religious experience Flashcards
to understand religious experience
what are the three main types of religious experience
visions numinous mystical experiences
what are the three different types of visions
corporeal , imaginative, intellectual
what is a corporeal vision
these are tangible religious experiences that are felt through the physical senses. So one would experience a religious experience in the same way one would see a chair.
what is an imaginative vision
visions that happen in the mind, usually taking place in a dream
what is meant by mysterium tremendum et fascinas
fearful and attractive mystery- expresses the complex nature of the numinous experience. Something much greater than ones self with the fear entailed with Gods overwhealming majisty
what is a numinous experience
a numinous experience is a sense of the holy that cannot be understood with sense or intellect- feeling of awe
what did William James define as the different qualities for a religious experience
ineffability- cannot be easily described using words
noetic quality- the experience provides insight into truthes
tramsiency- short experience
passivity- the person experincing it cannot control what is happening
give an example of a numinous experience
when Moses could not look at God as he felt too inferiour
give an example of a corporal vision
when mary met the angel garbrial
give an example of an imaginative vision
when joeseph had the pregnacy of mary revealed to him through a dream
what was sigmunds freuds agruemnt against religious experiences
freud beleived that what people beleived to be religious experiences were just halusinations based upon fears and desires
what is the god helmet and why might it challange religious experiences
neurologists have found the through a divice called the ‘God Helmet’ -which stimulates certain parts of the brain- they are able to replicate religious experiences
This can be a challange to religous experineces as the god helmet desplays how a religous experince could simply be caused by malfunctions in the brain.
what could be the scientific christain arguement against the arguement of the god helmet
a scientific christian may argue that god communicates with people through stimulations in the brain. If god was to communicate with someone this would have to happen through processes in the brain - god stimulates the brain in order to create religious experiences- and what god does can then be replicated with divices such as the god helmet
