2.6.1 Strengths of religious experience (the inductive argument)

Question 1

How does credibility link to religious experience?

Answer 1

• religious experiences are often based on personal testimony
• Richard Swinburne’s (b. 1934) “Principle of Credulity” states that unless we have overwhelming evidence to the contrary, then we should believe that things are as they seem to be
• our experiences are normally reliable, so on the balance of probability, experience can not be trusted as being more likely to be true than not
• we should therefore trust our perceptions about our experience of God

Question 2

What are Swinburne’s premises for the credibility for religious experience?

Answer 2

1. experience of _____ implies the reality of _____
2. experience of God implies the reality of God
   conclusion: God exists

Question 3

What is meant by arguments of religious experience being exclusively inductive?

Answer 3

those who believe that religious experience is proof of the existence of God look at the subjective testimonies of individuals who claim to have had religious experiences, in order to find similar characteristics, & then draw the general conclusion that the experiences can only be explained in the context of the existence of God

Question 4

What is Swinburne’s inductive argument for religious experience?

Answer 4

• in his book Is there a God? Swinburne argues inductively that it is reasonable to believe that God is loving & personal & would seek to reveal himself to humanity as an act of love & to enable people to bring about the good
• in this way, he says that “An omnipotent and perfectly good creator will seek to interact with his creatures and, in particular, with human persons capable of knowing him.”

Question 5

What is Swinburne’s general hypothesis for the act of a religious experience?

Answer 5

• Swinburne suggests that religious experiences can be felt empirically - through our senses - & interpreted non-empirically, through our ‘religious sense’
• thus, if we are told that someone has had a religious experience, then we should believe that experience has taken place, even if someone else has had a different experience/no experience at all
• this is called the principle of testimony

Question 6

What is significant about using religious experience for the argument of God’s experience?

Answer 6

the argument citing religious experience as proof of God’s existence is an a posteriori one (derived from factual evidence)

Question 7

State the premises of the a posteriori argument for God’s existence

Answer 7

• such an argument is based on the premise that experience is, in some way, the product of facts about the real world; it could be set out in premises as:
• premise 1 - experience of X indicates the reality of X
• premise 2 - experience of God indicates the reality of God
• premise 3 - it is possible to experience God
• conclusion: God exists (i.e. is really present)

Question 8

How do believers tend to view religious experience?

Answer 8

• for believers, religious experiences are not random occurrences; they play a crucial part in the lives of religious believers
• most agree that testimonies of such experiences need to examined & reflected on carefully: most importantly, religious experiences are messages from God that require a response from the believer
• such experiences should be in keeping with the character of God & should have made a noticeable difference in the life of the person receiving the experience