Religious experiences

Question 1

What’s religious experience?

Answer 1

o The term ‘religious experience’ can mean different things to different people. Religious experience can come in many different forms, such as perceptions of visions and voices, conversion experiences, numinous experiences and near-death experiences; and because such experiences are different from natural, everyday life, it’s difficult to find words to describe it.

Question 2

What makes an experience distinctively religious?

Answer 2

o Some thinkers have tried to study religious experience and aimed to identify the features of an experience that make it ‘religious’ rather than ‘an experience’.

Question 3

Who is Friedrich Schleiermacher?

Answer 3

• -He was a theologian who claimed that the essence of religion was based on personal experience. For him, you couldn’t just believe in religious doctrines or commit yourself to a set of ethical principles.
• -His most famous book was called ‘On religion: Speeches to its Cultural Despisers’.
• -According to him, religious experiences is ‘self-authenticating’ (it requires no other testing to see if it’s genuine). In the Catholic tradition, the experiences of mystics had to be tested against the Church’s teaching and against Scripture before they were considered to be genuine, whereas in His view, the experiences should have priority and the statements of beliefs should be formulated to fit them.
• -He called religion a ‘sense and taste for the infinite’ also ‘the feeling of absolute dependence’, and believed that feelings and experience were all-important.
• -Critics of his work say he puts too much emphasis on the subjective, reducing religion to emotion and removing the possibility of showing that religious claims are based on fact. Some argue that there has to be the possibility of testing experiences against the Bible and the Church. If there were no possibility of testing, then any alleged religious experience could count as valid, even those caused by hallucinations or drugs.

Question 4

Who is William James?

Answer 4

• -William James’ book, ‘The Varieties of Religious experience’ (1902), takes an objective stance to take personal accounts of religious experience seriously, and to make observations about them which he hoped would lead to significant insights.
• -In his book, he included first-hand accounts of religious experience, in the words of the people who told him their stories.
• -He considers, for example, what is understood by ‘conversion’, and gives various accounts of different conversation experiences. He explained that the religious experience can be tested by seeing if it has made one become less selfish, more calm and loving.
• -He is seen as a pragmatist; someone who holds that the truth of something can be determined by its practical effects and consequences.

Question 5

What are the four qualities of a religious experience according to James?

Answer 5

1. Ineffability
2. Noetic quality
3. Transience
4. Passivity

Question 6

What is ineffability?

Answer 6

1. Ineffability- by this he meant that the experience is impossible to express adequately in moral language.

Question 7

What is noetic quality?

Answer 7

2. Noetic quality- the experience gives the person an understanding of important truths, which could not have been reached through the use of reason alone. People who have had religious experiences often speak in terms of having had the truth revealed to them.

Question 8

What is transience?

Answer 8

3. Transience- the experience is over quite soon, lasting no more than a few hours, been though the effect of the experience could last a lifetime.

Question 9

What is passitivity?

Answer 9

4. Passivity- the person having the experience feels as if the experience is being controlled from outside themselves, they are the recipients of the experience, rather than the instigators of it.

Question 10

What is mystical experience?

Answer 10

o Mystical experiences are a broad term that includes many different kinds of religious experience, including evets where people see visions from God, voices or even an overwhelming presence of God and etc.

Question 11

Explain Happold’s study of mysticism

Answer 11

• -F.C. Happold presented a study of mysticism in the 60’s, at a time when people were looking outside the authority of Christianity to find meaning and truth.
• -His book ‘Mysticism, A study and Anthology’ (1963) explains that a personal search for truth might involve looking at religious belief systems outside, as well as inside, traditional Christianity.
• -He calls religious experiences ‘a conversion of a beyond’ in this book.

Question 12

What are the features and conclusions you can draw from mysticism according to Happold?

Answer 12

Happold argues that although mysticism is found throughout the world in all different cultures and contexts, there are strikingly similar features of it and conclusions drawn from it:

• -The mystic understands that this physical, material world is only a part of reality and that it comes from God.
• -Human nature is such that people can know God, not through reason but through senses and feelings.
• -People have two distinct natures: the ego, which is the part of which we’re always conscious of (the one you’re aware of), and the spiritual ‘eternal self’ (the one you don’t see).
• -The purpose of humanity is to discover this ‘eternal self’ and to unite it with God.

Question 13

What is a conversion experience?

Answer 13

• -Conversion experiences are when someone abandons their old way of life and belief system, and adopts a new one, based on an inner experience which they’re convinced comes from God.
• -In his book ‘the Varieties of religious experience’, William James tried to explain what a conversion experience involves. He explained a religious conversion experience can change one’s whole outlook on life, so that before the experience they might just have been aware of the existence of religious ideas but afterwards, religious ideas are the person’s view of the world.
• -James believed psychology could describe conversion, but it was unable to account for all the factors in any given case, and he asserted that the conversion experience can be tested by its result. When someone has converted, they should feel happier, more loving and more positive, then for James this is enough evidence to believe that the conversion experience was valid.
• -Conversion experiences are controversial. Although conversion experiences are often dramatic and life changing for those who have them, it could be argued they’re the result of social and psychological factors rather than the result of God.

