RE: God and the world Flashcards
State and describe William James’ 4 main characteristics of religious experience.
- Ineffability: beyond human powers of explanation.
- noetic: person receives knowledge of the divine which isn’t otherwise available.
- transient: not permanent but can have a long-lasting effect on the recipient.
- passive: person isn’t in control of what happens to them.
what is a religious vision?
when an individual believes they’ve heard or seen a supernatural being.
what are the 3 ways in which a person may experience a vision?
corporeal: when a figure presents itself to the person. it can be a bright light, voice etc.
imaginative: a representation of the object by the mind of one individual. not physically seen with the eyes and only last a short amount of time.
intellectual: a vision without any object or image. the recipient experiences intervention by god.
what is a numinous experience?
a sense of awe and wonder. experiencing the presence of god.
what did Rudolph otto say were the feelings associated with the numinous?
‘the sense of something that is uncanny’, ‘creeping flesh’. he said that it’s an encounter with something other than ourselves, it’s scary but attractive.
‘mysterium tremendum et fascians’ - a magnificent, tremendous and fascinating mystery.
what are the 2 types of conversion?
- volitional: conscious and voluntary experience.
- self-surrender: unconscious and involuntary.
what does William james tell us about testimony being enough to support the validity of religious experience?
- they have a profound effect: it must be more than just a hallucination. only god can have such a profound effect.
- experiences happen to normal people: they happen to everyone and aren’t influenced by culture or mental health.
- we can’t disprove imaginative experiences as they’re personal. only happen to one person.
what does Richard swinburne tell us about testimony being enough to support the validity of religious experience?
- principle of testimony: people usually tell the truth
- 4 key challenges: can’t interpret experience, drugs/alcohol, might not have been there, the thing they experienced might not have been there.
- principle of credulity: overcomes the need to empirically prove things. a personal experience can’t be disproved.
what does freud’s psychological challenge state?
- collective neurosis: unconscious mind - memories can be stored and forgotten about.
- wish fulfilment: humans bring about these events themselves as they wish them to occur so much. the mind creates an illusion.
- conversion syndrome: it begins with stress or trauma, the psychological distress manifests itself as physical symptoms. it can effect the senses and movements.
what are corporate experiences and why are they more believable than personal experiences?
-when more than one person experiences a vision
more believable because:
- not relying on the testimony of one individual.
- harder to criticise
- not everyone can be in the same mental state.
what does the Augustinian theodicy state?
- evil didn’t come from god as his creation is perfect.
- as evil didn’t come from god he’s justified in allowing it to stay.
- evil is not a substance, but a privation of good.
- the fallen angels and adam and eve used their own free will to turn away from God and in doing to brought moral evil into the world
- when the angels and humans sinned, the balance in order in the universe was destroyed, bringing natural evil into the world.
- natural evil is a fitting punishment for sin.
how does Augustine’s view of the origins of evil spare god from blames for evils in this world?
- brian davies agreed by saying that evil cannot be called a substance. therefore, god didn’t create evil as it’s just a privation of good.
- Swinburne argued that most religious believers must turn to god out of their own free choice, otherwise the whole concept of faith is meaningless.
- Alvin platinga argued that although sometimes humans freely choose good, if God designed us to always choose good, then we wouldn’t have free will. -
how does Augustine’s view of the origins of evil spare god from blame for evils in the world?
- the idea that the world was made perfect and got worse with time goes against Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
- no evidence in the fossil record of a perfect time.
- science shows us that the biblical creation story isn’t historically true.
- schliermacher said that there’s a logical contradiction in believing that something can go wrong in a perfect creation.
what does john hick’s soul making theodicy state?
- humans were created imperfect and have the potential to grow and develop into perfection.
- in order for humans to develop into god’s likeness, we’ve been given free will to freely choose between good and evil. we were made in his image and have the ability to develop into his likeness, so we can be like God if we continue to develop.
- the purpose of life is to develop morally and spiritually in preparation for salvation.
- god is partly responsible for evil, he said that it’s more valuable for us to earn our moral development that to just be given it by God.
- everyone will go to heaven because of this - universalism.
how does the soul making theodicy justify the existence or extent of evil.
- Gil Edwards supports hick as qualities such as courage and trust only come about through suffering.
- peter vardy argued that goodness developed by choice is better than goodness that’s been already programmed.
- Swinburne argues that it’s necessary for God to allow suffering in order for us to mature.
