RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES
Psychological explanation
Hallusination as a concequence of abnormalities of the brain: - brain damage - brain anurisms - tumors. eg NDE
Scientific explanation
Many people report having such experiences affect periods of criticism and say that the experiences brought relief. However what these people think in a religious experience may be a result of the brain overcoming extreme anxiety.
Mental illness, scitsophrienia. People experiencing mental illness after you report hearing voices and seeing visions. Medically these would be described as a delusional state.
Most mystical conversion experiences are explained/ experienced by people in their mid 40's. They often experience essential crises anxiety brought about by the human condition. -meaningless of life. - inevitability of death
Electro magnetic influences - Persinger helmet. Persinger described that visions could be divided in people by stimulating the brain with electro magnets.
All of the following could cause a supposable religious experience .Dehydration - hillusination. - migranes - illusions - lack of vitimin B - can cause hillusination, happpens as a result of alcoholism&fasting.
Visions
Corporeal: Has a visual componant which is registered by the human eye, and can leave evidence of its physical affect.
Imaginative: A vision that cannot be be pecived the process of sight, it is all in the imagination and mind. Mainly occuring during the sleep and dreams
Intellectual: An intellectual experience has no image, but a perception of presence/feeling. Like St Teresa of avila - not seen with the eyes of the body/soul
Freud
Freud thinks a hope for an afterlife is 'wishful fulfillment' However just because having a belief brings comfort doesn't mean that it is false.
It is just true that experience is processed by the brain, a genuine religious experience would have to produce some kind of mental state.
If there is some area of the brain responsible for these experiences it could be the area responsible for the awareness of God. eg temple lobe
Freud said: If God wants to give people religious expereinces it must be processed by the brain first. therefore there has to be areas of the brain responsible for processing them. God brings about religious experiences through structures of the braIn that wants to process them
Defining factors of mystical experiences P.I.N.T
Infallible: An experience that cannot be described in words, it has to be directly experienced. Eg a feeling, no feeling can be understood by someone who has not experienced it
Noetic: Gives rise to knowledge so that the people who experience them learning something as a result. Truths are realized or for to be true even though they cant be described.
Transient: Mystical experiences are passing and don't last long. It is often the case that after a time it becomes difficult recollect the experience
Passivity: Once the experience begins, it is beyond the persons control. The will of the experience controls the mystic.
William James
American philosopher who wrote "the varieties of religious experience" it contains his analysis of mystical experiences. A book about psychology of religion.
*James does not see god as necessarily being omnipotent so God is more likely to be finate than infante. However James also believes that there can be multiple 'Gods'. God does not know the future so he is not all knowing.
Swinburnes principles of credulity and testimony
Principle of testimony: Unless we have a good reason to believe that a they're wrong we should believe in the testimony of people who claim to have had a religious experience.
Principle of creduity: If it seems to you that something has happened it has probably happened. Your senses give you an accurate picture of the world
Commutative argument: When we take all of the religious experience alongside all of the arguments for God (fine tuning) Then they suggest that God exists.