Religious Experience

Question 1

What is the meaning to the word conclusion

Answer 1

proves the premise is correct

Question 2

What is an analytic statement

Answer 2

A statement that is valid and contains within its language the proof for the statement

Question 3

What is the meaning of synthetic statement

Answer 3

A statement that’s truth relies upon observation

Question 4

What is the meaning of a priori

Answer 4

Without (prior to) experience or observation

Question 5

What is the meaning of a posteriori

Answer 5

With sensory evidence

Question 6

What is meant by a statement being logically correct or sound

Answer 6

The conclusion is correct in relation to the premise that is not logical to the world

Question 7

Richard Swinburn classify religious experiences into five types and two principles what are the two principles

Answer 7

The principle of credulity (no reason to disbelieve it)

The principle of Testimony (does the person stand to gain from it)

Question 8

Richard Swinburn classified religious experience into five types what are they

Answer 8

Numinous - seeing something in the new/different way (according to your belief)
unusual object- which is taken to be religious e.g. Jacobs ladder
Private sensations, ordinary language - and experience taking to be religious but can be described in ordinary language e.g. God speaking directly to you
Private sensation, inexpressible - cannot be explains in ordinary language e.g. 6th sense
private experience, no sensation - feeling that God is telling you to do something

Question 9

What are the criticisms to Richard Swinburn is five classifications of religious experiences

Answer 9

too neat and similar

uses contradictory terms for example music can be both joyful and tragic

Question 10

William James was a empiricist and scientist he said that religious experience had four qualities what were these qualities

Answer 10

ineffability - inability to put into words
noetic quality - The experiant gained something from the experience e.g. knowledge
transiency - experience is temporary and does not last long
passivity - person involved is passive they do not have control or choice in the experience

Question 11

What is the act 9 conversion story of saul

Answer 11

Saul was Jewish and a persecutor of Christians. He walked on the road to Damascus and saw a blinding flash of light and a voice “saul, saul, why do you persecute me?”. Scales them over his eyes blinding him he is taking to a Christian and left there. When he gradually converts to Christianity he is able to see again. He becomes Paul who writes parts of the Bible

Question 12

What is the difference between a religious experience and a normal experience

Answer 12

A religious experience is Private and subjective and cannot be verified scientifically proven - E.g. a catholic may see the virgin Mary where as a Hindu may see Ganesh
A normal experience is public and objective, shared by other people

Question 13

what is the definition of a religious experience

Answer 13

I’m in counter with the divine

It is A nonempirical of currents which gives as an awareness of something beyond ourselves

Question 14

There are two main groups of religious: Direct and Indirect

explain these

Answer 14

direct = feels that they have a contact with God 
indirect = an inner experience of Gods actions in creation (immanence) and "something other"

Question 15

Caroline Franks Davis suggested seven types of religious experience what are these

Answer 15

Awareness - see you in the work of God in the world
Quasi-sensory - visions/inner experiences of God
Numinous - encountering the holiness of God
Regenerative - a conversion experience
Interpretive - having prayers answered
Mystical - sense of the ultimate reality
Revelatory - receiving enlightenment/knowledge ( perhaps through revelation from God)

Question 16

What is the meaning of the word premise?

Answer 16

The opening to an argument

Question 17

Most religious experiences are unique/ private but some are coroprate what does this mean

Answer 17

Large numbers of people share the same experience e.g. Toronto blessing

Question 18

Andrew Greeley found common themes in testimonies

what are the six common themes

Answer 18

Feeling of deep inner peace
Certainty everything will turn out for the good
Sense of the need to help others
Believe that love is at the centre of everything
Sense of joy
Great emotional intensity

Question 19

Ninan Smart in “The Religious Experience of Mankind” said that “a religious experience involves some king of “perception” of the invisible world or…

Answer 19

some visible person or, … manifestation of the invisible world”

Question 20

The philosopher Freidrich Schleiermacher said a religious experience was what

Answer 20

A sense of the ultimate and an awareness of wholeness, a consciousness of the infinite and an absolute dependence

Question 21

The philosopher Martin Buber said that God reveals himself on a personal level and is also experienced in life, i.e through interactions with other people and in nature.
What name did he give to every day human relationships and to more serious meaningful relationships

Answer 21

Everyday human relationships = “I-it” (a simple level)

Serious/more meaningful relationships = “I-thou” (God is experienced though these as he is the “eternal thou”)

Question 22

The philosopher Paul Tillich says that a religious experience is a feeling of “Ultimate concern”. He also said “religious experiences with out religious reflection is blind”
what does this mean

Answer 22

A religious experience is an encounter followed by a special understanding of religious significance

Question 23

The philosopher William James says that religious experiences draw on common emotions which are directed at the divine
What are these common emotions? and what do they give a person?

