Assess the view whether personal testimonies or witness accounts is enough to support the validity of religious experiences- 40 marks

Introduction

quote q - it is enough

* It is not enough due to, them not providing enough empirical evidence due to religious experience being different to ordinary experiences.
* it is enough due to, James 4 features of verifying religious experience ,Swinburne’s case for religious experience

Point 1

William james - book ‘The varieties of religious experience’ - he believes that religious experience should be judged by ‘the religious life by its results exclusively’.

He also talks about the four features that are important to religious experience:Ineffable inability to be expressed or described, noetic property to impart knowledge, transient an event that passes with time and passivity the person should be acted upon. He believes that this makes up a true religious experience.

AO2

His explanation of the four characteristics make religious experience plausible as most of the examples of religious experiences we have fulfil them. From example Pauls conversion fits the criteria, he experienced it while walking down the road when he was blinded. He heard the voice of God and then chose to live his life in line with God rather than continuing to persecute christians. This provides good support due to it being life changing. 

==(Acts 9:15).== \n

point 2

William James key principles

Willaim James also talks about the three main ways, although only two are relevant to personal testimonies when verifying a religious experience. He argued that Pragmatism is import, this is when a theory must be treated as true if it works in practice.

AO2

Is this enough evidence? To say that something is true in practice could mean a lot of things are true even if they are not. For example, saying I am at home when I'm not, this could be true in practice but does not make it true.

Two things can also be true at the same time, this does not provide compelling evidence

point 3

William James is very committed to an empirical approach. Although we cannot verify the experience we can look at long lasting effects of the religious experience. For example if a criminal states he has a religious experience and then lives a good life. 

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AO2

Provides good evidence as it is empirical, this means we can observe it and verify it through our senses. For most people this is important due to modern day science becoming more important. It also shows commitment to the religious experience making it more likely.

However, if the person is already religious can we still support their religious experience using this argument. ^^Bretrum Russell^^ support this view by arguing ‘that even a good effect is not necessarily evidence good effects on character can be produced by fictional characters in books’

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point 4

Swinburne's case for religious experience presents two arguments to say we should give religious experiences the benefit of doubt. The principle of credulity argues we should accept whatever appears to be the case unless we have clear evidence to the contrary. The principle of testimony states that we should believe what others tell us happened probably happened unless we have good reason not too.

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AO2

There is still however an issue with this principle of credulity in that truth doesn't necessarily correlate to reality.

Swinburne's argument is predicated on a question of whether people are truthful, however just because people may be truthful in their claims. Religious experiences are different to ordinary claims and often exists inside the mind. Therefore it can be unwise to give someone the benefit of the doubt.

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