Religious Experience Flashcards
Mystical experience
Experiences of God or of the supernatural which go beyond everyday sense experience
Broad term that includes visions, voices, can be dramatic or quiet and involves ‘uniting’ with God.
Numinous experience
An indescribable experience which invokes feelings of awe, worship and fascination
Corporate religious experience
Religious experiences which happen to a group of people ‘as a body’
Conversion experience
An experience which produces a radical change in someone’s belief system
Problems with RE
Difficult to define and difficult to explain.
The importance of religious experience
Central part of many religious traditions despite difficulties
Frequent in sacred texts
Religious experiences of central religious figures
Important for theology
Personal changes of individuals
Formation of doctrines based on religious experiences eg. Salat, or specific groups e.g. Franciscan Monks
Schleiermacher
Religious experiences are an inner feeling of dependence on the divine, not numinous.
It is at the heart of faith - statements of belief should be formulated to fit RE.
It requires no other testing to see if it is genuine. ‘self authenticating’
Different religions occur due to different religious experiences based on different cultures.
Christianity is the highest religion because of Jesus. but not the only true one.
Criticisms of Schleiermacher
Too much on subjective? Suggests that religious claims are based on emotion rather than fact.
There must be some form of testing or else any experience could count.
How can we know that it is God?
Prof. VS Ramachandran (University of California)
Scientific explanation for ‘religious experiences’
He discovered that heightened activity in the temporal lobe of the brain floods all senses with over whelming emotional experience similar to the account by believers of numinous experiences
AJ Ayer
It is impossible to verify the existence of God because religious experiences are unverifiable and thus it is unreasonable to believe them
William James
A philosopher and psychologist who studied religious experiences, and concluded that their validity can be tested by their long lasting effects.
Williams James’ view of God
For him, religious experiences indicate the probability of God.
He was a pluralist do did not speak directly of God, but of the ‘spiritual’ and the ‘higher aspects’ of the world.
He offers an argument for the existence of God in very general terms, the phenomena of religious experience points to a higher order of reality.
James’ criteria for religious experience.
The spiritual value of an RE is not undone if a psychological explanation is found.
There is not a single defining feature of RE
The experience of the great religious figures can set patterns for the conventional believer to study.
e.g. christians can be strong people who help others to progress.
Religious experience > focusing on a study of religious institutions
James’ definition of RE
“The feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine.” i.e. humans have a feeling of ‘something there’.
Second hand religion
William James’ idea that religious teachings, practices and attitudes are less important than religious experience, which is at the heart of religion.
Ineffable
The idea that a religious experience must be beyond proper description.
Language limitations mean that no adequate description can be given in words.
Noetic quality
The idea that a religious experience is not just feelings, but a deep and direct knowledge of God which could not have been achieved through reason alone.
The ‘truth’ was revealed to them.
James’ 4 criteria
James acknowledged the difficulty in defining religious experience so he proposed 4 criteria that he considered to be the characteristics of all religious and mystical experiences. Ineffable Noetic Transient Passive
Transient
The idea that a religious experience is temporary and cannot be sustained, although its effects may last a long time.
It can develop and deep with subsequent experiences.
Passive
The idea that a RE cannot be initiated by the mystic but rather they have a sense that something is acting upon them.
The experience is controlled from outside themselves.
James’ conclusion on religious experience
Religious experiences do not give proof of anything however it is reasonable to believe that there is a personal God who is interested in the world and individuals.
It is not reasonable for anyone to reject clear evidence of religious experience just because they started from a position of scepticism.
Strength of William James’ argument
Quantity- religious based on the experience of its founders has been a powerful force in history. (David Hay) It is widespread.
The effects of these experiences are powerful and positive - they change the lives of communities and individuals in a way that is difficult to explain without making reference to a God.
Several accounts of REs have similar descriptions hat would not be present if they were simple made up.
Objections to William James’ argument
His study is too subjective as he focuses more on the truth of the experience for the individual rather than if it relates to the idea of a God who ‘exists in the real world’.
He does not show that there must be a God, there could be other causes.
Believers of different faiths claim their experiences prove the truth of their faith however they cannot all be right.
Believers tend to interpret experiences in the light of their particular traditions, making them highly subjective and personal.
Bertrand Russel
Criticised James’ argument.
“The fact that a belief has a good moral effect upon a man is no evidence whatsoever in favour of its truth”.
People can be effected by fictional stories.
Anthony Flew
To him, statements that cannot be tested empirically are meaningless, he would therefore reject James’ tests of religious experience through its results in the life of individuals.
St Teresa of Avilia
What we now call a mystic, however in their time they were simply Christians seeking encounters with God as expressing these in language and imagery.
Psychology - James
The number of REs says theres something in it
Pluralism - James
All religions have truths
Pragmatism - James
It positively changes lives
Sigmund Freud
Humans are plagued with wishful thinking
Conversion meets the psychological needs of people - they desire a father figure.
Psycho-somatic experience - mental experiences trick you into thinking its a physical experience.
Starbuck
Most conversions happen between 18-24, at this age people are stressed and easily influenced. “Finding themselves”
Karl Marx
“Religion is the opiate of the people”
Religion controls society, gets people through life.
Swinburne’s principle of credulity
Senses are usually reliable
Swinburne’s principle of testimony
Most of the time people tell the truth
Maurice Wells
If REs are real, God is immoral because he only chooses to reveal himself to a select few.