Question 14

Explain the story of Saul (conversion story)

Answer 14

A famous Christian conversion story is the story of Saul- he lived at a time when Christianity was new and was seen as a threat. Palestine was occupied by the Romans, who allowed the Jews to continue to practise their religion as long as they didn’t cause trouble and kept to the Roman laws. Christians were seen as threat as they appointed a king of their own, Jesus, and their beliefs were causing conflict among Jews. Saul’s job was to seek out Christians and bring them to justice; a job which he enjoyed. On his way to Damascus to find Christians he can put in jail, he saw a light coming from Heaven. Saul fell on the ground and heard Jesus’ voice who told Saul to keep heading towards the city and that he’ll let him know what to do then. Saul became temporally blind but still travelled to the city where he met a follower of Jesus named Ananias who had a vision where God told him to go find Saul and restore his sight. So Ananias went and healed Saul, who was then baptized. Saul changed his name to Paul once he became a Christian.

Question 15

Explain the story of what happened in Medjugorje (corporate experience)

Answer 15

Another example happened Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where young teenagers and children allegedly had a vision of the Virgin Mary. Mary appeared to them, giving secrets and messages of peace, and telling them that the world needed more prayer. This example is interesting as in some ways it might seem that if six people, rather than just one, report a supernatural event then it could be true. Also with most of them being children at the time it also make the story more convincing as children are more convincing than adults. But it could be the case the six were encouraging each other to believe that they had seen things; they could’ve influenced each other’s memories off events, without even meaning to, they could’ve encouraged each other to believe they saw and heard things that never happened. The Catholic Church has been sceptical on whether the visions were real, however they haven’t denied them either.

Question 16

Explain the story of the Toronto blessing (corporate blessing)

Answer 16

The ‘Toronto Blessing’ is a modern phenomenon in the US and Canada, where groups of people all worshipping together in a church appeared to have the same ecstatic religious experience. They claim to have been overcome by the Holy Spirit, which causes them to weep or to laugh uncontrollably and even speak in different languages. Others, however, argue that this is simply mass hysteria, and reject it, saying that when the Holy Spirit is really experienced, it leads believers to work for others and to be humble and self-controlled.

Question 17

Explain the story of Pentecost (corporate experience)

Answer 17

A Biblical example of Corporate R.E is the story of Pentecost- 10 days after Jesus left the people, they hid from the Roman empire to stay away from trouble and one day (when together) they felt the sensation of rushing wind in the house they were staying in and then suddenly small tongues of fire appeared to them.

Question 18

What is the view that religious experiences are a union with a greater power?

Answer 18

o Many people believe that religious experiences happen as God chooses to reveal himself to certain people, for reasons of his own.
o The philosopher Richard Swinburne supports the view that religious experiences should be taken seriously and also can be taken as evidence for the existence of God. He makes a case that we should treat reports of religious experience in the same way that we treat reports of other, non-religious experiences: unless we have a good reason to be suspicious of these reports, we should believe them.
o E.g. If someone thinks that they can hear someone at the door, then they must be telling the truth. So Swinburne argues that if someone thinks they hear voices of God, then they also probably do.
o He puts forward his ‘principle of credulity’ and ‘testimony’ in his book ‘There a God?’ the principle of credulity means experiences are normally reliable, and the balance of probability says that experience can be trusted.
o We know that sometimes our sense mislead us, and our experiences can sometimes lead us to draw the wrong conclusions, for example when we think we know someone but then it turns out they’re a stranger. He argues that the same should apply to religious experiences. He argues that if we think that we are experiencing God, we should be prepared to believe that it really is God, rather than doubting our own perceptions. Our sense perceptions are normally reliable.
o The principle of testimony works on a similar way. We find that usually people don’t lie. So Swinburne argues that if someone tells us that they have had a personal encounter with God, we should be prepared to take this seriously rather than assuming that they’re wrong or making it up.

Question 19

What is the psychological interpretation of religious experience?

Answer 19

o German Philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach believed in naturalistic explanation of religious belief and feelings. His ideas included the opinion that religious belief and experiences originate within our mind and rather than coming from God.
o In his book the Essence of Christianity; Feuerbach argued that when someone think they’re worshipping God or experiencing the presence of God, they’re actually in fact worshipping only their own human nature.
o He says people take the best aspects of human nature- creativity, hope for the future, heroism, compassion and so on- and, without making a conscious decision to do so, they ‘project’ these aspects outside themselves and hold them up as something to worship.
o He thought people created God in order to meet their needs to feel cared for, even if they have insignificant status, and so they invent God who rewards the good and punishes the wicked.
o Sigmund Freud (one of the founders of modern psychology and a follower of Feuerbach) believes people who feel themselves to be in the presence of God are deluding themselves.
o Freud’s view of religious belief and the religious experiences that might go with it was similar to Feuerbach’s. Freud thought people who think there is a God and who believe that the encounter God are fooling themselves. He thought that they are unable to cope with the idea of adult life, and so they invent imaginary parent-figure who will look after them.

