religious experience Flashcards
Conversion experiences are the most convincing forms of religious experience. Discuss.
Para 1 - people already find religious experience hard to believe, would be even less convincing with such a big effect.
Para 2 - corporate & conversion = even less convincing
Para 3 - convincing if it isnt independent -> an entire life being transformed, and religion being a part of it = most convincing form of conversion experience
Para 4 - most convincing? If measured by how impactful -> then this is best
Discuss critically the view that those who claim to have had experience of God should be believed.
Para 1 – in comparison to people like st Teresa ≠ God -> more convincing if with God. Religion purpose is to have relationship with God.
Para 2 – can be believed (tolerated?) not a basis for a belief in God though
Para 3 – believed or tolerated? Life shifting, consequetialism
Para 4 – depends on the type of religious experience
Physiological explanations of religious experience are not persuasive. Assess.
Para 1 – schizophrenia
Para 2 – temporal lobe epilepsy
Para 3 – persingers helmet
Para 4 – physiological -> branch of it neurophysiology. (mushed with being a conclusion/ an overall opinion)/ drugs
To what extent are psychological explanations of religious experience convincing?
WITH THIS PLAN, MAKE SURE THE DISCTINCTION BETWEEN PHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY IS MADE, AND HOW THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS LINK TO MINDSET = PSYCHOLOGY. MAKE ALL POINTS LEAD BACK TO THIS.
ALSO MAKE A CONSISTENT LINK TO BRAIN CHEMICALS, AND HOW THINGS AFFECT THE WAY THE BRAIN FUNCTIONS!!
Para 1 – schizophrenia -> learnt in medicine, large majority of people have religious experiences
Para 2 – psychosis -> could argue is a symptom of temporal lobe epilepsy
Para 3 – drugs, and the effects of drugs
Para 4 – persinger’s helmet/ the God helmet
Para 5 – people who have no history with drugs or mental illness?
To what extent are the ideas of William James helpful in understanding religious experience?
Point one: helpful to understand them as a spiritual shift
Point two: inducing the experience
Point three: realistic in saying that ≠ proof of existence of God
Point four: pragmatic theory of truth – easy, but surface level way of understanding
Personal religious experience is all that’s required as a basis for religious belief. Discuss
Para 1 - basis => no, you need an understanding of religion first, but religious people (Moses) were exposed to religion through revelation, same human nature as us.
Para 2 - depends on what kind of religious experience, if with God, then sure - should be sufficient - but using St Teresa - an encounter with an angel ≠ good basis, because basis of religion is God.
Para 3 - depends on whether they were previously religious because to a previously athiest person - may require empirical evidence, but might be sufficient to a previously religious person, who’s just switching Gods.
Para 4 - sufficient basis, but not sustainable, need to put in an active effort to ensure that relationship continues in the long run
William James
- pragmatic theory of truth
- PINT
- religious experience = psychological phenomena -> could be caused by God
- mystical experiences can be endured by drugs
- the fruits
- divided self = becoming unified
- features of conversion experiences
Freud
- psycho-sexual development
- wish fulfilment
Toronto blessing
- outpouring of the Holy Spirit on people attending Toronto church
- people lost autonomy of their bodies -> some stuck in paralysis & barking like dogs
Swinburne
- genuine experience = one that encounters God
- shouldn’t start from presumption of doubt -> but potential it could be true
- principle of testimony = testimony’s = usually credible
- principle of credibility = senses are generally trustworthy
Ramachandran
- temporal lobe epilepsy
- emotion during seizure causes overwhelm -> made sense by believing in something spiritual happening
- seizure = prompt left hemisphere to make up stories to account for unexplainable emotion
PINT
- passivity = recipient does not feel in control of emotions
- ineffability = unable to express in human language
- noeticism = unable to understood purely through human reason
- transience = effects of experience last a long time
pragmatic theory of truth
- if a religious experience has a positive impact on someone, they are justified in believing it was genuine
- experience can create subjective truth through its effects
the fruits
- saintliness = when a persons life completely changes -> through the effects of the experience
- living life of moral goodness
psycho-sexual development
- anal stage = defecating in public
- electra complex = repressing sexual urges for father
