Religious experiences Flashcards
Mystical experience
A spiritual experience beyond the ordinary.
Conversion experience
An experience which consequently alters someone’s beliefs.
Corporate experience
A religious experience which was undergone by a group of people.
Passive (James’ PINT)
An experience not instigated by the individual.
Noetic (James’ PINT)
Gaining knowledge that cannot be accessed through reason.
Transient (James’ PINT)
An experience having a long lasting effect.
Ineffable (James’ PINT)
The experience cannot be described or put into words.
Pragmatism - James
Being practical, the practical outcomes if an experience give the experience value.
Empiricism
The belief that you can gain knowledge through experience/evidence.
Pluralism
Truth of the divine can be reached by every religion.
Psychology
The study of the brain in relation to behaviour.
Physiology
A chemical study of the brain.
Swinburne’s principle of testimony
if someone is of sound mind, their experience is valid and should be accepted.
Swinburne’s principle of credulity
Unless there is evidence to prove otherwise (eg if someone isnt of sound mind), their experience is valid and should be accepted.
Mass hysteria
Something psychological which occurs to a large group of individuals.
James on religious experience
You shouldn’t look at the cause but instead at the effects. If a religious experience has changed someone’s life it is a genuine experience for them.
James quote
“We can experience union with something larger than ourselves”
Schleiermacher on religious experience
The essence of religion was based in personal experience - it is the heart of faith.
Catholics on religious experience
Religious experiences have to be tested against scripture/teachings to be validated,
Happold on religious experience
There are similar features between mysticism found throughout different cultures.
All religions strive to connect with a ‘divine ground’.
Otto on religious experience
Numinous - A feeling of awe which you can’t describe.
Recognising that God is both dangerous and attractive.
Recognising the mystery.
Recognising the importance.
Julian of Norwich example
She had a series of visions of Christ and felt an overwhelming sense of love from God. This intensified her faith.
BUT she was ill which might invalidate her experience.
Teresa of Avila example
“Transverberation of the heart” an angel pierced her heart causing her pain and ecstacy.
BUT she was locked away.
Starbuck on religious experiences
The search for identity and purpose leads to a religious experience that is psychological rather than divine.
Kant on religious experience
it is logically impossible to experience God or a noumenal reality since we are in the world of the senses.
Starbuck quote
“Normal adolescent phenomenon”
Example of corporate experience
The Toronto Blessing - the church gatherings were completely overcome by God
Biblical example of corporate experience
The pentecost - the holy spirit fuelled the disciples and enabled them to heal and speak different languages.
Dawkins quote
“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”
Swinburne
We should believe what people tell us unless we have good reason to double
Feuerbach on religious experiences
They have origins in the human mind rather than coming from God. When people are worshipping God they are worshipping their own human nature.
Freud on religious experiences
People are fooling themselves to believe there is a God, some people can’t cope with the idea of an adult life (‘infantile neurosis’) so they use God as a paternal figure.
People mistaken their super ego for God.
Winnicot on religious experiences
They are simply delusions, and people fool themselves into thinking they’re worshipping God when they are actually worshipping their own human nature.
Freud quote
“Religions are illusions, fulfillments of the oldest and strongest wishes of mankind”
Neurophysiology
An area of science which studies the brain and the nervous system.
Persinger’s God helmet
An experiment where people wore a helmet device which transmitted weak magnetic signals to the brain - a lot of people had the symptoms of a religious experience.
Physiological explanations
Hormones in the brain can increase in times of stress which may contribute.
OR…medicine to treat trauma can cause hallucinations.
Mass hysteria example
Dancing plague of 1518
Near death experiences
Experienced by people in a come/cardiac arrest/being resurrected - they often feel a loving presence or see a bright light.
Hobbs and Watt on near death experiences
Near death experiences can be explained by biology and hormones produced in times of high stress or medicine.
Persinger on religious experience
Things that are created by the temporal lobe, not by a divine being outside our own heads.
St Paul’s conversion experience
He once persecuted Christians, until he had a vision of God who spoke to him and converted him.
