Religious Experience

Question 1

Types of religious experience

Answer 1

Visions.
Conversions.
Mystical experiences.
Prayer.

Question 2

Visions

Answer 2

Where someone sees, hears or feels the presence of a supernatural figure or event. They often include an intellectual aspect where they gain knowledge and/or understanding. They sometimes deliver a specific message and they can be either sensory or dream based.

Question 3

Dream based visions

Answer 3

They occur in the unconscious mind and often use images or a narrative which would not be possible to experience while awake.

Question 4

Sensory visions

Answer 4

Experienced whilst awake, most commonly they’re individual but there have been some cases of group visions. Some visions are corporeal which means they seem as if there is something physically present.

Question 5

Conversions

Answer 5

A change in belief, lifestyle or both. Conversions can be from no religion to faith, one religion to a different religion or from belief to trust.

Question 6

Moral conversions

Answer 6

Where a change of lifestyle is the key factor.

Question 7

Intellectual conversions

Answer 7

Where a change in belief is the key factor.

Question 8

Characteristic features of conversions

Answer 8

Gradual- occurring over a period of time, or sudden.
Volitional- freely chosen or self surrendering- accepted after a period of resistance.
Passive- happens without seeking it or active- seeking it (attending a place of worship).
Transforming- changing them into a new person.

Question 9

Mystical experiences

Answer 9

Characterised by a sense of unity with God. Transcendent- go beyond the ordinary limits of time and space. Ecstatic- produce an overwhelming feeling of bliss or peace.

Question 10

James’ 4 characteristics of mystical experiences (PINT)

Answer 10

Passivity- happen to the recipient.
Ineffability- they can’t be properly described in language.
Noetic quality- they provide special knowledge or understanding.
Transiency- short lived, but have a lasting effect.

Question 11

Prayers- according to Teresa

Answer 11

Prayer = communication with God. The garden analogy; the state of a persons soul is represented by a garden and prayer is represented by watering plants. There are 4 ways; carrying buckets (great effort), water wheel and buckets, by a stream, by heavy rain. It means that prayer requires great effort but the effort needed can decrease with time until it becomes natural and easy.

Question 12

The 7 mansions of prayer

Answer 12

We need to achieve union with God but to do this we need to find the central part by passing through 7 rooms. Each of the 7 mansions represents a different stage of prayer. Teresa believes that it requires great dedication and effort but it is only possible through the grace of God.

Question 13

7 mansions- room 1-3 ordinary prayer

Answer 13

1- begins to pray but surrounded by distractions and sin.
2- practice prayer regularly but lack the determination to avoid sin.
3- devoted to God, spend hours in prayer and they avoid sin.

Question 14

7 mansions- room 4-7- mystical prayer

Answer 14

4- souls receive consolations (comfort) from God.
5- simple union of the soul with God.
6- spiritual engagement, a determination to spend every moment with God.
7- highest state- a spiritual marriage, It is a permanent and intuitive feeling of complete unity with God.

Question 15

Example of a vision

Answer 15

Saul on the road to Damascus- sensory, intellectual, group and individual. He was saying threats against the Lord’s disciples, as he neared Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, he fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him “why do you persecute me?” the men travelling with Saul heard the sound but did not see anyone. When he got up he was blind- for 3 days.

Question 16

Example of a conversion

Answer 16

Swearing Tom- individual, sudden, active, volitional, transforming and moral. Tom entered a church, prayed using the words the preacher had used, a change took place and he was changed from swearing Tom to praying Tom.

Question 17

Example of a mystical experience

Answer 17

Alfred Tennyson- noetic quality, passivity, unity, transciency, transcendent, ineffability. “individuality itself seemed to dissolve and fade away into boundless being”
“the clearest, the surest of the surest.”
“utterly beyond words”

Question 18

Otto’s numinous- the tremendum component

Answer 18

The tremendum component of the numinous experience-
awe-fulness (inspiring awe)
overpoweringness- (inspires feeling of humility)
energy- (impression of vigour and compelling).

Question 19

Otto’s numinous- the mysterium component

Answer 19

The mysterium component-
wholly other- totally outside our normal experience
fascination- the person is caught up in the experience.

Question 20

Are religious experiences genuine- yes

Answer 20

Swinburne and James

Question 21

Are religious experiences genuine- no

Answer 21

Freud and Caroline Franks Davis

Question 22

Swinburne (sees religious experiences as genuine)

Answer 22

We should treat the majority of religious experiences as genuine based on 2 principles- The principle of credulity- if we think we experiences something, we probably did. And the principle of testimony- if someone tells us something is true, they probably believe it is.
Some can be unreliable such as after taking hallucinogenic drugs, and some are untrustworthy.

Question 23

Swinburne continued

Answer 23

He also uses a cumulative argument, lots of weaker pieces of evidence add up to produce strong evidence,
Challenge- Flew, several leaky buckets don’t together hold water.
Response- Caroline Franks Davis, it depends on how the buckets are arranged.

Question 24

James- pragmatism (sees religious experiences as genuine)

Answer 24

He argues that truth is not something which is objective, it is subjective, so we should treat any religious experience as being true. What actually caused the experience is irrelevant (drugs, wishful thinking… )
Challenge- People generally think of truth as something which is objective.

Question 25

James- pluralism (sees religious experiences as genuine)

Answer 25

Most people argue against religious experiences, as some are very different and sometimes contradict each other, so they are unreliable and not genuine. James argues that people interpret their experiences based upon cultural and religious background so we should expect them to be different.
Challenge- This means that all experiences are equally valid, so no one can say that theirs is the correct religion.

Question 26

Example of James’ pluralism

Answer 26

Blind men and the elephant, they all were at different spots, one believed it was a spear, a snake, a rope, a wall, a tree and a fan. This is because they interpreted the elephant on incomplete experience, this doesn’t mean the elephant isn’t real.

Question 27

Freud- (sees religious experiences as not genuine)

Answer 27

He believed that religious experiences were wishful thinking (we want it to be true), and as children we look up to our parent’s to protect us, but as we grow older we realise our parents can fail and can’t protect us, so we invent a new ‘father’ who is all powerful and all knowing and who loves and protect us. (God).
Challenge- Freud based his theory on 5 mentally ill patients, doesn’t represent most people.

Question 28

Caroline Franks Davis- (sees religious experiences as not genuine)

Answer 28

3 categories-
Description related challenges- problems with how religious experiences are described.
Subject related challenges- problems with the reliability of the recipient.
Object related challenges- problems with the nature of what is experienced.