Validity and reliability

Question 1

examples of how claiming to have a religious experience can be dangerous

Answer 1

peter sutcliffe
David Koresh
David Icke
Jim Jones

Question 2

why are claims to religious experiences dangerous

Answer 2

can lead to people being misled and misguided with respect to religious belief

Question 3

David Icke

Answer 3

BBC sport presenter, but in 1991 while visiting Peru he has a highly significant spiritual experience- he later believed he should wear turquoise and the world is controlled by powerful reptilian humanoid from Draco

Question 4

Peter sutcliffe

Answer 4

killed 13 women and attacked several more in the 1970s; he claimed that ‘ the voice of god’ had told him to ‘clean up society’; which h took as killing prostitutes (although he killed other women too)

Question 5

David koresh

Answer 5

persuaded many people to follow him as a self acclaimed messianic leader- ad mists claims of sexual abuse, the FBI stormed waco farm in Texas and 76 people were killed in the ensuing fire, including him

Question 6

Jim Jones

Answer 6

responsible for Jonestown massacre 1978- 918 found dead in Guyanna; south america- after drinking cyanide. Jones convinced many that he was a messianic figure who could lead them to a better world. Cult: the peoples temple

Question 7

Ludwig Feuerbach

Answer 7

in orde to make ourselves feel secure in an uncertain world, we force ourselves to believe there is a higher power

Question 8

Advice from the bible on verifying RE

Answer 8

• the actions and not emotion of a person
• Improve and strengthen peoples lives
• believes regardless of others doubts
• message should be consistent with scriptures

Question 9

what experiments did illiam james perform

Answer 9

experiments with Nitrous oxide and anaesthetics that produced very similar result to RE.

Question 10

which university carried out experiments

Answer 10

oxford

Question 11

what did oxford find out

Answer 11

80% of people in the uk claim to have been aware of a presence beyond themsleves

Question 12

hard attitude

Answer 12

always an alternative explanation

Question 13

soft attitude- swinburne and John Hick

Answer 13

those who feel like they have been in the presence of God, as a rational person, cli a that they know that God exists

Question 14

Hume- dissimilar

Answer 14

how can a testimony be reliable when religious experiences are dissimilar to each and talk of God, Allah, brahman and nirvana?

Question 15

Hume quote

Answer 15

what greater temptation than to appear a missionary, a prophet, an ambassador from heaven.

Question 16

R Swinburne

Answer 16

1. Principle of credulity- if a persons says they have experienced something, they probably have
2. Principle of testimony- unless someone is totally unreliable or a liar, their description is probably true.

Question 17

Challenges to swinburne by franks davis

Answer 17

• how can one describe an experience elf God, when it is yet to be proven he exists
• correlation to those with mental illness and those who experience religious exp
• conflicting claims- who’s actually having the accurate RE