Religious Experience

Question 1

Who is william james?

Answer 1

-he was an American philosopher, historian and psychologist

-known as the ‘father of american psychology’

-he is known as a pragmatist- more concerned with practical considerations than ideas

Question 2

What is pragmatism?

Answer 2

A philosophical approach that evaluates theories or beliefs in terms of the success of their practical application.

Question 3

William james quote on what is a religious experience

Answer 3

“They are states of insight into depths of truth unplumbed by the discursive intellect. They are illuminations, revelations, full of significance and importance”

Question 4

Numinous meaning

Answer 4

Relating to the power or presence of a deity

Question 5

Imaginative vision

Answer 5

A vision seen in the mind, usually through a dream experience

Example:
Josephs dream of Mary being pregnant

Question 6

Corporeal vision

Answer 6

A vision that comes through the physical senses (e.g. sight). Relates to the physical body.

Example:
Bernadette 18 visions of Mary is lourdes

Question 7

Intellectual vision

Answer 7

A vision without any visual image, where the experience is an ‘illumination’ of the soul.

Mystic visions they are hard to understand as they defy description but enlighten the soul

Example:
Teresa of Avila she had many visions “i saw nothing with the eyes of the body, nothing with the eyes of the soul”

Question 8

Transcendent

Answer 8

Concept that God is above and beyond the space-time universe; for Otto, He is ‘wholly other’

Question 9

Passivity

Answer 9

The experiencer does not control the experience but is controlled by it

Question 10

Ineffability

Answer 10

The experience cannot be described in words; it has to be directly experienced.

Question 11

Noetic Quality

Answer 11

Experiences give rise to knowledge, experiencer learns something from it. States of insight.

Question 12

Transiency

Answer 12

Experiences are temporary (under 2 hours) but the effects are long-lasting

Question 13

Introvertive

Answer 13

A religious experience in which sense experience is totally suppressed: there is no sense of ‘1*

Question 14

Extrovertive

Answer 14

A religious experience where sense experience is still active; a ‘halfway’ to introvertive

Question 15

Neurotheology

Answer 15

The attempt to explain religious experience and behaviour in neuroscientific terms

Question 16

Temporal lobe epilepsy

Answer 16

(TLE) People with TLE are sometimes prone to have religious visions and mystical experiences

Question 17

St augustines 3 types of visions

Answer 17

-corporeal
-imaginative
-intellectual

Question 18

The idea of the holy

Answer 18

-Otto’s book on the nature of religious experience.

-The word holy means ‘other than’,
‘separate from’

-It is an attempt to describe the sense some people have of a reality totally outside and beyond their experience of themselves and the world.

-He referred to the call of Isaiah in
Isaiah 6:1-8 as an example of a numinous experience.

Question 19

RUDOLF OTTO- numinous experience

Answer 19

Numinous = Having a strong religious or spiritual quality; indicating or suggesting the presence of the divine.

-It is an experience that is the basis of all genuine religion

-The emphasis is on God’s transcendence.

-It refers to a presence and reality that cannot be understood with the senses or intellect.

-It is a sense of the holy

Question 20

Mysterium tremendum et fascinans- OTTO

Answer 20

Mysterious - far removed from humanity that can be experienced but not understood. Elicits the response of awe and wonder.

Trembling - fearsome experience of God’s overwhelming majesty and energy. Sense of human nothingness and sinfulness. Consequently, absolute dependence on God.

Fascinating - Compulsive and attractive nature of the experience creates a desire for a relationship with the Being.
Creates awareness of the need for salvation, forgiveness

Question 21

Who was walter stace

Answer 21

Walter Stace was a British philosopher best known for his writing on mysticism. He is known as one of the pioneers in the philosophical study of mysticism

Question 22

Walter Stace: Introvertive vs Extrovertive religious experiences

Answer 22

Introvertive:

It’s a profound mystical experience where the sense of self and awareness of the world vanish, leaving a deep sense of peace and connection with the divine, though it’s hard to put into words.

Extrovertive

You’re describing a state where everyday objects appear differently, revealing a deeper interconnectedness between everything.

Question 23

William James: Criteria for assessing the genuine nature of a religious experience

Answer 23

Passivity

Ineffability

Noetic Quality

Transience

Question 24

William James fruits

Answer 24

You should judge the experience by its
FRUITS NOT ROOTS - what impact does it have on the individual?

Question 25

The influence and impact of religious experiences

Answer 25

Paul
-As Saul travelled towards Damascus, he had a religious experience - he was blinded by a bright light from heaven and fell to the ground.
-As a result of his religious experience, Saul transformed his entire life. He stopped persecuting Christians, converted to Christianity and became the most famous evangelist in history. He went from persecuting Christians to promoting Christianity - he is today known as the founder of Christianity as a religion.

