Religious Experience

Question 1

Mystical experiences

Answer 1

Experience of something beyond normal awareness, experience of the divine was at the heart of religion and came before theology.

Question 2

Common core of mystical experiences

Answer 2

Passive - feeling of not being in control
Ineffable - can’t be explained in words
Noetic - provides new insight or knowledge
Transient - short experience but has a long lasting significant impact on the person

Question 3

Julian of Norwich

Answer 3

Had visions of bleeding Jesus but experienced feelings of unconditional love and came out of her state of being close to death afterwards

Question 4

Schleiermacher on mystical experience

Answer 4

Argues more to existence than physical so if one stops and reflects they will find something other

Question 5

Criticisms of mystical experiences

Answer 5

• could all be in the mind as it reacts the same way shown in common features.
• passivity is unconscious mind deluding the conscious self, linkers god helmet people think electromagnetic fields are the divine
• change in perspectives could be due to other factors not religious like a book
• subjective experiences as they can’t be tested by another

Question 6

Conversion

Answer 6

Change of heart or priorities following a new direction in life after an experience. Inner self becomes unified and happy, religious ideals become more centred .

Question 7

William James four fruits of conversion

Answer 7

• conviction of something beyond the material world
• immense feelings of elation
• feeling of having met a friendly power
• change in emphasis of life , more spiritually and morally aware

Question 8

S Hadley

Answer 8

A dying drunkard homeless and friendless who considered suicide but after a conversion became sober and never drank again as his sick soul was healed.

Question 9

Story of Paul

Answer 9

On his way to Damascus to persecute Christians, he saw a vision of Jesus, paralysed and went blind he then went on to spread Christianity throughout the Roman Empire.

Question 10

Volitional

Answer 10

Gradual change and development of new moral habits like cs lewis

Question 11

Self surrender

Answer 11

Sudden experience leading to change in life like Saul’s conversion to Paul.

Question 12

Criticisms of conversions

Answer 12

Starbucks - normal adolescent phenomenon, as they struggle to search for personal identity and conversions provide psychological answer
Kant - logically impossible to experience god in a noumena reality as humans are in phenomenal world

Question 13

William James in pluralism

Answer 13

All religions experience experiences with similar vocabulary and a higher power. Teachings and beliefs of different religion show different interpretation of experiences, but all religions collectively have a higher power and common feature sis evidence for god

Question 14

William James conclusion

Answer 14

Nothing that unequivocally supports belief in god or infinite divine reality but he doesn’t rule it out as there is a higher power that helps people find peace

Question 15

William James in Empiricism

Answer 15

He gathered extensive observation of religious experience and the effects of the experience on the person afterwards.

Question 16

Support of William James

Answer 16

Frank davis - cumulative argument tips balance in favour of god with religious experience

Question 17

Criticisms of William James

Answer 17

• rationalists argue senses can deceive and James examples have use of mind altering substances
• Hume interpretation of one divine could discredit experiences as Christian’s experience Jesus and Hindus krishna.
• flaw has all arguments for god having flaws by adding them together doesn’t make argument more reliable, 10 leaky buckets are no better than 1.

Question 18

Freud on religious experience

Answer 18

Religion is a neurosis, conflict between the ego trying to balance super ego and id. Religious experiences are illusions if religion is just wishful thinking. Humans fear death and danger so construct a father figure for protection in god.

Question 19

Feurbach on religious experience

Answer 19

God is man writ large as it is a powerful construct in minds of unmans by their desires of a supreme being.

Question 20

Inattentional blindness

Answer 20

Misled by minds as brains overlook details, could be sincere in belief of experience but sincerely wrong.

Question 21

Jung psychological explanation for conversion

Answer 21

St Paul’s conversions is emotional breakdown due to guilt of killing Christian’s, resurface of guilt in the form of religion is the Oedipus complex.

Question 22

Criticisms of the psychological argument from Hick

Answer 22

Many experience the same but perceive or describe things differently, subjective and only known by the subjective person.

Question 23

Newbury on religious experience

Answer 23

Brains are easily capable of religious experience and neurons show religious people are more inclined to have them

Question 24

Mind altering effects causing religious experience

Answer 24

St Francis Xavier had heavenly visions but he lacked vitamin b due to his fasting which can result in hallucinations, Russell’s quote

Question 25

Neurological factors - Persinger

Answer 25

Persingers god helmet stimulated temporal lobe and found sensations similar to religious experience suggesting they are just events in the brain.

Question 26

Criticisms of physiological argument

Answer 26

• reductionist as materialism can’t explain other power James found
• if god was to communicate with humans it seems probable he would use natural processes in the brain
• Doesnt explain changes in behaviour after experience
• Persingers experiment was poorly executed

Question 27

Toronto blessing

Answer 27

Started at Toronto airport church spreading worldwide a move of the Holy Spirit descended upon the service as people spoke in glossolalia and animal noises, danced. There was immense joy and terry Virgo marriage improved. People at Pentecost spoke in glossolalia.

Question 28

Criticisms of the Toronto blessing

Answer 28

• caused by mass hysteria as people get swept up in emotion - Hanegraff
• social conformity as people fake it to want to fit in
• why would god make people bark if he could help save staring people
• Can normally be explained psychologically as social conditioning

Question 29

Swinburne principle of credulity

Answer 29

Things should be believed unless there is good reason to believe otherwise, black cat is real unless there is known cat painter in the area

Question 30

Swinburne principle of testimony

Answer 30

Assume people are telling the truth unless there is reason to believe otherwise like a pathological liar

Question 31

Criticisms of Swinburne principles

Answer 31

• naive to trust everyone as humans can lie
• Hume has miracles as humans being prone to exaggerate and drawn to the unusual
• senses may deceiving like inattentional blindness.

Question 32

Winnicott psychological argument for religious experience

Answer 32

Children make connection to a transitional object theat they hold onto for comfort, religious experience is transitional, it is imagnative for comfort

Question 33

Rudolph Otto on religious experience

Answer 33

Religious experiences aren’t unifying but more numinous, they are mysterious, fascinating, otherworldly

Question 34

Physiological explanation for Pauls conversion

Answer 34

Epilepsy

Question 35

Physiological explanation for Theresa

Answer 35

Schizophrenia

Question 36

Strengths of individual experiences

Answer 36

• Not subject mass hysteria
• person ally authenticated
• less likely to be socially conditioned

Question 37

Weaknesses of individual experiences

Answer 37

• No external verification
• No empirical evidence
• Ayer - Anything unverifiable or uneffable is meaningless

Question 38

Strengths of corporate experiences

Answer 38

• Numerically valid
• Shared feelings
• Suggests experiences come from god not individual imagination