Answer 23

Happiness, fear and wonder

They give a person a renewed approach to life

Question 24

The philosopher Richard Dawkins says there is no such thing as a religious experience, what explanation does it give that these experiences instead

Answer 24

They are merely expressions of the persons psychological needs

Question 25

There are six types of religious experience what are these

Answer 25

The dramatic or conversion event
Responses to life and the world
Revelatory experience
near death experience
Mystical experiences
Coroporate experiences

Question 26

A type of religious experience is a dramatic or conversion event. This event is often a vision or feeling of wonder and humility, and the power and majesty of God. (These experiences are frequently linked to a search of faith and the individual is both attracted and repelled by sense of awe and wonder)
What does the experience offer evidence of? Give an example of each of these experiences

Answer 26

the “wholly other” nature of God
e.g. Direct experience = Rudolf Otto - numinous experience
or
E.g. conversion experience = Paul on the road to Damascus (act 9)

Question 27

A type of religious experience is responses to life and world. These are indirect experiences which do what to a persons understanding of their life and the world around them?
This could be the result of what?
What does H.D.Lewis say about this form of religious experience?

Answer 27

enhance their understanding as a result of prayer/Communication with God/God guides them
“Not just a feeling… But a conviction or insight, a sense that something must be”

Question 28

A type of religious experience is a Revelatory experience. Which is described as divine self-disclosure what does this mean?
a critical aspect of this experience is that the experient requires new knowledge. In what 2 forms can this knowledge come?

Answer 28

Good makes himself directly known e.g. vision or dream
propositional revelation = God commands his divine message e.g. 10 Commandments
non-propositional revelation = person comes to a moment of “realisation” of the divine truth e.g. Buda enlightenment

Question 29

Another form of religious experience is a near death experience which is when a person “dies” and can recall what they were dead.
Raymord Moody carried out extensive research and found 4 common “core experiences”, what are these?

Answer 29

A feeling of peace
Going through a dark tunnel
Meeting at being of light
Making a decision of crossing a barrier or not

Question 30

but is a near death experience really a religious experience, what proof/evidence is there in the Bible to support this?

Answer 30

“The divine being of Clearlight will appear in whatever shape will benefit all beings”

Question 31

Another religious experience is a mystical experience, where the person experiences the ultimate reality which brings them a sense of what with the divine?

Answer 31

Unity with the divine, separateness from the divine and dependence on the divine

Question 32

A mystical experience is difficult to describe in ordinary language, this is due to the overwhelming presence of God which makes the experience…
Who was the famous mystic who said “human language is unable to express the sense of mystical union with God”

Answer 32

Intensely personal, otherworldly, transcendent and beyond space and time
St John of the Cross

Question 33

There are two types of mysticism what are they

Answer 33

theistic mysticism = involves an awareness of God

monistic mysticism = awareness of soul, self and conscience

Question 34

William James listed for characteristics of a mystic experience what are they

Answer 34

Ineffability = sense of feeling that defies description
Noetic quality = revelation of universal and external truths
transiency = A brief but profoundly important experience
passivity = feeling of being taken over by a superior authority

Question 35

Mystic experiences can be both extrovertive or introverted what does this mean
How did Hans Kung characterise a mysticism experience?

