Recently an interlocutor of mine claimed that religious
beliefs, unlike scientific beliefs, are unfalsifiable.
But beliefs of these two sorts don’t differ in this way. There is evidence for and evidence against both types of beliefs. So both kinds are at least
theoretically verifiable and falsifiable. Moreover, when believers persist in
maintaining beliefs in either category in the face of counterevidence, they
often do so because they have adequate grounds for those beliefs and
insufficient reason to think the contrary evidence is decisive. In these cases,
though the beliefs are practically unfalsified,
it doesn’t follow that they are theoretically unfalsifiable.
Your reply seems to me exactly right. (And I have to say, I haven't heard the "unfalsifiability" charge in a very long time! For critics such as Dawkins and Hitchens, the problem is that Christianity is falsifiable and falsiFIED!)
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