Religious Experience

Question 1

What does the previous AoC, Rowan Williams, say about RE?

Answer 1

“Revelation is bound up with tragic possibilities.”

Question 2

Where did James lecture?

Answer 2

The Gifford Lectures

Question 3

What are James’ 4 criteria?

Answer 3

Ineffability
Noetic Quality
Transience
Passivity

Question 4

How does James describe ineffability as the most important quality?

Answer 4

“It defies expression, that no adequate report of its contents can be given in words.”

Question 5

What was James’ pluralist approach?

Answer 5

That REs in all religions & cultures are valid as the core to that belief system (not the teachings/practices)

Question 6

What was James’ pragmatic stance on RE?

Answer 6

That if it works (has good consequences) then it must have happened.

Question 7

What does Paul Knitter teach about religion?

Answer 7

Religions are like wells that all source the same water.

Question 8

How does St Teresa of Avila show ineffability?

Answer 8

“I was conscious of him.”

Question 9

What was Swinburne’s approach?

Answer 9

Evidence-Analysis

Question 10

What does Swinburne say about an experience probably being true?

Answer 10

“It is a principle of rationality that if it seems to a subject that x is present, then x is probably present.”

Question 11

What are Swinburne’s 2 principles

Answer 11

Credulity (belief) & Testimony (belief in others)

Question 12

What is the problem of other minds?

Answer 12

Sincerity & Honesty DOES NOT EQUAL Validity & Truth

Question 13

What happened to George IV?

Answer 13

He talked about the Battle of Waterloo so much that he convinces he was there

Question 14

What does Freud called religion & what does he believe it is based off?

Answer 14

‘Obsessional neurosis’
Based on:
1. The fear of death
2. God as ‘father’ so we can remain a child forever

Question 15

What is an example of delusion?

Answer 15

St Teresa of Avila’s fasting

Question 16

What argument did Freud find hard to challenge and how did he try to?

Answer 16

Mystical experiences are more than visions because they are beyond what is ordinary
He said that mystical experiences are like reliving childhood (the time before your sense of self/ego has formed) which is why you feel your ‘self’ dissolving in a RE

Question 17

What is the main criticism of Freud’s challenge?

Answer 17

It is too unempirical and not representative of society

Question 18

Who was Persinger and what did he make?

Answer 18

He was a neuroscientist who made the ‘God Helmet’

Question 19

What did the ‘God Helmet’ prove?

Answer 19

That religious experiences come from manipulated brain waves, not God.

Question 20

What does Bertrand Russel say about fasting?

Answer 20

“If you eat too little you see visions”

Question 21

What is the conclusion of Persinger’s challenge?

Answer 21

RE could have a naturalistic explanation but that doesn’t rule out a supernatural explanation

Question 22

Who developed the idea of ‘the holy’

Answer 22

Rudolf Otto

Question 23

What does numinous & the wholly other mean

Answer 23

Numinous : Describes an encounter with the wholly other
The wholly other : A being beyond this world that is bigger than yourself

Question 24

What does Ninian Smart say about RE and language?

Answer 24

“The pattern of religious language has its own peculiar and special structure”

Question 25

What changed with St Ignatious of Loyola?

Answer 25

He went from seeking his own glory to glorifying God and founded the Jesuits based on "the greater glory for God"

Question 26

What did Saul hear in his conversion (Acts 9)?

Answer 26

"Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? I am Jesus, who you are persecuting."

Question 27

What does William James say about conversion experiences?

Answer 27

"Unified and consciously right superior and happy in consequence of its firmer hold on realities"

Question 28

What did Afghan Soldier, William Vecera, say to God in his conversion?

Answer 28

"Don't give up on me."

Question 29

What is a corporate religious experience in the Acts of the Apostles?

Answer 29

Pentecost - "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues" Acts 2

Question 30

What does the RC Church say about the 6 children in Medugorje?

Answer 30

"It is undetermined if it is of supernatural origin"

Question 31

What is the Toronto Blessing also called?

Answer 31

Holy Laughter

Question 32

What do James + Hick agree on?

Answer 32

All religions are partially true.

Question 33

What is the problem of multiple claims?

Answer 33

Religious experiences from different religions contradict eachother and evidence for one religion is evidence against another.

Question 34

What does Gwen-Griffith Dickinson say about experience vs interpretation?

Answer 34

"Experience and interpretation can be seen as different"

Question 35

What does Thomas Hobbes use as his example?

Answer 35

'God spoke to me in a dream' vs 'I dreamt that God spoke to me'

Question 36

What is fantacism and what can it lead to?

Answer 36

It leads to truth claims; what I believe is true

Question 37

What example does John Paul Sartre use?

Answer 37

A poor boy becoming a priest despite setbacks - "the decision was his and his alone" (shows the importance of your interpretation of the situation you are in)

Question 38

What is the difference between Wittgenstein + Hick?

Answer 38

Seeing-as vs Experiencing-as

Question 39

What does Vincent Brummer say about Wittgenstein's example?

Answer 39

The duck/rabbit drawing is neither a duck nor rabbit, it is a drawing.