1
Q
Corporate religious experience
(Group)
A
- Religious experience which happens to a group of people ‘as a body’
- E.G. healing at Lourdes.
- Toronto Blessing, many people who visited a pentecostal church went through strange religious experiences, from speaking in tongues, to laughing hysterically.
2
Q
Key word:
Conversion experience
A
are those which influence a person to join a religion.
E.G. ST PAUL
3
Q
Numinous experience
A
An indescribable experience which involves feeling of awe, worship & fascination
4
Q
Principe of credulity
A
Swinburne principle what we usually believe is what our sense is telling us unless we have proof that its false.
5
Q
Principe of testimony
A
Swinburne principle that we should usually trust that other people are telling the truth
6
Q
Swinburne provides ways to categorise personal experiences
in His book ‘the existence of God’
A
Can experince God though..
- public/common places e.g. God in a sunset or in an ocean - where God can be encountered
- private sensations e.g. dreams/visions
7
Q
challenge to swiburnes principes
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
A
is a mere (small) experience of God sufficient evidence to justify belief in God?
Arguably the existence of God is an extraordinary claim which therefore might require extraordinary evidence.
8
Q
Naturalistic explanations
A
An explanation referring to natural rather than supernatural cases
9
Q
Neurophysiology
A
An area of science which studies the brain & the nervous system. Rapidly developing many unknown.
- Scientists have begun to look at the brain and the feeling of a religious experience
10
Q
What is a religious experience/ intro
A
Non-empirical occurrence = may be perceived as supernatural
- a sense of wonder
- a sense of holiness
- involved the whole person: mind& emotions
- “Religious experience” can have varied interpretations, ranging from general religious activities to specific life-changing events.
- It can be individual or communal, occurring within a religious context or as extraordinary occurrences outside the ordinary.
- Religious experiences encompass diverse forms such as visions, conversions, numinous encounters, and near-death experiences, making them challenging to articulate adequately.
- The authenticity of religious experiences is debated, with some attributing them to genuine encounters and others to psychological factors or scientific explanations.
11
Q
Examples of religious experience
A
Prophet Muhammad:the night of power (the holiness night in Islam). = e.g, the Muslim practice of praying five times a day comes from the Prophet Muhammad’s personal religious experience in which guidance about prayer was revealed to him, and the style of worship in charismatic
Jesus transfiguration:Christ took three of his disciples on a mountain, where Moses appeared & Jesus was transfigured
12
Q
Schleiermacher (1768-1834)
A
- He claims religion is based on personal experience
- His famous book called ‘Religion: Speeches to its cultured Desporers (1799)
- Religious experience is self-authenticating (requires no other testing).
- He believed that every individual possesses a consciousness of the divine, often obscured by other concerns.
- Schleiermacher contended that religious experiences could vary across cultures, leading to diverse expressions of religion worldwide, with Christianity being the highest but not the exclusive true religion.
13
Q
Schleiermacher Quote
A
Religion is ‘a sense and taste for the infinite’
‘Feeling of absolute dependence’
14
Q
Criticism of Schleiermacher
A
- overemphasises the subjective nature of religion, = reducing it to emotion and undermining the ability to test religious claims against objective standards such as scripture and church teachings.
15
Q
1842 = William James
BOOK: ‘The Variety of Religous Experiences.’
A
He believes religious are…
- an experience for indivduals that is real: its self-authenticating.
- psycholgical phenomena, making them natural to a person such as thinking is.
- The book was successful for its objective treatment of personal religious experiences, featuring firsthand accounts shared by individuals. + using a pragmatic approach: he was concerned with the actual effects, not the supernatural
- James explored various aspects of religious experience,including conversion, which he saw as a process leading to greater confidence and happiness.
context
- WJ was a psychologist he analysed those who claimed to have religious experience
16
Q
William James: four characteristics of mystical experience
PINT
A
- Ineffability: impossible to express (e.g. St Teresa: ‘I wish I could give a description of at least of the smallest thing’
- Noetic: the experience gives the person an knowledge which is not available through human experience = often people speak of having the truth revealed to them
- Transiency: the experience lasting for a few hours, but the effects can last a lifetime (a short experience)
- Passivity: the person having the experience is controlled/ taken over.
17
Q
Features of a mystical experience
A
- knowledge of the ‘ultimate reality’ is gained which is knowledge usually hidden from the human intellect.
- a sense of ‘oneness’ or unity with the divine is experienced
18
Q
Types of mysticism according to F.C. Happold
1893
A
- The mysticism of love and union :needs to be part of something bigger than ourselves.