St Bernadette of Lourdes

Dave Falcus

Question 26

RICHARD SWINBURNE: PRINCIPLES OF CREDULITY

Answer 26

We should assume things are credible unless we have evidence that proves otherwise. WE OUGHT TO BELIEVE THAT THINGS ARE AS THEY SEEM TO BE, UNTIL WE HAVE EVIDENCE THAT WE ARE MISTAKEN

Question 27

RICHARD SWINBURNE: TESTIMONY

Answer 27

We should assume people are telling the truth unless we have evidence that proves otherwise (innocent until proven guilty) IN THE ABSENCE OF SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS THE EXPERIENCES OF OTHERS ARE PROBABLY AS THEY REPORT THEM

Question 28

Richard swineburn quotes

Answer 28

-“ON OUR TOTAL EVIDENCE, THEISM IS MORE PROBABLE THAN NOT”

-“WE OUGHT TO BELIEVE THAT THINGS ARE AS THEY SEEM TO BE, UNTIL WE HAVE EVIDENCE THAT WE ARE MISTAKEN”

-“IF YOU SAY … NEVER TRUST APPEARANCES UNTIL IT IS PROVED THAT THEY ARE RELIABLE YOU WILL NEVER HAVE ANY BELIEFS AT ALL”

-“JUST AS YOU MUST TRUST YOUR FIVE ORDINARY SENSES, SO IT IS EQUALLY RATIONAL TO TRUST YOUR RELIGIOUS SENSE”

Question 29

EVALUATING SWINBURNE STRENGTHS

Answer 29

-Consistent with William James pragmatist belief that experiences should be judged by their ‘fruits not roots. Transformation is lifestyle and outlook is a powerful and observable! argument for the genuineness of a religious experience

-Swinburne does take into account ‘special considerations’ that may influence the
reliability of someone’s testimony. For example: some people are proven liars some people are drug-users or suffer from mental health disorders. This acknowledgment strengthens the case - it shows he has considered potential problems

-Swinburne’s approach reflects how human beings navigate through life in general

• we would not be able to get through life if we demanded absolute proof before accepting people’s testimony. As Swinburne says: IF YOU SAY … NEVER TRUST APPEARANCES UNTIL IT IS PROVED THAT THEY ARE RELIABLE, YOU WILL NEVER HAVE ANY BELIEFS AT ALL”

-Swinburne is making an inductive argument that seeks to investigate the probability of God’s existence. Swinburne therefore acknowledges his method is not absolutely perfect, but it still ultimately makes God’s existence more probable than not (to more than 50%).

Question 30

EVALUATING SWINBURNE WEAKNESSES

Answer 30

-Swinburne is saying that normal sense experiences are reliable, therefore religious experiences are reliable evidence for the existence of God. This is a dubious claim - how can we move from being convinced of the reliability of the senses to the reliability of mystical and visionary claims about God?

-Ancient Greek philosopher Plato said that we cannot trust our senses or empirica experience. as ‘the bodv is an endless source of trouble for us We cannot rely or
anv ‘evidence that we gain from our senses. because they deceive us.even if
someone helieves thev are telling the truth. that does not mean they necessaril are. This is illustrated by contemporary criticisms of religious experiences, whic show such experiences to be the result of hallucination, illness or substance/drug consumption

-Personal testimony is not sufficient as absolute proof - even if every single person who had a religious experience wholeheartedly believed that is was an experience of God, it would not objectively prove ‘God’ is the right explanation for such an experience. French rationalist Denis Diderot declared that, if the entire population of Paris were to assure him that a man had been raised from the dead, he would not believe a word of it

Question 31

SIGMUND FREUD

Answer 31

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud: 20th century psychoanalyst, founding father of modern psychology. Human behaviour is explained by the subconscious mind.

“Religion is an illusion”

“The religions of mankind must be classed among the mass-delusions of this kind”

Sigmund Freud argued that ‘religion is an illusion’. Visions are at best signs of immaturity, at worst symptoms of mental illness.

Religion is the projection of our greatest hopes, fears and desires (e.g. for protection, security).

Question 32

BERTRAND RUSSELL: THEY ARE
HALLUCINATIONS

Answer 32

Bertrand Russell: 20 century mathematician, logician and philosopher.

“There is no difference between someone who eats too little and sees Heaven and someone who drinks too much and sees snakes”

Religious Experiences have physiological psychological explanations. For example, they are hallucinations as a result of eating too little. They do not prove the existence of God because they have a scientific explanation - they are delusions

Question 33

CHARLES STROSS: THEY ARE
MISINTERPRETATIONS

Answer 33

Charles Stross: British science riction and fantasy writer

“One ape’s hallucination is another ape’s religious experience”

Apparent ‘religious experiences’ are misinterpretations. Humans wrongly interpret physiologically originating experiences as divine. This is often as a result of social influences. For example, someone from a Christian background may have a vision of Jesus. The cultural relativism of such experiences demonstrates their human origins.

Question 34

ALBERT SCHWEITZER: PAUL HAD AN
EPILECTIC FIT

Answer 34

Albert Schweitzer: 20 century theologian, philosopher and physician

“The most natural hypothesis is therefore that Paul suffered from some kind of epileptiform attacks … It would agree with this, that on the road to Damascus he hears voices during an attack, and suffers afterwards from a temporary affection of the eyesight, if his experience at his conversion really happened during such an attack”

Schweitzer studies the particular case study of St Paul, and finds the
‘most natural hypothesis’ is that Paul suffering from epileptiform attacks. Indeed, people with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE) are sometimes prone to religious visions and mystical experiences.

Question 35

Challenge to Religious Experiences

Answer 35

-We only have the word of the experient that the experience took place - they could be mistaken or lying.

-Only certain people have received
Religious Experiences - suggests God shows favouritism. Their private nature means they cannot be objectively proved.

-The experiences can be explained psychologically, medically or by neuroscience. Freud: Visions are the result of subconscious fears and desires, symptoms of mental illness.

Question 36

Rebuttle to William James

Answer 36

Does the origin matter? Or should we judge the experience by its fruits not its roots

E.g what impact did pauls experience have