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RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE - VISIONS - Coggle Diagram
RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE - VISIONS
Visions have been split into three categories by Aquinas
IMAGINATIVE VISIONS
The experiencer has no power to direct the experience, a sign that it comes from God
Often occur is dreams
Experience is seen/imagined with the 'eye of the mind'
Pharaoh's dream - Here, an Egyptian king receives visions that he cannot interpret. Seven thin cows devour seven fat cows. The next dream, seven withered ears of grain devoured seven fat ears
He is aware the dreams have crucial importance but even his magicians/butler's can't interpret it
His chief tells him there's a Hebrew in prison that can interpret dreams (Joseph). He tells Pharaoh that the dream is a warning from God that seven years of plenty will be followed by 7 years of famine. So Pharaoh should store more surplus grain
CORPORAL VISIONS
Empirical experience - experience through our 5 senses
Seeing God through nature e.g. the beautiful sunset
Joan of Arc - claimed she experienced a corporal vision. From age 12 she experienced visions of angels + saints with voices telling her to bring renewal to the French nation
After these visions she led the French to victory in the battle against England in the Hundred years war
She said the visions were like seeing actual people with 'bodily eyes' which were accompanied with heavenly light
INTELLETCUAL VISIONS
Visions with no image
Cannot be described by those who experience them with ordinary language
St Teresa - praying + felt the presence of God 'I had the most distinct feeling' = not an image, a presence
NUMINOUS EXPERIENCES
Moses illustrates Otto's main idea - 'the angel and the lord appeared to him'
Otto's main idea is encounters with the Holy and focuses on 'holy' describing his transcendence, and spirit
Otto - wholly other
Numinous feelings are more intense versions of our normal feelings - sui generis - unique/in a class of their own
MYSTICAL EXPERIENCES
William James - religious experience = primary and organised religion = secondary
God exists factually but is probably infinite
Experience teaches us that significance is drawn from a more spiritual universe
End of humanity = union with that higher realm
They are noetic - give rise to knowledge and those who have mystical experiences learn something new
SWINBURNES CRITICISMS - THE PRINCIPLE OF TESTIMONY
Minus special considerations, experiences are probably true as they report them
If witnesses are reliable, we should believe them
It is the questioner's job to show that religious experience is false, rather than the believer's job to show that they are true
ARGUMENTS AGAINST SWINBURNE
Even if everybody who has had a religious experience believes that they are experiences of God, this would not prove that God really is involved
ARGUMENT FOR SWINBURNE
Experiences must be true because those who have experienced them show a measurable difference in lifestyle, which is good evidence they are true