Religious Experience: Key Quotes Flashcards
Richard Dawkins’ quote from his book ‘The God Delusion’ about how convincing a religious experience is to certain people
“The argument from personal experience is one that is most convincing to those who claim to have had one. But is least convincing to anyone else, especially anyone knowledgeable about psychology”
- Richard Dawkins: 'The God Delusion'
Ninian Smart’s view on what a religious experience is
“A religious experience involves some kind of perception of the invisible world, or a perception that some visible person or thing is a manifestation of the invisible world”
- Ninian Smart: ' The Religious Experience of Mankind'
Richard Swinburne’s definition of a religious experience
“For our present purposes it will be useful to define it as an experience which seems…to the subject to be an experience of God (either of his just being there or doing or bringing about something) or a supernatural being”
- Richard Swinburne
Rudolph Otto explaining the ‘Numinous’
“The numinous is a mysterious, but never-the-less real object of experience, which evokes feelings of awe, wonder and fascination”
- Rudolph Otto
Key Latin quote/ phrase meaning “terrible mystery”; it was introduced by Otto
“Mysterium tremendum et fascinans”
A good quote for when describing ineffibility
“I wish i could give a description of at least the smallest part…but…i find it impossible”
-Teresa of Avila
Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt’s definition of a mystic
“Someone who has experienced an altered state of consciousness that has brought them to a new awareness of reality”
Guru Nanak’s quote about Waheguru and mysticism (Synoptic link)
“Then by his grace shall we have the mystical experience of partaking union with him”
-Hymns of Nanak, Orient Longman, Khushwant Singh
Wayne Teasdale’s definition of a mystical experience
“Direct, immediate experience of ultimate reality. For Christians it is union with God. For Buddhists, it is realisation of enlightenment”
William James’ 4 characteristics of a religious experience
Passivity, Ineffability, Noetic Quality, Transiency
