Religious Experience Flashcards
A) essay plan
Introduction A posteriori nature Inductive argument Cumulative argument Principle of Testimony Principle of Credulity Conclusion
A) Introduction outline
- Awareness beyond oneself
- Ultimate proof for believers “it is wholly impossible for me to doubt that I have been in God and God in me” St Theresa of Avila
- Direct experience in contact with God
- Indirect give feeling of immanence “not just a feeling… But a conviction… That something must be” HD Lewis
- Franks Davies 6 types eg revelatory and corporate such as the Toronto Blessing
- Greeley’s study found common themes eg emotional intensity, and certain conditions to be conducive eg music
A) Paragraph 1
- A posteriori nature
- Can’t have empirical evidence for non-empirical experience
- Swinburne maintains reliability “what one perceives probably is so”
- James’ ‘value judgements’ emotional evidence eg glossalia for emotional experience
- Jung summarises “religious experience … it cannot be disputed”
A) Paragraph 2
- Inductive argument
- Testimonies share characteristics beyond Greeley’s survey
- Huge life changes after eg St Paul
- Observed by James and Swinburne who summarised the Christian God “will seek to interact with his creatures”
A) Paragraph 3
- Swinburne’s Cumulative Argument
- Consider with all other arguments to form one large strong argument “on our total evidence, theism is more probable than not”
- Experience will be noetic, maybe ineffable
- Franks Davis agrees weight of testimony is more convincing in totality
A) Paragraph 4
- Principle of Testimony
- Believe unless contradictory evidence; people usually tell the truth
- Many examples in highly respected scripture eg Moses & Decalogue
- Swinburne “the experiences of others are (probably) as they report them”
A) Paragraph 5
Principle of Credulity, things are usually as they seem
Davis “people, in time, have come to do what earlier generations would rightly have taken to be impossible on the basis of their experience”
Swinburne “how things seem is a good guide to how things are”
A) Conclusion
Several strong key principle
Franks Davies summarises challenges made to her own arguments, can’t evaluate evidence if in doubt
B) Essay Outline
Carefully evaluate each key principle A posteriori Inductive Cumulative Testimony Credulity Conclusion
B) Paragraph 1
- A posteriori “can be constituted in other ways” Hick so they don’t “carry the weight of proof of God’s existence”
- Cole said world and God are too different “God is said to be Creator. How would you recognise that attribute?”
- James says there is a cause, just need to prove it’s God
- Swinburne shows reasonable to assume God “will seek to interact with his creatures”
B) Paragraph 2
- Many occur to the very sick eg Julian of Norwich
- Freud main critic of inductive nature. Rel exp are illusions; a psychological reaction to the world
- Feuerbach calls them an expression of alienation
- James sees no issue in other fields “it never occurs to anyone to try to refute opinions by showing up their authors neurotic constitution”
B) Paragraph 3
- Weight of testimony is insufficient
- Hume “as to secure against all delusion”
- Quantity remaining still indicates truth
- Jung “religious experience… Cannot be disputed”
B) Paragraph 4
- Wittgenstein uses phrase “seeing-as” to show people seeing things differently
- Experiences still have value “when I pray coincidences happen, when I don’t, they don’t” Temple
- Different means diverse, not untrustworthy
B) Paragraph 5
“The religious blik… Allows the believer to see evidence where the sceptic may not” Hare
Marx: experient subconsciously reflects human needs and desired qualities to form ‘God’
Franks Davies and Swinburne reject criticisms “what one perceives probably is so”
B) Conclusion
Vardy concludes we can neither prove nor disprove
James “they are, as a rule, much more convincing than results established by mere logic ever are”
