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religious experience Flashcards

1
Q

mystical experience

A

direct contact / oneness with god or ultimate reality

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2
Q

what is organised religion to james

A

organised religion is a response to religious experience

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3
Q

PINT

A

Passive
Noetic
Transient
Passive

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4
Q

passive

A

loss of agency over body

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5
Q

ineffable

A

defies expression, you cant communication

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6
Q

noetic

A

revelation

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7
Q

transient

A

temporal shift

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8
Q

physiological accounts of religious experiences

A

religious / mystical experiences can be reduces to the effects of brain states. (eg temporal lobe epilepsy)
materialist - delusion caused by brain

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9
Q

who talks about the temporal lobe epilepsy

A

Dr Persinger

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10
Q

bertrand russell criticism

A

uses the story of the great hero, the story can have a great effect on your life, but may be completely false.

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11
Q

carolyn franks davies comment and Vardy comeback

A

she says that we are experiencing the same thing but describe it using our own language and cultural traditions

vardy criticises saying “how could one claim that an experience of Mary at Lourdes or of Vishnu were the same?” = closer to an assertion than a real point

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12
Q

william james positives x3

A
  • empirical, objective, scientific
  • not drawn into proving a god - universal experience
  • focus on effects is observable
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13
Q

william james negatives

A
  • positive experiences dont prove its genuine (russell)
  • may be misunderstood (drugs or stupidity)
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14
Q

clifford criticism of william james

A

wrong to believe on insufficient evidence

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15
Q

swinburne clapback at clifford x1.5

A

principles of testimony - supporting if a credible witness testifies to an experience, it should be taken seriously, unless there is good reason to doubt their credibility
(prima facie) - innocent before proven guilty!1

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16
Q

Rudolph Otto

A

“mysterium, tremendum, et facinans”
refers to the fearful and fascinating mystery one experiences when faced with the “wholly other”

BOOK “The Idea of the Holy”
=> use his description to verify whether an individual has truly experienced the divine or if it is hysteria

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17
Q

pros of corporate x2

A
  • collective verification
  • greater scrutiny
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18
Q

pros of individual experience x1 and expl

A
  • profound personal change
    eg george foreman and saul on the road to damascus.
19
Q

collective verification plus example

A

adds to credibility
eg toronto blessing

20
Q

greater scrutiny plus example

A

miracle of the sun 1917
was rigorously examined by astronomers, physicists.

21
Q

cons of corporate religious experiences x2 with 1st example and what counters 2nd

A
  • social pressure and group think
    toronto blessing
  • mass hysteria
    COUNTERED BY MYSTERIUM, TREMENDUM, FACINANS
22
Q

freud quick X4

A

infantile neurosis
wish fulfillment
unhealthy, obsessional rituals, repression of urges
DELUSIONS

23
Q

jo marchant claps back at freud

A

religion is about belonging, meaning, food for mental health and resilience.

24
Q

cons of religious experience

A
  • lacks verification, easier to dismiss as subjective or hallucinatory
  • deception with mental illness
  • persinger and materialist views
25
blaise pascal describes his religious experience as
"god of jesus christ. joy, joy, joy, tears of joy"
26
william james book
The varieties of religious experience
27
examples of ineffability
st teresa of avila "i wish i could give a description" Alfred Tennyson "i am ashamed of my feeble description"
28
evidence of passivity
the apostles at pentecost speak in tongues
29
muhammed example
Muhammed's night journey Isra - night from mecca to jerusalem noetic revelation passive - he repeated the words the angel told him to even tho he couldnt read transient - wouldnt believe it happened in the short time
30
st teresa of avila plus book
ecstatic visions "thrusting at times into my heart an to pierce my very entrails" she hovered interior castle = BOOK
31
Feuerbach
naturalistic explanation THE ESSENCE OF CHRISTIANITY when people think they are worshipping god, they are worshipping their own human nature. people take admirable qualities eg heroism, benevolence and project this onto what they call 'god' in order to meet their needs = similar to freud, psychological and wish fulfillment
32
william james clapback at freud x3
- we cant look at religious experiences from their origin, rather from their positive, real effects - maybe it is wish fulfillment, but people need the wish to contact god - religious experiences may come from the unconscious, but this could be a spiritual facility, no evidence
33
Schleiermacher
modern liberal theology sees personal experience as the foundation of faith schleiermacher insisted that to bring christianity back to life, we need to return to its sources in religious experience
34
alister hardy
founded the religious research centre 49% of british people claimed to have had a direct personal awareness of a power or presence different from everyday life
35
muslim view on conversion
muslims believe everyone was born muslim under surrender to god. but you lose your way and must REVERT
36
how does william james justify that conversion experiences are valid
from the positive, transformational effects
37
saul of tarsus bible passage (on damascus road)
acts 9
38
describe george foreman conversion
after 12 rounds of a heavyweight competition, he hears god's voice which pulls him out of an abyss of sadness. he is born again and is an evangelical now
39
karl marx
religion is the opium of the people
40
dawkins
religion can be dangerous and damaging
41
religious experiences untrue x4
- lying, drugs, mentally ill - subjective, too personal - cannot check - goes against laws of nature
42
religious experiences true x4
- conversion - principle of testimony - positive effects - corporate rel experiences enhance legitimacy
43
antony flew criticism and james clapback
cultural relativism - we only see what is in our cultural framework "bernadette occurring to a hindu, or apollo under the shoguns" james says it can still be true but we fit it into our own understanding of the world, through our own cultural framework

rs a level (33 decks)

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