Religious Experience Flashcards
Mystical
Experiences of God which goes against ordinary sense experience
Hearing voices/ visions etc.
Conversion
An experience which produces a radical change in someone’s belief system
Corporate
Religious experience that happens to a group of people i.e. The Toronto Blessing
Numinous
an indescribable experience which evokes a felling of awe/ worship/ fascination
Principle of Credulity
Swinburne’s principle that we should usually believe what our sense tells us we are perceiving
Principle of Testimony
Swinburne’s principle that we should usually trust that other people are telling the truth
Naturalistic explanation
an explanation referring to natural rather than supernatural causes
Neuropsychology
an area of science which studies the brain and the nervous system
James criteria for RE
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
What did James notice
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
Pluralist
Believed all religion pointed to a higher reality / all religions similar and differences more superficial cultural
ST Theresa of Avilla
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
Argument against St Theresa
. 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
Pragmatism
Philosophical view of epistemology which states that if something is good for us, that is evidence of its truth
James Pragmatism
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
Arguments against cross cultural similarity
could have a naturalistic explanation/ humans hallucinate similarly as have evolved similarly
Counter to pragmatism
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
Otto
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
Persinger critique of Numinous
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
Critique of Persinger
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.
Swinburne
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
Problems with Credulity
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
Critique of Swinburne
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.
Freud
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
Critique of Freud
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
Conversion- how it isn’t wish fulfilment
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
Critique of Conversion
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
Corporate
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
Strengths of Corporate
Can’t be explained by criticisms such as mental illness etc.
Critiqued of Corporate
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.
Hume
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.
Critique of Hume
Pluralism: All religions are just different cultural manifestations of The Divine
-James: Mystical Experience shown in all religions
Mysticism:
Goes against ordinary sense
-St Theresa – positive change
-Wide range of religions visons and voices
O’Leary
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
