Religious Experience Flashcards
definition
experience where God or divine is seen or observed. can happen when sleep or awake
3 types
corporeal
imaginative
intellectual
corporeal
seeing with eyes a form of physical person
empirical
st Bernadette of Lourdes
imaginative
occur in dreams seeing with minds eye
Josephs dream in Matthew 2
Intellectual
awareness of presence of Christ/ God/ Mary without sensory experience
mystical
St Teresa of Avila gave her insight into God’s true nature
mystical experience
who
William James, Walter stace
William James - 7
- primary and valid evidence for existence of God
- do not prove Judeo Christian God. overlap between religion and mental problems
beyond our understanding proving to be true - having an experience meant
a new enthusiam for life
b new sense of peace - understood could be induced by drugs and alcohol
- defined experiences with certain characteristics
- can range with little significance to a lot
- unique and individual based on there needs
what was William James certain characteristics
- ineffability - beyond verbal description
- Noetic Quality - insight through revelation
- Transciency - isn’t maintained for long
- Passivity - moment governed by being to the mystic
Walter stace - definition of mystical experiences
non sensuous and non intellectual union with the divine
wanted to show that mysticism is a way to attain union with God
what does Walter stace conclude
1 Mysticism is a non sensuous and non intellectual union with dive
2. separates mysticism from other forms of parapsychological phenomena - deja vu
3. vision and voices aren’t - might expereince should be beyond sense experience
4. central characteristic is concept of unity in all things a oneness which transcends sensory and intellectual explanation
who for numinous experience
what does it mean
Ruldoph Otto
awe ispirino holiness
how does Otto describe God
how would he describe an experience
what is the 2 words
‘totally other…unknowable… awesome in dimensions and power but attractive and fascinating’
it is a unique experience can’t be linked to anything else
sui genesis - of there own kind
rest of ottos argument
a sense of numinous is to feel the presence of an awesome power but separate from it
words can’t describe his otherness - God is ineffable
Mysterium tretendem et fascnans
call of Isaiah 6 experience is life changing and non rational
principle of testimony and credulity
Swinburne
Credulity
what appears to be so usually is
reliability of claim - have lied in past
true of claim
difficulty of showing God was present in experience
could be accounted for in different ways does not discount God working in other ways
Testimony
in absence special considerations people usually tell truths. easily proven to see if person changed
Swinburne conclusion
1 credulity - if someone had experience they can believe its from God
2. testimony - others claim to have experiences
3 without experiences probability God exists is 50/50
freud and challenge against
religion construct of the mind to provide comfort in dangerous world. no more hallucination
does provide comfort, criticised for regression of religion as mental illness. based theories on thoughs who had mental illness
temporal lobe epilepsy
can lead to experiences. brain is capable of creating visions
Ellen white stone
responses to more recent research in brain
unclear if brain is capable of creating
if God was to generate it would be brought about in structure of Brain
allows brain to communicate with God
those mediate may learn how to open mind to God
who created and what is the God helmet
Michael Persinger - generates visions - scans of people meditating shows shutting down of certain areas of brain
LSD
can be induced by drugs creates a sense of divine within
influence of religious experience for faith - 5
can spread religion
inspirational
25- 40% people have one
life changing
at heart of pilgrimages
value of religious experience for faith -2
might lead to religion
bridge gap between belief that and belief in
Visions being likely - 3
some visions experienced by more than one person at a time - 1 Corth 15 - post resurrection - Jesus appearing to more than 500 people at time
Some visions experienced to prior held beliefs - life changing
altered sense of perspective on life
visions being unlikely
lack of sleep/ food can lead to hallucinations
beyond empirical proof
difficult to assess validity of any claimed experience
