Religious experience Flashcards
what are types of religious experience?
conversion, mythical and corporate
what is s St Pauls experience and what is it an example of ?
conversion experience from scripture
Acts
Saul didn’t believe that Jesus could be the messiah and spoke ill of his disciples. He even hunted and persecuted Christians.
Saul was going to Damascus when he saw a light flash around him and heard a voice say ‘Saul, why do you persecute me’.
This voice was Jesus. He told Saul to continue his journey to Damascus and when he arrives he will be told what to do.
He was then blinded for three days and could not eat or drink.
When he arrived he met with various people and something fell from his eyes and he could see again. He was baptised.
He spent days with disciples and preaching in synagogues.
He then went to Jereuselm and had to prove himself to the people who wanted to kill him.
Saul becomes Paul the apostle and continues to spread the word of Jesus.
What was Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) religious experience?
Mythial
Was visited by angel Jibril who quoted the direct word of Allah and told him to write it. Even though he was illiterate he was able to understand and write everything word for word.
what are the psychological explanations for religious experience?
- parediolia - prof richard wiseman
- power of suggestion
- illusion - dawkins - the God delusion
- Freud - wishful thinking
- Freubach - projection
what is pareidolia?
human automatic drive to arrange patterns in randomness
what is the power of suggestion?
Through society we are exposed to religion and from this the suggestion of a higher being is developed in our subconscious. When there is a trigger such as, a near death experience, we harness the subconscious suggestion of God to explain the experience.
physiological explanation
temporal lobe epilepsy
Explain temporal lobe epilepsy
the most common type of localised epilepsy
seziures, joy, fear, feelings of a sensed presence
What were Richard Swinburne’s two arguments
- The principles of credulity
- The principle of testimony
what is The principle of testimony?
the agent of the religious experience knows their experience best and can only speak on what happened
what is the principle of credulity
we must be willing to accept the possibility that God is the cause of religious experiences
What was Caroline Franks Davis argument
religious experiences should be treated different to every day experiences. Whilst we may trust our senses normally, they’re completely out of our regular understanding.
what were William James’ aims
- wanted to look at a range of religious experiences
- Wanted to take a subjective approach
- Observed similarities
- Questioned if religious experiences are more meaningful than tradition e.g., Church
- Took personal accounts seriously
what were the main similarities across religious experiences found by James?
- Ineffable – can’t articulate the experiences
- Noetic – gain knowledge of something
- Transient – occurred in one fleeting moment
- Passive – individual Is not in control of the experience
what were William James conclusions
- their are four traits the charetorise religious experience
- On their own religious experiences do not prove the existence of God but the existence of something larger
- They’re personal and can only be understood by the agent of the experience
they are often more meaningful than institutions - Religious experiences often result in a good disposition (character) James uses the example of Bradley who was an alcoholic until his experience. Or St Paul.
willim alstons view
something is real if it has real effects e.g., the conversion of St Augustine and St Paul.
Ottos argument
argued for numinous experience and said God is the only being who can fill people with such awe. He called this ‘mysterium tremendum et fasinans’, indescribable, mysterious and fascinating. He tried to explain what made re religious in his book ‘the idea of the holy’.
what did Dawkins call the brain?
the brain is a ‘first-class simulation software’
what did Dawkins believe?
written in his Book the God delusion. He argues the brain is very intelligible and capable of conducting ‘religious experiences’ or what appears to be them. Take a Necker cube which changes position depending on how we perceive it. This suggests that our brain is also capable of perceiving something and our brain mistaking it for something else. It is all an illusion.
what did freud refer to religion as?
‘universal, obsessional neurosis’
what did freud think?
advocated the idea that religious experiences are just wish fulfilment and referred to religion as ‘universal, obsessional neurosis’ claimed that religious experiences are caused by our desire for security and meaning. Just as dreams are caused by deep desires. As children we see our father as a protective character so when we mature develop God to also be this role.
why DO RELIGIOUS EXPERINCES PROVE THE EXISTENCE OF GOD?
Swinburne- principle of testimony, only the agent of the experience truly knows what happens if they say they experienced god, they experienced God.
Swinburne – principle of credulity we need to be willing that they do prove Gods existence then we will see
Science surely can’t account for all experiences.
William James found 4 similarities between peoples experiences surely this means they’re all caused by the same factor a higher being or God.
William Alston – something is real if it has real effects
Rudolf Otto – God is the only being who can create such awe
why DONT RELIGIOUS EXPERINCES PROVE THE EXISTENCE OF GOD?
Psychology
Pareidolia – we create patterns in randomness and assimilate this to religious experience. For example, we hear something out of the ordinary and believe it to be a spirit.
Professor Richard wiseman said as humans we can’t comprehend chaos, thus implement order even if its not there. Ergo, we create these experiences ourselves.
Power of suggestion –
Freud – they’re just wish fulfilment and a result of humanities desire for security and meaning.
Physiology
Oliver sacks, scintillating scotoma
Dr Persinger – TLE and God helmet
Ramachandran- presented religious words to TLE patients and a controlled group the TLE reacted more
why IS personal testimony enough to validify RE?
Swinburne – principle of testimony, only the agent of the experience truly knows what happens if they say they experienced God, they experienced God.
Ockham’s razor- there have been thousands of accounts of religious experiences are we to assume EVERY person was lying.
why ISNT personal testimony enough to validify RE?
Franks Davis- we should not treat religious experiences the same as everyday experiences they’re unique e.g moses seeing God in a burning bush.
Can our senses be trusted- Descartes “our senses deceive from time to time” what we see may not be what we see. Psychology has tried to explain this though pareidolia. So, we cannot trust testimony as we cant trust our senses to begin with.
They’re out of our epistemological limits and it would be insane to believe in religious experiences whilst we exist in a world of science. So why would we believe the testimony it is not enough we need scientific proof in the new secular age.
Neurology suggests we are not always aware of the experience when it is occurring e.g., TLE or scintillating scotoma and therefore we cannot trust personal testimony since the agent is not active during the event
who researched pariedolia?
Professor Richard Wiseman agreed that as humans we struggle to comprehend randomness so our brains impose order so we can feel comfortable. E.g we find pictures in clouds this phenomena can explain how people experience God
who researched the power of suggestion?
Darren Brown explored this in the channel 4 programme ‘fear and faith’. He tries to plant religious belief in an aetheist. A woman began to be convinced.
