Non AI Religious Experiences

Question 1

Examine Swinburne’s principles of credulity snd testimony

Answer 1

Existence of God

manners of surveying the evidential values of religious experiences.

‘Principle of Credulity’ explains that when things seem a certain way, we should accept that we saw the correct thing unless there is counter evidence: “things are as they seem to be unless we have evidence we are mistaken” (Existence of God - Swinburne’s text).

‘Testimony’ refers to other peoples experiences
if someone has had an experience you haven’t had yourself you should believe them unless there is any counter evidence against it: “we ought to believe in others…in the absence of evidence of deceit”.

Question 2

What three types of evidence according to Swinburne can nullify the principles of credulity and testimony

Answer 2

‘root’ of the evidence is unreliable, we can say that the perceptions are unreliable, for example drug induced experiences.

if an experience we hear conflicts with what we already know, then we can name it invalid, for example; “a man carrying his head under his arm…humans cannot do this”, then we are right to call it a hallucination or misinterpretation because it is not something that we know to be true or possible.

if there is evidence that the experience “did not have God among its causes.”, as in, was not caused by God, then it is disproven and not a religious experience. To prove this you would have to provide evidence that God doesn’t exist at all seeing as he is the causer of all experiences and everything.

Question 3

Examine the views of William james on mystical experience

Answer 3

-psychological approach
- primary religious phenomena that are ‘root and centre of all’
- ‘core’ = PINT
Passivity = “feels as if his will were…grasped by a superior power”
Ineffability = that in no manner this experience can be accurately described or compared: it is its own individual experience.

Noetic quality’, certain truths and intellect “state of knowledge”
‘transiency’ the idea that these experiences “cannot be sustained” (Varieties of Religious Experience) and last at most for an hour or two.

distinction between existential and spiritual judgements. Existential judgments are concerned with facts and conditions which create a mystical experience whereas spiritual judgments judge these experiences based on their moral values. This means that he values experiences based on their ‘fruits’: what they teach us, rather than their ‘roots’, how they come about or who from.

Epistemic ‘value’ therefore is concerned with the authority these mystical experiences over others.
mystical states “have the right to be authoritative” (Varieties), and authoritative over the people who have these experiences.
But these experiences aren’t an obligation to others to follow, even though they break down authority of non mystical experiences by outweighing them in religious value.

Question 4

Examine the views of Stace on mystical experiences (10)

Answer 4

Introvertive v extrovertive

Extrovertive include senses and the external world
introvertive which allow an ‘interior sense of unity’
Introvertive are more valuable , sensuous and intellectual experiences are disregarded and
mystical experiences are “entirely devoid of all imagery” “no mental content”(Mysticism and philosophy)

“Universal core” - expereinces surpass all mediation

‘From unanimitty’ - epistemic status:
Million of reports point to one divine common cause.