- The mysticism of knowledge and understanding:
finding answers to the ‘secret of the universe’)
19
Q
Mystical experience
A
Involves the spiritual recognition of truths beyond normal understanding (e.g. visions and voices)
Many ‘mystic’ St John of the cross, Teresa of Avila
- Historically, figures like John of the Cross saw himself as Christians seeking spiritual encounters. = but are seen as mystics today
- Calling an experience “mystical” implies a recognition that individuals may connect with the divine reality
20
Q
1893 = F.C. Happlod study of mysticism
dont get
A
- in his book: Mysticism: A study & an anthology
- Happold defines mysticism as the foundation of all religions, rooted in, innate human understanding.
- He asserts that mysticism, found in various cultures worldwide, shares common features:
- Recognition of the physical world as only a part of reality, originating from a “Divine Ground.”
- Humanity’s purpose is to discover and unite with the eternal self and the Divine Ground.
- Happold’s book explores mysticism’s nature, its relation to scientific truth, featuring an anthology of mystical writings from diverse sources, including Plato, and Christianity, including ancient Christian manuscripts purportedly recording the words of Jesus not found in the gospels.
21
Q
Christian Mysticism
A
- vision and voices from God common in Christianity and many other mysical religious experiences.
- in these visions, the person sees something supernatural (something beyond the realms of normal, natural experience)
- Not always clear whether this is literal
- Visions and voices from God are common forms of mystical religious experience
- Biblical examples include Isaiah’s vision in the temple and Samuel hearing a voice while in the temple.
22
Q
Numinous experience (difficult to define) =Rudolf Otto
A
- Famous book: ‘the idea of the Holy’ - 1917
- the individual may gain a new and deeper understanding of reality
- Numinous experiences, difficult to define, evoke a profound sense of awe and wonder, often triggered by encounters with beauty or moments of deep reflection.
- According to Otto, numinous experiences are encounters with the divine that transcend normal perception, of the primary source of beauty and love.
He states: “In the true mystic there is an extension of normal consciousness, a release of latent powers and a widening of vision’’
23
Q
Ottos: ‘ mysterium tremendum et fascinans’
(Tremendous and facinating mystery)
A
- An awe-inspiring, fascinating mystery
- It focuses on God’s transcendence and eminence - God is so far from humanity we need numinous expereince to be able to approach Him.
24
Q
Three Qualities the divine would recognised
A
- Quality of mystery: realisation that God is incomprehensible God can be met but never fully captured
- God has a quality that is both attractive and dangerous
- God is recognised as wing ultimate importance
25
Schema
| ineffable
An **attempt to find words** which approach the idea of what is **trying to be expressed**, **but is ultimately inexpressible** = e.g. **James used the term ‘ineffable’**
26
The Value of Experience for Religious Faith
Religious Experience **confirms** faith - e.g. Teresa of Avila said that **she didn't know that Christ had been involved with the experience** - but she **knew and felt that Christ was close by.**
Religious experiences **will strengthen faith for believers** - they will **feel the experiences and their beliefs hold truth and justice.**
27
is relgious experience proof of the existence of God?
* some may be **skeptical /in disbelief** because they may feel: **visons of angles/ hearing prophets** could be **mistaken**, **exaggerating** or **confusing a normal experience.**
* EVALUATION: if a person said they saw a pigeon in the sky, people wouldnt consider if they was lying/mistaken. we would automatically accept it - cus theyve seen a pigeon before. - **bc we havent encounter God cannot take it at face value**
28
critics of relgious experiences
| religious expereinces are just pshycological effects
drugs, illness and fasting changes we think and experience the world.
physical state can be affected e.g. lack of sleep = hallucinations
29
critics Feuerbach
| 1804
## Footnote
The 'essence of christianity'
- Religious belief and experience have **origins within the human mind.**
- **Religion is an illusion**
- humans **take the best part of themselve** **creativity, hope, goodness** and **project them onto something outside of themselves i.e. '*God*'**
30
# 'THE FUTURE OF AN ILLUSTRATION'
1856 = Frued
| Influenced by Feuerbach
- famous **psychologist/ psychanalysis**
- he believes **people who encounter God are fooling themselves.**
- People are **unable to cope with adult life** – so **invent imaginary parent-figure**. This **implies the reason Christian call God ‘father’** because they are **deluded adults that have desires for eternal innocence** **to avoid the difficulties in the world.** Similarrly, humans are so *afraid of death and the difficulties of life* that they can **delude themselves that there is a God who will take care of them and an afterlife**
-
- **Mistake** their **super-ego for God**
- religious experiences is **a sysmpton an 'infantile neurosis'** = **need to grow out of to live a better life.**
- In his book 'THE FUTURE OF AN ILLUSTRATION' =***"Religion is a system of wishful illusions"***
31
Frued: The Mind
* First to work on human 'psyche' = we have concious and uncounscious mental process.
