Religious Experience
The Varieties of Religious experience
Visions and voices
Eg. Prophet Muhammed receiving the qur'an
Voices: receiving God's holy word
Visions: seen awake or in a dream, in the external world or in the mind
Eg. Saint Bernadette seeing the virgin Mary at Lourdes
St Teresa offered two tests
Does it fit with scripture
Does it leave the individual feeling at peace
Can be linked to physical factors like fasting, Schizophrenia
RE have caused people to do evil things, eg. David Koresh
Corporate
Many people at the same time
Eg. The Toronto Blessing in 1994
Mass hysteria
Psychological conditioning
Doesn't necessarily match with scripture: God doesn't bring disorder to public places of worship
Numinous
Experiences of awe and wonder in the presence of the divine
Eg. Blaise Pascal
Conversion
An experience leading to a change in ways of life, form, function, character
Process
Individual is dissatisfied with their current way of life
Search on an intellectual and emotional basis for answers
Moment of crisis in which God's presence is felt
Feel peace, joy, loss of worries
Broader life changes
Eg. Blaise Pascale, St Paul
Cognitive vs non cognitive
Cognitive
Non-Cognitive
William James
Pragmatism: religious experiences change lives for the better according to his research so should be believed
Since the effects are positive, God is likely the cause
Religious experience is primary, institutions are secondary
Religious experiences are:
Ineffible (cannot be described)
Noetic (direct knowledge of God is imparted
Transient (they pass)
Passive (the experiencer can't control when they happen)
Russell: “the fact that a belief has a good moral effect upon a man is no evidence whatsoever in favour of its truth”
Popper falsification
Dawkins
The brain has evolved to rationalise sense data
We believe we are seeing a face etc from various stimuli
Alston
Swinburne
Schliermacher
Otto
Religious experiences are primarily emotive
Relgious experiences are numinous (impart knowledge about God), ineffible and cannot be expressed through logic
Religious experiences are a normal empirical perception, like Perceptual Practice
We shouldn't privilege one kind of experience above another
Experience of God is cognitive, so the burden of truth is on the atheist to prove that the perception is not true
Principle of credulity: things are usually as they appear to us unless there is sufficient evidence to suggest otherwise
Principle of testimony: things are usually as they appear to others
Everyone has a consciousness of God
Religious feelings should take priority and statements of belief should be formulated to fit them
RE is not numinous (otto) but a feeling of absolute dependence upon the divine
Persinger's helmet: religious feelings can be explained through stimulation of the frontal lobe. People claimed to experience God-consciousness. Heightened in the frontal lobe is associated with epilepsy.
RE is 'mysterius tremendum et fascinans": felt but cannot be described, awe inspiring in the presence of a transcendent being,
Pankhe: 'Good Friday Experiment'
Gave 10 theology students drugs and 90% reported religious experience as opposed to 10% who recieved placebo
Miracles
Hume
Argument from induction
Hume was an empiricist, gaining knowledge from observation
We observe that miracles are very rare, and thus the likelihood that a law of nature has actually been violated is small
It is more likely that there is another explanation which doesn't involve God acting in the world
Directly contrasts his 'problem of induction;
Accounts of miracles came from barbarous/uneducated lands
We still have reports today: the child in the upside down car seat
Gossip is to blame
There are too many conflicting claims of miracles between religious, and these cancel each other out
‘It appears, that no testimony for any kind of miracle has ever amounted to probability, much less proof."
Augustine
The entire point of miracles is that they contravene the laws of nature
"Surpassing the faculty of nature"
Aquinas
Miracles are miracles because we can't understand how they work/why they happen
“Therefore those things which God does outside of the causes which we know are called miracles”
Bulttman
Advocates for the 'demythologisation' of the bible, disregarding the tales of miracles and instead focusing on the 'Kerygma' (central teachings)
Wiles
Rejects the realist interpretation of miracles
Acknowledges the issues of realism: if God turned water into wine, why didn't he stop the holocaust
Kieth Ward
Polkinghorne: Wiles' God doesn't reflect the Christian God
Polkinghorne: many Christian scientists don't rule out that God acts in the world
God acts in the world occasionally to build faith rather than to reduce suffering
If God intervened too much He would disrupt the natural order
The laws of nature are suspended out of self-limitation. They are not violated, but suspended.
Tillich
A real miracle is one which is astounding/unusual without disrupting the laws of nature
It is recieved as a sign-event in an ecstatic experience
Holland
A miracle is a remarkable event which is interpreted in a religious manner
Boy on the tracks example
No violations of the laws of nature but is meaningful for religious people
Sociological explanations for religion
Durkheim
Marx
Weber
Religion has a unifying role in society
We use religion to create a system of morality which people adhere to
Not created by a transcendent God
Studied ancient tribes who used totems to symbolize shared faith. These became symbols for the whole system and ensured co-operation
Religion helps the bourgeoise to oppress the working class
Hick
God requires us to love all of humanity. Sociological theory requires us to only love the group we are associated with and so is restrictive.
Implies a closed/static system— innovators in society are often praised and recieve the most support from God
It presents the world in a natural way which has lots of hierarchy/division between groups: the church has power over people just as the government has power
"Religion is the opium of the people" and keeps them trapped in an oppressive system
A social institution based on capitalism
Calivinism is predisposed to capitalism— focusing on work. The pursuit of wealth became primary.
Psychological explanations for religion
Watson Selection task: humans aren't inherently rational. Only 4% picked the right answer.
Kahneman: human beings aren't rational decision makers, we decide by intuition
Starbuck: found similarities between the process of religious conversion and finding identity in adolescence
Stark: religious experiences are passive, and psychology doesn't explain the root cause
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