Can Conversations About God Have Meaning ? Notes

Ferdinand de Saussure Semiotics
A Sign = A label that we give to a thing in order to be able to communicate about them. For example a pen

A Signifier = The form the sign takes using the previous example 'P-E-N'

Signified = The concept or thing that the sign refers to.

Even if someone has the idea of the sign and the signifier,if they do not have a concept of the what the signified is then it still makes no scene. This is a massive problem for religious language. Hume would say that we cannot conclude on what is beyond our universe as it to is beyond our understanding and ability to verify. Even in religion there is an epistemic distance between us and God. There is a physical limit to how much we can come to know about God. No matter what we will never fully be able to comprehend fully what God is. As you can see if we cannot (fully) comprehend what God the Signified is then it makes no logical scene to meaningfully talk about the concept that is God.

Kant
In Kant's Conceptual Schemes he suggests that some signs are universal, and that some concepts are innate, meaning that there are somethings that no matter the experience that humans have a concept of.
This was taken by some theologians to argue that everybody innately has a concept of a divine being.
However
Kant believes that these things that we have innate ideas of aren't actually real and just how we perceive reality as a result it doesn't mean that God exists just we have a concept of what he is, which in turn however would be enough for people like Anselm to prove his existence.

Religious Language 
Religious language or 'God Talk' is being able to talk about God in a meaningful and coherent manner. The problem arises when we ask what can meaningfully be said about God ?
The debate over religious language is not concerned with whether God exists or what God is like or why there is evil in the world. The only thing the debate is interested in is working out whether said language actually means anything.

On one side there is the view that we use are reason and our language given to us by God to speak and write about God in a meaningful manner. For example theologian scholars such as Augustine, Aquinas or Anselm.

On the other side there are the logical positivists and those they influence who claim that statements about God have no meaning because they don't relate to anything that is meaningful.