Answer 35

extrovertive = looking outwards to see God in the world
introvertive = A person looks good in themselves and sees their personal identity being merged into The divine unity

“The person seeks union with God by purifying that own soul”

Question 36

Another form of religious experience is coroporate experiences. And example of this is the 1994 Toronto blessing what happened during this experience

Answer 36

Many people shook uncontrollably, wept and laughter hysterically
the church called this the manifestation of spirits (other explanation for it is the use of presentation technology)

Question 37

Richard Dawkins criticise religious experiences because of three main reasons what are they

Answer 37

1) no empirical evidence
2) it is an individual experience which makes it unreliable
3) God is “immutable” which means he is unchangeable. but religious experiences undermine gods omnipotent’s and unchangeability because he is undermining his “perfect” world through religious experiences

Question 38

David Hume also criticise religious experiences as he had a problem with the cause and affect, what was this problem

Answer 38

One only studies and has evidence for the effect of riches experience not the cause of it. He argues you cannot establish from the affect the cause

Question 39

Ramachandran also criticised religious experiences on a neurological basis what was his argument

Answer 39

“Spiritually inspired or as the result of social conditioning”
Pre-frontal lobe stimulated during religious experience also stimulated during epileptic fit
Did an experiment measuring skin resistance which proved religious experience had the same response as an epileptic fit

Question 40

Ramachandran criticise religious experiences how would an agnostic counter his argument

Answer 40

An agnostic would say God is communicating through our temperal lobe

Question 41

Michael Pershinger was a cognitive neuroscientist Who believe religious experiences were merely “mental phenomena” he took 900 people who claimed to have had a religious experience and conducted an experiment using what

Answer 41

“The God helmet” this helmet sent electrical signals through the brain which stimulated the pre-frontal lobe, which controls attention. The majority of the test subjects felt “not feeling in the world leads to an “other worldly” experience”

Question 42

John Hick argued for Eschatological verification what does this mean

Answer 42

One day God in heaven will justify these experiences. Surely Heaven is enough evidence?

Question 43

And example of a religious experience is the 19th century Lourdes - Bernadette Saubirous

Answer 43

A 14 year old girl went down to a fresh water spray and saw the Virgin Mary in the mist. She ran away but came back and the Virgin Mary appeared again and said “build me a chapel here because it has healing powers”. 64 confirmed miracles of healing have happened due to this spring (600,000 unconfirmed miraculously healings)

Question 44

Richard Swinburn’s five classifications of religious experience or criticised because

Answer 44

They are too neat and sometimes religious experience is described in contradictory terms e.g. music can be both a joyful and tragic

Question 45

Psychologist Sigmund Freud argued the reason why many people take religious experiences as evidence for God is because of child trauma and guilt explain this further

Answer 45

Child trauma = feels guilty can’t explain why you feel guilty because the trauma is suppressed you believe that this is God (the little feeling of guilt in the back of their mind). Religious belief = neuroses

Question 46

Freud also came up with the concept of Id, ego and superego explain these

Answer 46

Id = inna primal expression = emotional response/subconscious
Ego = rational ordered self = decision maker/conscious mind
Superego = The middle ground between the Id and Ego - this is where our ethics, morality and religious beliefs come from

Question 47

Plato had a theory that there is a perfect game for everything to demonstrate his point what analogy did you use

He also believed there is no god nearly a demiurge what does this mean

Answer 47

Charioteer - The first horse = The rational mind
The second horse = The body
The charioteer = The soul

God is a craftsman not a creator

Question 48

What was John wisdom’s analogy of “parable of the Gardner”

Answer 48

Two men walk through the jungle and see clearing. One man believes there must be an invisible gardener who has designed it. The other cannot see a Gardner and so says it must’ve just happened. There is no one empirical evidence for either suggestion much like God

Question 49

Andrew Greeley suggests that there are common triggers of religious experience such as…

Answer 49

Music, dance, prayer and meditation

Question 50

One factor which can lead to a religious experience is music and atmosphere. Kathryn Kulmann is famous for creating “slain in the spirit” what does this mean
And what does Hinn suggest is the cause of this

Answer 50

Whereby the power of the holy spirit people fall down under this power
Caused by the atmosphere and a form of hypnosis not the power of God

Question 51

Another factor which can lead to A religious experience is prayer what is prayer
“Speaking in tongues” can occur during prayer what is this

Answer 51

Prayer is communication with God, if a prayer is answered this is said to be evidence of God
Speaking in tongues is said to be a sign of “baptism of the holy spirit” and is proof that God lives within them