Religious experience

Question 1

St Theresa of Avila on Ineffability

Answer 1

“I wish I could give a description of at least the smallest part of what I learned, but, when I try to discover a way of doing so, I find it impossible…”

Question 2

R.A. Gilbert on Ineffability

Answer 2

“illustrate the extreme difficulty of discussing non empirical concepts solely intellectually.”

Question 3

What is a religious experience?

Answer 3

Any counter with the divine, direct or indirect.

Question 4

Can religious experiences be used to demonstratively prove the existence of god?

Answer 4

The use of religious experience is an inductive argument and therefore can not be proven to be true or false, only strong or weak.

Question 5

Why can’t religious experiences be measured empirically?

Answer 5

They deal with the transcendent.

Question 6

William James describes something as real if it has real affects, how does he describe real experiences?

Answer 6

“the feelings, acts and experiences of individual men.”

Question 7

What book does Caroline Franks Davis describe mystical experiences?

Answer 7

“The evidential force of religious experience”

Question 8

Name three of the 7 categories Caroline Franks Davis claims all religious experiences to have.

Answer 8

1) revelatory
2) numinous
3) mystical

Question 9

Name and explain the 4 types of qualities William James describes all mystical experiences to have.

Answer 9

1) Ineffability-uniqueness of feeling/indescribability
2) A noetic quality - revelation of deeper truths
3) Transiency - the experience doesn’t last long
4) Passivity - overtaken by the superior power

Question 10

What types of argument are religious experience as proof of the existence of God?

Answer 10

1) A priori
2) synthetic
3) inductive

Question 11

In what book does William James describe the the universal qualities of mystical experiences?

Answer 11

“Variety of religious experiences”

Question 12

Name 4 scholars who would describe numinosity as its own type of religious experience.

Answer 12

1) C.S Evans
2) Rudolph Otto
3) Kiekegaard
4) Buber

Question 13

In what book does Rudolf Otto describe numinous as insight into the “holy other” nature of God?

Answer 13

“The Idea of the Holy”

Question 14

How does Rudolf Otto describe a numinous experiences impact on a person’s emotions?

Answer 14

“The deepest and most fundamental element in all strong and sincerely felt religious emotion.”

Question 15

Name and describe Otto’s 3 elements of which he says numinous experiences consist of?

Answer 15

1) Awefulness - inspiration of awe/profound unease
2) Overpoweringness - feeling of humility
3) Urgency - feeling of great vigour and need for change.

Question 16

Why are Rudolph Otto;s views sometimes rejected among the christian community?

Answer 16

His description of the holy “other” contrasts the idea of a “personal God”

Question 17

What does Buber say about religion and types of relationships?

Answer 17

I-it - Understanding something or someone (often God or other significant religious information) at a purely intellectual level.

I-thou - A deeper understanding of something or someone; a meaningful relationship between the subject and object/participant.

Question 18

How does Buber argue we feel and understand numinous experiences?

Answer 18

We can gain an understanding of God through deepening our relationships with others and nature.

Question 19

How does Kierkegaard support Buber?

Answer 19

Faith comes from our own experiences, religion requires a “leap of faith.”

Question 20

How does Kierkegaard describe faith?

Answer 20

As a miracle.

Question 21

How would Kierkegaard argue that religious experience can still be valid, despite it’s subjectivity?

Answer 21

“truth is subjectivity” and “subjectivity is truth”, though this he means that the truest deepest meaning comes from its relationship and context to the individual at a personal level.

Question 22

How does McGuire define conversion?

Answer 22

“a process of religious change which transforms the way the individual perceives the rest of society, and his or her personal place in it, altering one’s view of the world.”

Question 23

What are William James thoughts on conversion and how does this influence conversion?

Answer 23

William James believed there not everyone can be converted and some may take longer than others. As such there are a variety of types of conversion.

Question 24

What is volitional conversion?

Answer 24

A conscious and voluntary experience featuring a gradual change and slow development of new moral and spiritual habits.

Question 25

What is self surrender conversion?

Answer 25

Sudden conversion, usually occurring as a result of great personal emotion.

Question 26

How does Logical positivist John Hick attack the subjective nature of religious experience?

Answer 26

“Any special event which can be constituted as manifesting the divine can be constituted in other ways, and accordingly cannot carry the weight of proof of God’s existence.”

Question 27

Why does R.M. Hare suggest religious experiences should be treated as “bliks”?

Answer 27

They are unfalsifiable and unverifiable, as such there meaning is personal and subjective.

Question 28

What where Wittgenstein’s views on religious experience?

Answer 28

Anti-realist Ludwig Wittgenstein suggested that each person sees their experiences differently, meaning that if two people underwent the same experience one may believe they have encountered God whilst another may just think they hallucinated.

Question 29

What does Swinburne say about his principle of credulity?

Answer 29

“(in the absence of special considerations), if it seems… to a subject that X is present, then probably X is present.”

Question 30

In regards to the principle of credulity, what does Swineburne consider as “special considerations?”

Answer 30

Things that alter the our state of mind such as drug use or mental health issues

Question 31

What does Swinburne say about his principle of testimony?

Answer 31

That people are mostly truthful therefore their experiences should be believed. If not then it is up to the listener to provide evidence, not the experiencer.

Question 32

How can the “cumulative argument” be used to counter claims that religious experience is weak due to subjectivity?

Answer 32

The fact that so many people claim to have religious experiences should be indicative of their validity as an argument for the existence of God.

Question 33

How can conversion be used to counter subjectivity?

Answer 33

Religious experience in the form of conversion can be readily measured empirically.

Question 34

What does Freud say about conversion?

Answer 34

It is “reaction to a hostile world” and “wish fulfillment.”

Question 35

How does Freud contest against arguments like the cumulative argument?

Answer 35

He believes religion to be a ‘universal, obsessional neurosis’

Question 36

How can Kant be used to critique religious experiences?

Answer 36

Kant states we wear “We wear the spectacles of reason” in order to find stability in a “world of chaos”

Question 37

How can Marxist views that religion is “the opiate of the masses” be used to argue against religious experience as proof of god?

Answer 37

Religious experiences are just a side effect of religions sedative like effect, which helps maintain capitalist social order.