religious experience
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30 MARKS - RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
intro
doesn’t seek to prove the existence of God, just makes it more likely that He exists
we know things exist because we experience them: therefore if we experience God he must exist
James + Otto developed criteria for religious experiences (such as…)
transiency passivity + mysterium
religious experiences can be hard to define and their private nature makes them very subjective
experiences include personal revelations, mystical states, visions, or miracles
they are considered by some as the most profound form of evidence for God’s existence Philosophers and theologians have developed arguments such as the argument from religious experience
interpretations can be influenced by cultural preconceptions or faith
These claims face significant challenges, including psychological, sociological, and philosophical critiques
p1
james criteria : passivity, ineffability, noetic quality and transiency
transiency is one of the criteria
idea that the event has a long-lasting impact
e.g conversion of saul to paul
must conclude an “objective cause” is the reason for such
Copleston : religious experience must have a good impact
Russel : “the fact that an experience has a good effect on a man is not whatsoever favour of its truth”
e.g japanese cartoon character that drove people to suicide
^ regarded as “loving a phantom”
visceral reaction and impact, but can you universalise the idea that the objective cause must be God ?
james was a pragmatist, caring more about the effect than the experience itself
CORPORATE EXPERIENCES
happen to many people e.g Pentecost
makes it more reliable
could just be mass hysteria
avoids physiological critique
SYNOPTIC LINK : UTILITARIANISM
pragmatic : care about the consequence
utilitariansim : the more people are happy , the more correct the action must be
the more people positively affected the more likely it is that it’s truly occurred
swinburne supports this with the principle of credulity
we dont question everyday experiences (they’re reliable ) so why should we question religious experiences
“we ought to believe that things are as they seem to be until we have evidence that we are mistaken”
also presents the idea of a 6th sense, a sense of the religious.
if we trust our 5 senses, we must trust the 6th too
he adds on the principle of testimony
normally people don’t lie
so in “the absence of special considerations” we would believe a person
(acknowledging when not to believe someone is a strength)
countered with the idea of negative credulity
lack of experience means something doesn’t exist
an atheist has not experienced god so would conclude he doesn’t exist
HOWEVER (criticisms)
people lie
the 6th sense is unscientific '
you cant compare religious experiences to everyday experiences because they’re something extraordinary
DESCARTES
doesn’t believe you can trust your senses and gives the example of optical illusion
also why trust people when they can lie
“the senses deceive from time to time and it is prudent to never trust wholly those who have deceived us even once”
NATURALISTIC EXPLANATIONS
psychological or physiological
this removes the need of a higher power because it can be explained away by science
russell supports this saying “ there is no distinction between the man who eats little and sees heaven and the man who drinks much and sees snakes”
the idea of eating little links to fasting which is present in many religions such as Buddhism or Christianity, where many members have claimed to have some religious experience of sorts
main idea is temporal lobe epilepsy which can cause seizures due to a disconnection between the temporal love
this could explain away st pauls experience as he was thought to have tle (LANDSBOROUGH)
“it is because of my illness I first preached the gospel to you”
similarly ellen white who was struck in the face by a stone at the age of 9 had her first religious experience a 12 where her eylids fluttered rabidly, she ouldnt’t breathe well and was temporarily wek and couldn’t see - which could be signs of a seizure
to prove this Persinger devised an experiment
the god helmet
it produced magnetic fields to disrupt communication between temporal lobes and participants in the experiment claimed to have had either an experience with god or the feeling of another presence
(note : goes against the passivity criteria of religious experience)
HOWEVER when Granqvist repeated this as a double-blind study no one experience anything
other explanations include schizophrenia,
freud blames mere hallucinations
conclusion :
religious experiences are personal and private, limiting their significance to the person who experienced it and the way they interact with other people
too subjective to prove God, and even to increase the probability significantly
SYNOPTIC LINK
principle of testimony to new testament 6.1
early christian believers converting to christianity due to eyewitness testimony