Religious Experiences

Question 1

St Bernadette’s Vision

Answer 1

18 visions of the Virgin Mary over several months. During one she was asked to drink at a spring, which she could not see
in the seventh vision she was asked to build a chapel
in her visions Mary was physically present but everybody around Bernadette saw nothing

Question 2

The Miracle of the Sun at Fatima

Answer 2

Virgin Mary appeared to children and raised her hands to the sky
not everyone reported the same thing
saw the sun dance around the heavens and zoom towards earth in a zigzag

Question 3

Intellectual - Visions

Answer 3

gaining new knowledge or understanding

Question 4

Sensory - Visions

Answer 4

appearing to come through the senses

Question 5

Imaginary/Dream Based - Visions

Answer 5

occurring through the unconscious mind

Question 6

Corporeal - Visions

Answer 6

seems as if there is something physically present

Question 7

Individual - Visions

Answer 7

only one individual experiences it

Question 8

Alfred Tennyson - Mystical Experience

Answer 8

repeating his own name until he reached the clearest state
individuality dissolved away and fade into a boundless being

Question 9

Mother Julian of Norwich - Mystical Experience

Answer 9

was lying on, what was thought at the time, to be her deathbed when suddenly she saw Christ bleeding in front of her. She received insight into his sufferings and his love for us

Question 10

Passivity - Mystical Experiences

Answer 10

happens to the recipient

Question 11

Ineffability - Mystical Experiences

Answer 11

cannot be properly described in language

Question 12

Noetic Quality - Mystical Experiences

Answer 12

providing special knowledge or understanding

Question 13

Transciency - Mystical Experiences

Answer 13

short - lived but have a lasting effect on the recipient

Question 14

Swearing Tom - Conversion

Answer 14

lived a bad, godless life until he decided to enter a church one day
heard a preacher say that if he prayed to God he could be good
a change took place and he became ‘Praying Tom’

Question 15

C.S Lewis - Conversion

Answer 15

had several Christian friends who he took a stroll with and began a conversation about myth which continued until morning
went to a zoo three days later - ‘when we set out I did not belief that Jesus Christ was the son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did’

Question 16

Moral - Conversions

Answer 16

a change in lifestyle is the driving factor

Question 17

Intellectual - Conversions

Answer 17

a change in belief is the driving factor

Question 18

Gradual - Conversions

Answer 18

happens over a period of time

Question 19

Sudden - Conversions

Answer 19

happens instantly

Question 20

Volitional - Conversions

Answer 20

the recipient wants to change/chooses freely

Question 21

Self-surrendering - Conversions

Answer 21

the recipient gives into the need to change after a struggle

Question 22

Passive - Conversions

Answer 22

happens to the recipient without them seeking it

Question 23

Active - Conversions

Answer 23

the recipient is actively trying to encourage the conversion

Question 24

Transformative - Conversions

Answer 24

the experience changes somebody so much that they are like a new person

Question 25

The Numinous

Answer 25

a sense of being in the presence of an amazing power and yet feeling separate from it

Question 26

St Teresa of Avila

Answer 26

‘The Interior Castle’ - seven mansions that the soul had to navigate through in order to unite with God (who lived in the seventh mansion)

Question 27

William James’ Characteristics of Mystical Experiences

Answer 27

P - passive - recipient is not in control
I - ineffable - unable to describe/explain
N - noetic quality - learning something newly
T - transcient - short lived, long lasting effect

Question 28

Caroline Franks-Davis’ three categories of challenge

Answer 28

description related
subject related
object related

Question 29

Description-related Challenges

Answer 29

a claim is being made for which there is no proof
if the experience is inconsistent with everyday life then it is not valid

Question 30

Subject-related Challenges

Answer 30

the recipient is unreliable as a source, they may be experiencing mental illness, substance abuse etc
there is a mistrust of their experiences

Question 31

Object-related Challenges

Answer 31

why should be believe someone who has claimed to see God any more than we should someone who has claimed to see an alien?

Question 32

Anthony Flew’s Falsification Principle

Answer 32

accounts of religious experiences might be more believable if there was any evidence which could count against them
to prove anything, you have to acknowledge what it would take to disprove it

Question 33

Richard Swinburne - religious experiences are genuine

Answer 33

principle of credulity - if we think we experienced something we probably did
principle of testimony - if someone tells us something is true, they probably believe it is

Question 34

Richard Swinburne - religious experiences aren’t genuine

Answer 34

• if the person was unreliable (drugged)
• if similar perceptions are shown to be false (eg drugs)
• if there is strong evidence that the object of the experience was not present or did not exist
• if the event experienced can be accounted for in other ways as a reality

Question 35

William James

Answer 35

pragmatism - truth is not something which is objective, we should treat religious experiences as being true if it enhances their lives
pluralism - people interpret their experiences based upon cultural and religious background so we should expect them to be different

Question 36

The Parable of the Gardener

Answer 36

Two people are walking and see a clearing in a forest. One claims there is a gardener who tends to it, so the other suggest waiting and seeing if that is true. After a while, the believer says that actually, they are an invisible gardener, so they set up barbed wire fences and so on to try and detect this invisible gardener, at which point the believer then says actually, it’s a non-physical gardener. If belief in God is consistent with any possible discovery about reality, then its existence surely can make no difference to reality. It cannot be about reality.