Wittgenstein: Theist or Atheist?

Wittgenstein is one of the philosophers of the 20th century whose ideas very often and clearly resonated in the works of scholars in other fields. His ideas about God and the problem of religious realism/irrealism is no exception, and even served as a basis for some theories in the field. The author in this article wants to clarify Wittgenstein’s view in this regard. He argues that Wittgenstein, in his Tractatus seems to deny any reality for a trans-physical world because language has no access to such a world. According to this idea, he should be considered an atheist, and not a religious irrealist. In his Philosophical Investigations; however, Wittgenstein looks like a realist in matters of ontological theology, when he writes: “theology benefits from a unique language game.” This suggests that he should believe in a reality for God, deity, and religious beliefs separately from one’s mind.