1.5 Religious Experiences Flashcards

1
Q

What is a religious experience?

A

a non-empirical direct or personal experience with God

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2
Q

What are the 3 different types of religious experiences?

A
  • visions
  • numinous
  • mystical
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3
Q

What are the impacts about religious experiences?

A

they draw people closer to god

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4
Q

Define visions

A

an image or event where there is a message or revelation

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5
Q

What are corporeal visions?

A

where a figure is externally present

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6
Q

What are imaginative visions?

A

a vision seen in the minds eye

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7
Q

What are intellectual visions?

A

visions which bring new knowledge or understanding and no figure is seen/heard

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8
Q

Example of corporeal vision

A

St Bernadette/St Paul

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9
Q

Example of imaginative vision

A

Pharoah/Joseph’s ladder

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10
Q

Example of intellectual vision

A

St Teresa of Avila

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11
Q

Who proposed numinous visions?

A

Rudolf Otto

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12
Q

What is Otto’s main work?

A

‘The idea of the Holy’

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13
Q

Define numinous experiences

A

Experiences of the ‘wholly other’

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14
Q

Where does numinous derive from?

A

‘numen’ meaning power or deity

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15
Q

Define non-rational

A

Cannot make sense of it using own senses/intellect

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16
Q

Define ‘sui generis’

A

unique/of its own kind/ in a class of its own

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17
Q

What quality does Otto emphasise?

A

Transcendence

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18
Q

How did C S Lewis define numinous experiences?

A

‘uncanny’ with feelings of dread

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19
Q

Biblical example of numinous experience?

A
  • Moses and the burning bush
  • Peter and the fish
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20
Q

Define ‘mysterium tremendum et fascinans’

A

a tremendus and fascinating mystery

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21
Q

What is a mystical experience?

A

an extraordinary union with the divine characterised by feelings of bliss and ecstacy

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22
Q

Main work of William James

A

Varieties of religious experiences

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23
Q

How does James describe mystical experiences?

A

“an ability to see the truth in a special way”

24
Q

Define passivity

A

the mystic is passive and is taken over by the experience

25
Q

Define ineffability

A

experiences beyond expression and words

26
Q

Define noetic quality

A

give the person new knowledge

27
Q

Define transciency

A

mystical experiences can only last for a short amount of time

28
Q

What is James’ view on the use of drugs

A

They can cause genuine mystical experiences

29
Q

Finish the quote by James: Halluciogenics allow “depth beyond depth

A

of truth which seems revealed to the inhaler

30
Q

What do mystical experiences give to the mystic?

A

a new level of consciousness

31
Q

Finish Stace’s quote: “either God is a mystery or …

A

“He is nothing at all”

32
Q

Finish Stace’s quote: “mystical experiences transcends ..

A

our sensory-intellectual consciousness

33
Q

Define non-sensuous

A

no use of senses

34
Q

Define non-intellectual

A

no use of reason

35
Q

What is an extrovertive mystical experience

A

where you can still have sense of external things

36
Q

What is an introvertive mystical experience?

A

the mystic loses all control and senses

37
Q

Why is it difficult to verify religious experiences: individual testimony

A

we only have the word of an individual who claims to have had the experience as evidence

38
Q

Why is it difficult to verify religious experiences: private events

A

religious experiences are private events so are just in the mind

39
Q

Why is it difficult to verify religious experiences: contradictory experiences

A

Different religions have different experiences

40
Q

Why is it difficult to verify religious experiences: rare events

A

Religious experiences are too rare so there is not enough evidence to support them

41
Q

What is Freud’s challenge to religious experiences?

A

They are just wish-fulfillment

42
Q

What is religion’s respons to Freud?

A

Freud theory is just a hypothesis so cannot be tested

43
Q

What is temporal lobe epilepsy challenge to religious experiences?

A

some people suffer from this condition whcih suggests religious experiences are nothing more than abnormal brain states

44
Q

What is religion’s respons to TLE?

A

If God wants to give people religious experiences then these have to be processed by the brain

45
Q

What is the god helmet challenge to religious experiences?

A

magnetic coils used to electrically stimulate the brain whcih causes religious experiences. If science can replicate religious experiences then they are not real events

46
Q

What is religion’s response to the God helmet?

A

The mind can generate experiences of God - this does not meant that they are false

47
Q

What is the drug challenge to religious experiences?

A

religious experiences can be caused by mind altering substances such as drugs and alcohol

48
Q

What is religion’s response to the God helmet?

A

James argues that it does not matter how a religious experience is brought about - it is still real

49
Q

What is Swinburne’s stance on God

A

God exists and can be proven through cumulative arguments

50
Q

What is Swinburne’s principle of credulity?

A

If it seems to a subject that X is present then X probably is present

51
Q

What is Swinburne’s principle of testimony?

A

in the absence of special considerations, the experiences of others are probably as they report them

52
Q

One strength of religious experiences

A

some can be empirically verified e.g. Lourdes

53
Q

One weakness of religious experiences

A

they are difficult to empirically verify

54
Q

Influence of religious experiences: one example of religious experiences as foundational

A
  • Prophet Muhammad
  • Guru Nanak
55
Q

Influence of religious experiences: one example of religious experiences as inspirational

A
  • St Paul
  • Joan of Arc
56
Q

Influence of religious experiences: one example of religious experiences as pilgrimages

A
  • Mecca
  • Lourdes
57
Q

Influence of religious experiences: one example of religious experiences as life changing

A
  • St Paul