Validity Flashcards
At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, in Mathew 7: 15-20, Jesus warns against false prophets:
who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will be able to tell them by their fruits… a sound tree produces good fruit but a rotten tree bad fruit. A sound tree cannot bear bad fruit, not a rotten tree bear good fruit.”
What does Jesus mean by ‘judge a tree by its fruits’?
We can tell what a person is like through their actions, for example, If a person claims to be the new Messiah or have had special messages rom God, it is important for the believers to test the claims against the person’s behaviour or ‘fruits’.
This links to verifying RE, as often when one claims to have a religious experience, a way of verifying it is by looking how this person lives lives and what they are like, such as moral behaviour.
St Teresa of Avila - 3 key guidelines for discerning a religious experiences’ authenticity:
• The experience should be within the traditions of the church.
e.g. St Paul’s trip towards Damascus, he was told by God tat Jesus was his son, or the Transfiguration of Jesus’ experience, where his companions were told that he was the Son of God. Both coincide with religious teachings.
- The experience should be discussed with a spiritual advisor.
- There will be a noticeable & profound change in the life of the person. i.e. practice good religious behaviour
e.g. Mary Magdalene, who was a prostitutde, but after her conversion, she stopped and instead became a follower of Christ.
.C. Happold (1893-1971) in Mysticism: A study & an anthology (1963) asks the question of the mystics, ‘What authority can be accorded to their testimony?’
He answers that ‘for the mystic himself his vision is completely authoritative. For himself his position is invulnerable.’
It is not possible for the mystic to describe an experience in rational terms (ineffable) and cannot be validated by logical demonstration - ‘What he says he knows cannot be proved’ (Not an issue of the mystics themselves’.
William James was interested in…
Studying the effects of religion on people’s lives and agreed with St Teresa Of Avila that the authenticity and hence verification of religious experience lies in the influence of the life of the believer.
William games said that typically a person who has had a religious experience moves from…
Moves from a state of ‘tenseness, self-responsibility and worry’ to ‘equanimity (Balanced soul, at peace), receptivity and peace’.
A person will therefore experience this inter peace which in itself expresses a revealed truth
William James described four fruits of religious experience:
- The experience leaves the person with an awareness of something beyond the trivial material world.
- The person is left feeling elated.
- The experience leaves the person with the feeling of having come into contact with a benevolent & friendly power to which their response is one of self-surrender.
- The person experiences a change in the focus of their life, moving towards a more spiritual, charitable & morally-aware state, characterised by a sense of we & wonder at the universe.
Richard Swinburne: Principle of Credulity
Argues that if a person or group truly believes they have had some sort of religious experience, and there is no reason to doubt it, then they probably have.
e.g. St Paul argued that he saw Jesus, and there were no other explanations for this, so he probably have.
‘If it seems to ‘S’ that ‘X’ is present, that is a good reason for ‘S’ to believe that is so, in the absence of special considerations, whatever ‘x’ may be like.
He argues that we readily make deductions from what we perceive with ordinary sense experiences e.g. if we see a table before us, then there probably is a table before us. - So how things seem to be is good grounds for a belief of how things are, and so in the absence of special considerations, all religious experiences ought to be taken by their subjects as genuine.
Richard Swinburne: Principle of Testimony
Argues that unless theres a reason as to why someone shouldn’t be believed, then the claims of a religious experience should be believed.
- Links to ‘special considerations’ one must carry out when they claim to have religious experiences e.g. They might be under the influence of drugs.
e. g. Bernadette = was not under influence of drugs, and the RE was very uncharacteristic of her i.e. she wasn’t attention seeking.
Swinburne also argues…
One of the most important indicators of authenticity is the effect on the reported experience has on the lifestyle of the subject
e.g. Nicky Cruz - complete change of lifestyle
Another way of verifying religious experiences is by…
Seeing if they fit scholars key characterises of RE such as conversions, mystical experiences, visions and revelations.
e.g. William James PINT Mysticism
If one claims to have had a religious experience, and fits within these categories, especially if the experiencer has trouble putting the experience into words but has an obvious sense of profound divine knowledge and sense of change in ones life, the claims about having a RE can be verified.
also: L. Rambo and R. Farhadian 7 stages of conversion - St Paul. CFD called them regenerative experiences.
Caroline Franks Davis - Visions - Quasi-sensory
Revelation - CFD
Ludwig Feuerbach
Believed that God is a projection of human aspirations and needs
Karl Marx
An atheist who, like Feurbach, believed that God was a projection of the highest human qualities and emotions and needs.
- Any experience was illusory ‘Religion is the opium of the people’
Sigmund Frued
Religious experience cannot be possible as any religious phenomena must be illusory.
- Religion is just a comfort for people
Richard Dawkins
- Believes that having a religious belief is a non-rational activity and that science can explain what might seem like a religious experience.
- Took part in experiment with Dr Michael Persinger who has designed a so-called’God helmet’. This helmet emits electro-magnetic signals to its wearer’s temporal lobes, apparently giving some kid of mystical experience to some people.
