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Paper 2 > RE and miracles > Flashcards

RE and miracles Flashcards

1
Q

what are hume’s four pragmatic arguments against testimonies of miracles

A
  1. lack of quality testimony from a sufficient number of witnesses
  2. Humans are psychologically inclined to believe in the wondrous
  3. Belief in miracles about in ‘ignorant and barbarous’ nations
  4. inconsistent revelation
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2
Q

Pascal Boyer’s objection to miracles

A

miracle stories involve MINIMALLY COUNTERINTUITIVE CONCEPTS

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3
Q

Hick’s quote on miracles

A

‘A miracle… is an event through which we become vividly and immediately aware of god acting towards us’

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4
Q

Who argues about the relation of miracles and the problem of evil

A

Maurice Wiles

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5
Q

William James’ criterion for a mystical experience

A

Passive (beyond the person’s control)
Ineffable (impossible to put into words)
Noetic (impart otherwise unavailable knowledge)
Transient (temporary experiences)

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6
Q

what is the democratic fallacy and who commits it

A

Swinburne - just because people claim to have had religions experiences this does not mean that they come from a divine source

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7
Q

give a non-cognitive interpretation of a corporate experience

A

mass hysteria: psychological phenomenon where people behave differently in a large group

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8
Q

Swinburne’s argument relies on what two principles

A

principle of credulity

principle of testimony

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9
Q

Types of religious experience

A
  1. Mystical (James)
  2. Numinous (Otto)
  3. Corporate (Toronto blessing)
  4. Visions and voices (st Teresa)
  5. Conversion (st Paul)
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10
Q

Swinburne’s classifications

A 
Public (corporate, conversion) 
1. Ordinary (beauty of nature)
2. Extraordinary (breaks laws of nature)
Private (numinous, mystical)
1. Describable (dreams)
2. Non- describable (direct encounter) 
3. Non-specific
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11
Q

How does William James define religion?

A

‘…experiences of individual men in their solitude… so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they…consider divine’

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12
Q

William James’ 4 qualities of a religious experience

A
  1. Noetic
  2. Ineffability
  3. Transiency
  4. Passivity
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13
Q

Kimberly Rogers’ definition of numinosity

A

‘The emotional glow… different from what we experience in ordinary life…; an awe-filled encounter [with the divine]’

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14
Q

Rudolf Otto on the ‘mysterium tremendum at facinans’ numinous experiences

A

‘There is no religion in which it does not live as the innermost core and without it no religion would be worthy of the name’

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15
Q

Replies to Otto?

A
  • Buber says that god is not impersonal or other, but can be encountered in every day life: ‘In each Thou, we address the Eternal Thou’
  • Schleiermacher says that experiences aren’t numinous but a feeling of dependence
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16
Q

Objections to corporate experiences

A
  • they are just mass hysteria
  • it doesn’t fit with biblical experiences so is not the way god works
  • feelings are caused because of the group patchology
17
Q

examples of visions

A
  • st Teresa saw Christ at her side her inner visions (intellectual visions)
  • Muhammad’s vision in the ‘Night of Power’ when he saw the Angel Gabriel and the Quran was revealed
  • Bernadette’s vision at Lourdes (spring of medicinal water at the feet of Mary, corporeal)
18
Q

St Teresa’s imaginative visions (her 3 types of prayer)

A
  1. Prayer of the quiet (meditation)
  2. Prayer of Union (more intense)
  3. Ecstasy spiritual marriage (ultimate state of contemplating the divine)
19
Q

3 features of religious voices:

A
  1. Disembodied
  2. Communicates a revelation
  3. Authoritative
20
Q

What voice does Augustine hear?

A

He heard the voice of a child playing but interprets this to be God communicating to him. Religious experiences aren’t always supernatural - could be natural things given a religious significance.

21
Q

What does St Teresa say is needed for a voice to be genuine?

A
  • it has to fit with Christian teaching

- you have to feel at peace after the experiences

22
Q

People who say RE’s are Non-Cognitive

A
  • logical positivists (non cog statements are meaningless)
  • Wittgenstein, Hare, Braithwaite & Swinburne (unfasifiable)
  • William James’ four-point phenomenological core
  • Katz: doesn’t need to be cognitive to have meaning as they r interpreted only by the traditional in which they stand (echoes Alston)
23
Q

The argument from religious experience

A

It’s only possible to experience that which exists, so the phenomenon of religious experience demonstrates the existence of God.

24
Q

William James’ argument from RE as proof for God

A

all RE’s show the probability of God. The validity of RE is based on what it does to the person, as truth is what we make to be valuable to ourselves. So if it leaves effects on someone, t must be true.

25
Q

Swinburne’s argument from RE to God

A
  1. Principle of Credulity: what one sees is probably right

2. Principle of Testimony: if there isn’t evidence stating the opposite then one should believe the testimony of RE.

26
Q

Vardy’s criticism of Swinburne’s argument from RE

A

Even if it is seen and there is no evidence stating the opposite, verification is still needed: if you saw a UFO you wouldn’t accept your own view, you would seek confirmation and watch the news or go to a radar station. It’s wrong to say you should just accept testimony alone.

27
Q

Brian Davies’ argument

A

Because it’s a direct experience of God, there is a god. I can say 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 it.

28
Q

arguments from RE to God?

A
  1. William James (it works)
  2. Swinburne (credulity & testimony) - crit. By Vardy
  3. Brian Davies
  4. Ockham’s razor
29
Q

Challenges to RE arguments to God

A
  1. A.E. Taylor (RE’s open to abuse)
  2. Physiological (just the product of physical changes in the body)
  3. Psychological Challenges (Freud, Feuerbach)
  4. Sociological challenge (Marx)
  5. Illogical challenge (Kant)
  6. Conflicting claims (Hume)
  7. Lack of evidence (a posteriori)
30
Q

Objections to WJ

A
  1. betrand russel: just because a belief is pragmatic doesn’t mean it is true e.g. Santa
  2. Daneil pals: WJ minimises differences between religiouns
  3. WJ generalises from Xn examples to all religion
31
Q

Hick’s quote on the real

A

the real ‘exceeds all positive characterisations in human thought and language’

32
Q

Objection to swinburne’s pple of credulity

A
  1. Brian davies: being wrong about day-today experience is an everyday phenomenon
33
Q

objection to swinburne’s pple of testimony

A
  1. vardy - experience still needs verifying
  2. Michael martin - we should then also believe to testimony of the reconverted
  3. democratic fallacy
34
Q

how does WJ define religion

A

as ‘feelings and experiences’ of ‘individual men in their solitude in relation to what they consider divine’

35
Q

what are the three pragmatic criteria must RE meet for them to be significant (WJ)

A
  1. immediate luminousness
  2. philosophical reasonableness
  3. moral helpfulness
36
Q

kierkegaard on re?

A

god is only known to the individual through a leap of faith

37
Q

Schleirmacher on re?

A

RE are emotional, and go deeper than reason

these feelings of dependence on the divine are the basis for religion

Paper 2 (9 decks)

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