Question 20

What are the 3 layers that our psyche is made up from according to Freud?

Answer 20

o One of the reasons for Freud’s importance among psychologist is that he was the first to recognise that the human ‘psyche’ or mind works on more than one level. He believes our psyche are made up of three layers:

• -The ego- this is the layer of the mind which is obvious to us as the conscious self, where we are aware of our opinion and decisions.
• -The id- this is the unconscious self which isn’t obvious, containing memories and repressed emotions and desires that we might not want to admit to ourselves.
• -The super ego- this is like the conscience, an inner moral voice which tells us that some things are right and others are wrong. In Freud’s view, this is created as we grow up, where our parents, siblings and peer groups let us know what they find acceptable and inacceptable until it becomes imprinted on our personalities.

Question 21

What is the physiological interpretation of religious experience?

Answer 21

o A physiological interpretation of religious experience is one which accounts for religious experience naturalistically in terms of the biology of the human brain.
o Neurophysiology is an area of science which studies the brain and the nervous system. In the 80’s, Michael Persinger made volunteers wear helmets which transmitted weak magnetic signals through the brain, and most of them reported feelings which had striking similarities to those reported by people who claim to have had religious experiences. It could be argued that people who are unknowingly in the presence of some kind of magnetic field might think they had encountered God, when in fact it was just the effects of the magnetism. However this method has been critics as these people were expecting was to come and many have tried to repeat this experiment and the results were unconvincing.
o Other philosophical studies have been conducted in order to explore what might be happening in the brain in ‘near-death experiences’. Dean Mobbs and Caroline Watt suggest that the body just releases emotion-altering hormones in the body at time of stress.

Question 22

Is personal testimony or witness enough to support the validity of religious experience?

Answer 22

• -Critics of religious experiences argue these experiences can’t be tested by others, and this makes them unsuitable for any kind of ‘scientific’ study and unsuitable to be used as evidence.
• -The strength of someone’s belief that they have encountered God could be considered as evidence that it must’ve really happened. However people can sincerely believe that they have seen or heard something and yet be mistaken in their interpretation.
• -Caroline Franks Davis’ book, ‘The evidential force of religious experience’ (1989), argues that we should only take someone’s word at face value when the issue is relatively trivial. When the issue is of ultimate importance, such as the existence of God, then we need more than someone else’s word for it.
• -William James argued that the evidential force of personal religious experience can be tested by its long-lasting effects. Using the analogy of medicine, he argued that we know a good medicine because it works, and similarly we might know a genuine religious experience form the long-lasting effects such as a greater tendency to kindness and unselfishness.
• -Bertrand Russell stated ‘the fact that a belief has a good moral effect upon a man is no evidence whatsoever in favour of its truth’. He argues that we could be moved by a story of a great hero, but this could happen even if the story were a myth and the hero were fictional. For Russell, the good effects of religious experiences might have on someone would not provide evidence it came from God and didn’t have a natural explanation.

Question 23

Can corporate religious experiences be considered more reliable than individual experiences?

Answer 23

• -In science, the more times an experiment can be witnessed by different people, the more weight is added; so perhaps, if several people all share the same religious experience, this might mean that its more likely to be true.
• -But it could be argued that the children at Medjugorge, for example, would all describe Mary in the same way as they have been brought up knowing what statues of her look like, and thus, they knew what the expectation was.
• -Others argue there may be elements of group pressure in corporate religious experiences. Someone might say they can hear or see things and others might join in and agree as they want to be included, to the extent that they convince themselves that they really did see and hear the things others are describing. In the case of the Toronto blessing, for example, many have suggested the experience to be mass hysteria rather than the cause of the Holy Spirit.

Question 24

Does religious experience provide a basis for believe in God?

Answer 24

• -Religious experiences can’t be tested by others in a way that might be said to provide conclusive proof. As religious experiences are totally individual and unique, it’s argued that no one else can look at it and see if it’s true or not.
• -Critics sometimes point out members of different faiths encounter God in a way which matches their previously held beliefs. E.g. a Catholic person would see Virgin Mary or Jesus. For some, this undermines the evidential force of religious experience and demonstrates that such experiences are no more than wish fulfilment. But in response, it could be argued that if God wants his followers to recognise him when he reveals himself to them, he’s going to choose to appear in a form that they will understand.
• -Those who prefer naturalistic interpretations of religious experiences point out that those who were present at Pentecost might have been carried away with emotion, given that it so soon after Jesus’ death, and wanted to believe so much that they imagined they had really seen a vision of tongues of fire.
• -Others, however, might answer this point by saying that there’s no reason why God shouldn’t appear to people when they have been taking drugs, or are undergoing experiments, or have been fasting or are grieving. Perhaps, if there’s a loving God, then he’s likely to want to make himself known to people at times when they are vulnerable and in need of reassurance.