” Religious propositions have no meaning, so they cannot be meant; and if they cannot be meant, they cannot be believed. Therefore, “I believe in God” (for example) is not an statement of belief. But then, what is it? If the person who says it is not meaning or believing, what is he doing? Here at last is a question about religion that can be answered! Such statements are not reports of (private) mental states, they are tokens of group affiliation. This has important implications for cultural debate and for public policy.