In the article Symposium on Theology and Falsification written by Anthony Flew, R. Hare, and Basil Mitchell, the analysis of a believer's assertions and the negation of his assertions are made. Reading through the article, the major point the author attempts to make becomes crystal clear. The author brings up the long standing question of whether God is or is not and that pro or con assertions of the existence of God tend to obfuscate peoples beliefs. He sets numerous examples of how a believer is easily blinded by his/her strong convictions while fully disregarding all that seems rational and logical to a skeptic individual, whose beliefs strongly negate those of the believer's. .
He begins the article with a parable from a tale by John Wisdom where two explorers find themselves in a flowery garden in the midst of the woods. They argue about the existence of a gardener. One explorer insists that "some gardener must tend this plot" and the other explorer believes that "there is no gardener." They decide to settle in and wait for the arrival of the gardener, who never appears. They even put up a barbed wire fence, electrified it and patrolled the area with dogs, yet still no gardener. Unable to be convinced that there is no gardener, the explorer insists on his strong beliefs when he says: "but there is a gardener, invisible, intangible, insensible to electric shocks, a gardener who has no scent and makes no sound, a gardener who comes secretly to look after the garden which he loves". It is understandable at this point the frustration of the skeptic explorer when he asks: "but what remains of your original assertion? Just how does what you call an invisible, intangible, eternally elusive gardener differ from an imaginary gardener or even from no gardener at all?" Here, what begins with strong assertions that seem so concrete, slowly dilutes itself as all substance is lost. The author uses other examples as well, such as the use of "theological utterances.
