✅Religious Experiences Flashcards
What are the types of religious experiences
Dreams Voices Visions Miracles Conversion Corporate
Examples of dreams
Virgin Mary, Joseph, Jacobs ladder
Examples of voices
Job hearing god
Examples of visions
Moses and the burning bush. Mary and the angel
Example of miracles
Raising of lazareth, feed the 5000, water into wine
Examples of conversion
Saul to Paul
Examples of corporate
Pentecost, feeding the 5000, Toronto blessing
Definition of a religious experience
An encounter with the divine, a non empirical occurrence that brings with it awareness of something beyond ourselves
What does Thomas Hobbes say about religious experiences
What is the difference between a man saying that god spoke to him in a dream, and a man dreaming God spoke to him?
What does Bertrand Russell say about religious experience
Some men drink too much and see snakes, while others fast too much and see god
What does John Hick think about religious experiences
That the world can be experienced in DIFFERENT ways.
2 people watch a film, one finds it funny and the other doesn’t. Same with a. Sunset, one finds it divine and the other just a natural event. There is a difference in experience, if you apply this to religious experiences, we can see why some might evidence God and others not.
What does Vincent brummers think of religious experiences
Pointed out the duck and the rabbit picture. It’s just a line drawing, focused on interpretation, the issue isn’t experience but the interpretation of the event
Who is William James?
1842-1910
American philosopher and psychologist.
What is William James book called
1902 Varieties of religious experience.
Chapter 9, 10, 16 17 and 20
Why does James look into religious experiences?
RE are fundamental to religious faith, at the epistemological role
RE holds faith in place and keeps it occurring
RE can change someone’s life
What does Ninian Smart say about religious experiences
A religious experiment involves some kind of interpretation of the invisible world that some visible person or thing is a manifestation of the invisible world.
What does Martin Buber say about RE
God reveals himself to people on a personal level as they experience him in life and in the world,
What does Paul Tillich say about RE
A RE is a feeling of ultimate concern.
Who said “ religious language draws on the common range of emotion, happiness, fear and wonder but they are directed at the divine.
William James
What does Richard Dawkins quote about Re
The argument for personal experiences is one that is most convincing, to those who claim to have had one. But it is the least convincing to anyone else, specially anyone knowledgeable to psychology.
What are William James key characteristics to Re
PINT
Passivity, ineffability, noetic, and transient
What does passivity mean
Losing control to something greater than you
When the experience is at its highest form. Individual is left with a feeling of hopelessness.
What does ineffability mean
Can’t describe it in normal language. Beyond the ability of words
It’s isn’t possible to describe to any other person.
What does noetic mean
Gives you knowledge unlike any knowledge of any human existence
Exeorienec is beyond expression, but it allows insight into the faith of the person
What does transient mean
Experience for a very short time, but the effects of the experience are life changing.
Lasts more that 30 minutes, James calculated.
Who is Nicholas lash
Catholic theological who disagreed with James
What is lash’s book called
Easter is ordinary
What does lash think of James argument
Argues that we learn to experience god in all things, we experience him in every day life. We are not grasped from without by god, instead we learn to see the world as full of god.
Religious experience is only the way the world is seen, we are trained to see the world in religious way.
What does lash’s argument link with?
Anti realist explanation of a religious experience
Strengths of William James theory
Swinburne, points to probability Pluralism, looks at lots of religions Sets up clear views Allows different interpretations of RE Hay argues religions based on RE are widespread
Weaknesses of James argument
Freud, wish fulfilment
Gale, normal expiernces can fit in James criteria
Lash, one learns to experience god from havin a belief in the religion
Russell, the fact that. A belief has a good moral effect is no evidence whatsoever in its favour
Hume, a wise man proportions his belief according to the evidence
Mackie, people who believe in mystical experiences are in sufficiently critical
Dawkins- RE are simply the manifestation of mental or psychological needs and can’t convince others
Who said a wise man proportions his belief according to the evidence
Hume
What does Russell say about James argument
the fact that a belief has a good moral effect is no evidence whatsoever in its favour
William James case study
Stephen Bradley
I thought I saw the savour, by faith, in human shape, for about one second in my room, with arms extended saying come.
I began to feel my heart beat very quickly, convinced me pit was th wholly spirit from the effect it had on me. I began to feel exceedingly happy and humble.
Can RE prove the existence of god?
They cannot be tested by other, so many say no. James believes experiences could be tested for validity. The real test if what happened is the long term change in the person.
Bertrand Russell bevaives the face that a belief has a good moral effect upon a ,am is no evidence whatsoever in favour of its truth
Criticisms of James argument
Language analysis has made James work obsolete.
Flew said in theology and falsification 1950, statements which cannot be tested empirically are meaningless,
Hume took with regard to the cosmological and teleological arguments for gods existence- there are other causes for RE
What said “the fact that’s a belief has a good moral effect upon a man is no evidence whatsoever in its favour
Bertrand Russel
What is Swinburne argument?
He suggests there NO claims to RE should be treated any differently to ordinary experiences.
2 principles:credulity and testimony
What is the principle of credulity
Must accept what appears to be the case unless we have clear evidence to the contrary
What is the testimony principles?
Unless we have positive evidence are misleading and untrustworthy