Experience

Question 1

Background

Answer 1

One of the strongest arguments
An inductive argument
It is an encounter with the divine, an experience of God as a personal reality.
It is an experience beyond ordinary empirical explanation.

Question 2

Oxford Religious Experience research

Answer 2

30 - 45% of Brits have been aware of a presence of power beyond themselves

Question 3

C.F Davies

Answer 3

1989
'Evidental force pf Religious Experience.'
1. awareness
2. quasi sensory
3. numinous
4. regenerative
5. interpretive
6. mystical
7. revelatory

Question 4

Richard Swinburne

Answer 4

People in general tell the truth, so we cannot always doubt accounts of RE.
Suggesting 2 principles
Testimony: Unless we have evidence contrary we should believe what people say e.g. drugs, lying or mentally ill
Credulity: Giving credit to what people say

Question 5

Schleirmacher

Answer 5

1768 - 1834
Claims that everyone is aware of the divine
Only theists will try to develop
RE’s are self authenticating and so need no proving
Aware of an ultimate
So need no proof

Question 6

William James

Answer 6

1842 - 1910
‘The varieties of RE’
RE’s are deeply personal, emotional reaction directions at God.
For those who have had an experience they are good proof

Question 7

PINT?

Answer 7

Passivity = a superior authority 
Ineffability = no experience theyve had before
noetic = provides some sort of relation or truth
transiency = brief but important

Question 8

Brain Davies

Answer 8

1951
Philosophy of religion
Argued that even though not everyone might have had an RE doesnt give them the grounds to dismiss
Only a few may realise that they have

Question 9

Wittgenstein

Answer 9

1889 - 1951
‘Seeing as’
People will mistake what they have seen or experienced e.g. people would experience a random series of dots different = ugly or beauty?

Question 10

Vardy

Answer 10

1945 - present
‘The puzzle of God’
the principles of T and C may apply to everyday situations. But when it comes to an experience of God (so extraordinary) certain sceptism is required for proof.

Question 11

Barbret

Answer 11

1939 - 2009
Always the possibility of alternative explanations
Difficulty of judging these subjective claims means not self authenticating

Question 12

R.M Hare

Answer 12

1919 - 2002
Religious experiences are inconclusive, a persons interpretation of experience is clearly mistaken but they hold on to this idea. This is a blik.

Question 13

Blik

Answer 13

An unverifiable and unfalsiable way of looking at the world

Question 14

Kant

Answer 14

1724 - 1804
It is not possible to experience things beyond the phenomenonal realm.
We can’t know what we don’t know

Question 15

Richard Dawkins

Answer 15

1941

There is no such thing, it is all an illusion of the mind and a way of showing psychological needs.

Question 16

Flew

Answer 16

Biased and irrational
So convinced of the truths of their statements
Refuse to believe other evidence.

Question 17

vardy quote

Answer 17

the probability of all such experiences must be low, and therefore the quality of the claimed experiences must be proportionately high

if one is a sceptic one will need a great deal of convincing

Question 18

Davies quote

Answer 18

just as i can reasonably say that there is a bed in my room because i have encountered it, so i can reasonably say that there is a God because i have directly encountered him.

Question 19

James quote

Answer 19

thge characterises of the religious life

Question 20

Swinburne quot

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Dawkins quote

Answer 21

but dont expect the rest of us to take your word for it espcially if we have the slightest familiarity with the brain and its powerful workings

Question 22

Kant quote

Answer 22

we cant know what we dont know