religious experience Flashcards

1
Q

What are the 3 types of religious experiences?

A

Corporeal, Imaginative + Intellectual

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2
Q

What is a corporeal vision?

A

Empirical; supernatural experiences mediated through physical senses
Visionary sees the figure in the same way someone would see a chair

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3
Q

What’s an example of a corporeal vision?

A

18 visions of Mary that Bernadette of Lourdes saw
Mary identified herself as the ‘Immaculate Conception’

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4
Q

What’s an imaginative vision?

A

Visions mediated through the ‘minds eye’ not physical sight
Often dreams

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5
Q

What’s an example of an imaginative vision?

A

Josephs dream where he was told Mary was preg. through power of Holy Spirit

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6
Q

What’s an intellectual vision?

A

No image, but the subject claims to ‘see’ things as they rlly are
Mystical visions; hard to understand but they enlighten the soul

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7
Q

What’s an example of an intellectual vision?

A

Teresa of Avila - a mystic who saw “nothing with the eyes of the body, nothing with the eyes of the soul” but saw Jesus as he rlly was

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8
Q

What’s a numinous experience?

A

Exp. thats the basis of all gen. religion
Non rational + unique
Sense of the wholly other

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9
Q

What is meant by the term ‘holy’?

A

‘Other than’ ‘Separate from’
Attempt to describe the sense some ppl have of a reality totally beyond their exp. of themselves

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10
Q

What is meant by mysterium?

A

Far removed from humanity

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11
Q

What is meant by tremendum?

A

Fearsome experience of God’s overwhelming energy

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12
Q

What is meant by fascinans?

A

Nature of the experience creates a desire for a relationship w the Being

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13
Q

What does Mysterium tremendum et fascinans mean?

A

Fearful + attractive mystery

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14
Q

What did William James believe about religion?

A

He was sympathetic to it but wasn’t a part of an organised religion

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15
Q

What did William James believe organised religion grew from?

A

People comparing their religious experiences

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16
Q

What did William James believe the true purpose of humanist is?

A

Union w the higher universe that gives this world its significance

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17
Q

What is William James’ 4 criteria for assessing the genuine nature of a mystical experience?

A

Ineffability, Noetic quality, Transiency, Passivity

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18
Q

What is meant by ineffability?

A

Private experience that makes sense only to other mystics

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19
Q

What is noetic quality?

A

The encounter gives a genuine insight into truth

20
Q

What is transiency?

A

The experience is usually short + it becomes difficult to reproduce the mem. after time

21
Q

What is passivity?

A

The experience controls the mystic

22
Q

What does William James say about the wide range of mystical experience?

A

Moving power of music
Deja vu
Drug-induced states where ‘depth beyond depth of truth’ is revealed

23
Q

What did Walter Stace think about Gods existence?

A

There’s little point in attempting to prove God’s existence
He’s either a mystery or nothing

24
Q

What 2 types of mystical experiences did Walter Stace identify?

A

Introvertive + extrovertive

25
Q

What is an introvertive experience?

A

Sense experience = suppressed
No awareness of world
No intellectual function

26
Q

What is an extrovertive experience?

A

Normal objects are seen w the physical senses but they’re transfigured so the non-sensuous unity shines through

27
Q

What did Sigmund Freud say about religion?

A

It’s ‘wish fulfilment’
God helps control fear of the unknown
Religious experiences are hallucinations caused by out need to have control

28
Q

What is hinted at in the New Testament?

A

St Paul hints at being affected by a condition called a ‘thorn in the flesh’ but it sounds like temporal lobe epilepsy

29
Q

What are symptoms of TLE?

A

Temporary blindness, seeing light, having visions, hearing voices

30
Q

What does science of neurotheology show?

A

Religious experiences are produced by electrical stimulation of temporal lobes in the brain

31
Q

What is said about the God Helmet?

A

Magnetic coils stimulate temporal lobes
Results include experience of mystical states, visions of God etc

32
Q

What is said about drugs + religious experience?

A

R.E. can be caused by drugs
‘Entheogens’ - generating the divine within (LSD, mescaline etc)

33
Q

What can a religious believer respond w about TLE?

A

If God wants ppl to have religious experiences, they have to be processed by the brain
An area in the brain needs to be resp.

34
Q

What does Swinburne’s principle of credulity (POC) say?

A

How things seem to be, is the way things really are
Believability of a persons experience

35
Q

What does Swinburne’s principle of testimony (POT) say?

A

Where there’s no spec. consideration, we should believe what ppl tell
Reliability of what ppl claim

36
Q

What are the 4 special considerations of the principle of credulity?

A

Reliability of the claim, truth of the claim, difficulty showing God was present + what is claimed can be accounted for in other ways

37
Q

What is the meaning of the special consideration: reliability of the claim? What principle does this apply to?

A

If someone describes a religious experience but has been known to lie in the past then you have good reason to doubt it (POC)

38
Q

What is the meaning of the special consideration: truth of the claim? Which principle does this apply?

A

Reasonability of the claim (POC)

39
Q

What is meant by the special consideration: difficulty showing God was present? Which principle does this apply to?

A

Proof of God is difficult (POC)

40
Q

What is meant by the special consideration: what is claimed can be accounted for in other ways? Which principle does this apply to?

A

Accounted for w medical explanations such as TLE (POC)

41
Q

What is Swinburne’s rejection of the 1st special consideration in POC?

A

It can’t be shown that all claims are unreliable just bc someone’s lied in the past

42
Q

What is Swinburne’s rejection of the 2nd special consideration in POC?

A

It can’t be shown that all claims are untrue just bc its unlikely/unreasonable

43
Q

What is Swinburne’s rejection of the 3rd special consideration in POC?

A

God is supposedly everywhere; so why would we need to prove he was there

44
Q

What is Swinburne’s rejection of the 4th special consideration in POC?

A

God arguably may cause medical conditions that can be used as explanations

45
Q

What is Swinburne’s 1st conclusion in POT?

A

Someone who’s had a religious experience of what seems to be God has by POC good reason for believing

46
Q

What is Swinburne’s 2nd conclusion in POT?

A

The testimony of others who report similar experiences supports claims

47
Q

What is Swinburne’s 3rd conclusion in POT?

A

W/o R.E. the prob. of the existence of God would be 50/50; adding testimony of R.E. makes it greater than 50/50