* **Ego** :conscious self (shape by external influences e.g. truma, upbringing)
* **Unconscious self** = *memories, repressed emotions*
* **conscious/inner moral voice** - tells us what is *right and wrong*
32
Types of Conversion
- **The volitional type**: which is a conscious and voluntary process [Thomas Merton]
- **The self-surrender type**: which is an unconscious experience [St. Paul]
33
Conversions as **controversial**
* **All humans behaviour happens within a context**
* Could be argued to be the **result of social and psychological factors**, *rather than God,* e.g. a **lot of prisoners have intense conversion experiences.**
= difficult in **distinguishing spiritual from social influences**.
34
St Pauls Conversion
* **Completely transformative** as documented in **the New Testament** =*He was a Jew called Saul who persecuted Christians*. On the road to **Damascus**, he had an **experience which converted him to Christianity. change his name to paul**
* He **preached the Gospel and eventually dying a martyr’s death**.
- **Michelangelo** depicts the story of the conversion of Saul from the book of Acts
* *William James* argued that the conversion of Saul was a **valid religious experience because it had the permanent effect of making him into a zealous Christian.** - transiety
35
Donal **Winnicott** (1896)
Psychological interpretation of religious experience
| extended Frued
- **He extended Frued** ideas into **his influence of studies of childhood**
- interested in the **bond between a child and mother and *transitions* needed for child to become mentally healthy adult.**
- in his **study** of ***child developmen*t** he **notice children having emotional attachment to objects & toys. e.g. teddy, blanket**
- He states *'t**hose who cannot distinguish between illusions and reality have hallmarks of madness’** (playing and reality 1971)*
- **Religion is best understood within *illusion***. = this **gives poeple a *sense* of place in the world.**
36
Physiological interpretation of religious experience
This is one which accounts for religious experience **naturalistically** in term of the **biology’s of the human brain**
37
Near-death experiences
Physiological interpretation of religious experience
- Sometimes reported by people whose heart stopped beating, e.g. cardiac arrest or coma
- sensations of **leaving bodies looking down and being in a loving presence**= which for some **suggests life after death/a loving God**.
- sometimes also includes bright light at the end of dark tunnel
- Other psychological studies such as **Mobbs & Watts suggest that all NDE’s can be *biologically extended*.**
38
Conversions
- Conversion experiences **involve abandoning old beliefs and adopting new ones** based on their experience
- Individuals search **emotionally for a basis to make a decision**, which may involve **turning to the Bible or hearing stories of other** conversions.
- A **crisis point occur**s marked **by intense emotion**, often involving a **sense of God's presence, sinfulness, and repentance**
- Following the crisis, **there's a sense of peace**
- **Long-term effects** include a **purpose in life**
- ***William James*** described conversion as ***’reshaping one's worldview.’’***
x: Firstly, conversion experiences could be hallucinations.
Dr Ramachandran suggests it’s possible that St Paul had epilepsy – his description was consistent with having an epileptic seizure. Epilepsy can cause hallucinations.
39
Can corporate religious experiences be considered more reliable or valid than individual experiences?
- Corporate religious experiences may **hold more evidential weight than individual ones**.
- **Multiple** **witnesses** can provide **support for the truthfulness of a religious experience.**
- **Reports from *several* individuals can make an experience more *credible*.**
- In legal contexts, multiple witnesses often **strengthen the credibility of evidence.**
- **Group pressure** might i**nfluence individuals to conform to *perceived* experiences**.
- **The Toronto Blessing** is cited as an example w**here heightened emotions may have led to collective experiences.**
40
Is personal testimony or witness enough to support the validity of religious experience?
- Religious experiences are often **deemed unsuitable as evidence** for the existence of God **because they cannot be tested or replicated scientifically.**
- The strength of belief in religious experiences is not necessarily indicative of their truthfulness.
- Swinburne's **Principle of Testimony** suggests that **personal religious experiences should be believed similarly to other reported events.**
- However, some argue that **personal testimony alone is insufficient** when the **issue** is of **ultimate importance, such as the existence of God.**
- William James **proposed that the validity of religious experiences can be judged by their long-lasting effects, akin to the efficacy of medicine.**
- Biblical writers caution against f**alse prophets and emphasize the importance of discerning genuine experiences from deceptive claims.**
philosophy
flashcards
Decks in class (9)
# Cards
-
The Existence Of God - Arguments Based On Observations40
-
Arguments based on reason: ontological argument20
-
The problem of evil30
-
Religious Experience40
-
Soul, mind & body21
-
Plato & Aristotle: ancient philosophical influences23
-
Religious language29
-
Religious Language 20th Century25
-
The nature of attributes of God29
