Religious Experience

Question 1

Mystical

Answer 1

Experiences of God which goes against ordinary sense experience
Hearing voices/ visions etc.

Question 2

Conversion

Answer 2

An experience which produces a radical change in someone’s belief system

Question 3

Corporate

Answer 3

Religious experience that happens to a group of people i.e. The Toronto Blessing

Question 4

Numinous

Answer 4

an indescribable experience which evokes a felling of awe/ worship/ fascination

Question 5

Principle of Credulity

Answer 5

Swinburne’s principle that we should usually believe what our sense tells us we are perceiving

Question 6

Principle of Testimony

Answer 6

Swinburne’s principle that we should usually trust that other people are telling the truth

Question 7

Naturalistic explanation

Answer 7

an explanation referring to natural rather than supernatural causes

Question 8

Neuropsychology

Answer 8

an area of science which studies the brain and the nervous system

Question 9

James criteria for RE

Answer 9

1) Ineffable – indescribable
2) Noetic – Insight/ knowledge gained
3) Transient – experience is temporary
4) Passive – experience happens to a person and they don’t make it happen

Question 10

What did James notice

Answer 10

Religious experiences occurring in different cultures have similar features
- must be objective explanation for cross cultural similarity of religious experiences, since improbable due to chance
- Core of religion

Question 11

Pluralist

Answer 11

Believed all religion pointed to a higher reality / all religions similar and differences more superficial cultural

Question 12

ST Theresa of Avilla

Answer 12

being a nun with a lethal illness and seeing visions of the divine, gave her a closer understanding to God and strengthened her theist faith

Question 13

Argument against St Theresa

Answer 13

. However, this experience may seem incredible as St Theresa of Avilla was very ill. A scientist or psychologist could evidently postulate how her visons were merely hallucinations brought on by her severe illness
However after math of experience would say otherwise, due to James’ criteria. Whilst St Theresa was ill, she started to lose her sense of faith with the divine However after her visons she began deep reflection and contemplation and found love for God once again, that one may argue, gave her the strength to live on
truth is not absolute but subjective, in a world that is constantly changing – so if truth for her we should just accept it

Question 14

Pragmatism

Answer 14

Philosophical view of epistemology which states that if something is good for us, that is evidence of its truth

Question 15

James Pragmatism

Answer 15

Most interested in effects for validity i.e alcoholic not being able to give up alcohol till RE
Must have been effected by some higher power

Question 16

Arguments against cross cultural similarity

Answer 16

could have a naturalistic explanation/ humans hallucinate similarly as have evolved similarly

Question 17

Counter to pragmatism

Answer 17

Some hallucinations may be life changing if fit certain beliefs
-Alcoholic happened to hallucinate Jesus as minds preconceptions made that more likely
-If theist hallucinates angel = lifechanging due to belief about significance which own mind is supplying

Question 18

Otto

Answer 18

Defined RE as ‘ numinous’ : An experience of some ‘ Wholly other’ completely different to anything human and filled with a sense of awe and wonder
-core of any religion ‘worthy of a name’
Fundamental for individual to have personal experience with Divine – Core of Religion

Question 19

Persinger critique of Numinous

Answer 19

Neuropsychologist who created a machine ‘ Gods helmet’ which physiologically manipulated peoples brain waves and cause them to have RE where they felt the presence of unseen beings
-RE originate from brain not God and just unusual state

Question 20

Critique of Persinger

Answer 20

Could be how God gives RE through brain

However, Ockham’s Razor – RE could have a naturalistic explanation
Also difficult for Otto to rule out other Naturalistic Explanations i.e. drugs; mental illness etc.

Question 21

Swinburne

Answer 21

Empiricists
Principle of C and T
If we dismiss new evidence shouldn’t dismiss as that would be irrational i.e. if we see a tree that is evidence of its existence shouldn’t dismiss evidence of our experience

Question 22

Problems with Credulity

Answer 22

could be countered with negative credulity i.e. atheism, however could counter with only true for positive if you experience something that means that it exists but just because you don’t experience something doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist

Question 23

Critique of Swinburne

Answer 23

Naturalistic Explanations: Always reason not to believe as RE could be explainable by mental illness; drugs; lack of sleep etc. so will always have a reason not to believe

Could check for presence of physiological / psychological causes – if none present reason to believe

Extraordinary claims: Need more evidence as existence of God is extraordinary claim
Alternatively, the multiple claims argument applies here. Religious experiences occur in different religions yet different religions cannot all be true.

Question 24

Freud

Answer 24

Religion – ‘ Obsessional neurosis’ and derived from two main psychological forces
Death: Humans are constantly aware of death so manipulate to believe that death is not the end
Also call God ‘father’ as want to be a child forever – desire for eternal innocence in painful world

Question 25

Critique of Freud

Answer 25

Unscientific/ Over generalized: lots of non – neurotic religious people ; although psychological arguments could be true majority cant explain for the few
Sample sies of Freud was too small and not rep of society
Ignores Mystical: Sense of infinite which goes against feeling of wholly other – these arethe foundations of RB not wish fulfillment

Question 26

Conversion- how it isn’t wish fulfilment

Answer 26

Person having experience already believe in God/afterlife i.e. St Paul on the road to Damascus saw Jesus and was converted from a Jewish persecutor of Christianity to a Christian

Question 27

Critique of Conversion

Answer 27

Paul’s description seeing a bright light, falling to the floor, being paralysed, are symptoms of epileptic seizures
-However hard to diagnose people based on writings thousands of years ago

Question 28

Corporate

Answer 28

Multiple people i.e. Toronto Blessing or speaking in tongues (Pentecostalism)
T – unusual emotions falling to the ground, crying etc. attributed to Holy spirit who they claimed to feel

Question 29

Strengths of Corporate

Answer 29

Can’t be explained by criticisms such as mental illness etc.

Question 30

Critiqued of Corporate

Answer 30

Psychological group dynamics: there are peculiar psychological dynamics to crowds or groups of people such as mob mentality, mass hysteria and social compliance. In the middle ages, an entire village would form an angry mob who were all convinced they had seen a witch cast a spell, and would then execute some poor woman. We could even say the same of today regarding groups of people who think they have seen Aliens. So clearly group delusion is possible. This could then be claimed to be the case in corporate religious experience.

Question 31

Hume

Answer 31

Most religions involve the claims that their particular God(s) intervene in the world and in human experience. Hume argued this means their claims ‘cancel each other out’. All religions cannot be true. At most, one could be true and the rest false, or none of them could be true. So, any religious person’s claim that divine intervention happened could be false.

Question 32

Critique of Hume

Answer 32

Pluralism: All religions are just different cultural manifestations of The Divine
-James: Mystical Experience shown in all religions

Question 33

Mysticism:

Answer 33

Goes against ordinary sense
-St Theresa – positive change
-Wide range of religions visons and voices

Question 34

O’Leary

Answer 34

set out an investigation on LSD users and those who have had said to have religious experiences and the descriptions produced were almost indistinguishable from one another