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Religious experience - Coggle Diagram
Religious experience
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William James
religion and the mind
James accepts that there may be a psychological or physiological explanation to religious experience yet he argues this may not be the whole explanation
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what is important when we judge whether experiences are genuine is not what causes them but the effects they have
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key principles
pragmatism - truth is not something that is fixed but rather true is whatever has value to us and works in real life - hence given the effects of religious experience we ought to conclude they are probably true
empiricism - although we cannot empirically verify the experience the result of the experience is empirical data - if a former criminal is now living a good and religious life following a conversion experience this can be observed by our senses
pluralism - concluded that there were similarities in experiences - these may be interpreted differently dependant on our own views and belief systems but if they produce positive effects then they are in some sense true - hence there is truth in all faiths
what is shows?
waking consciousness is only one type of consciousness and there are other forms that those having religious experiences can access
analogy of drunkenness - a drunk is put into another state by alcohol - so too a mystic may be able to access different states of consciousness
conclusions:
- the world we see is part of a more spiritual universe from which it gets its main significance
- to unite with this higher universe is our true end/purpose
- prayer or meditation is a real process where spiritual energy flows and produces psychological and material effects within the world we see
- religion seems to provide people with a new zest for life and provides purpose
- an assurance of safety and a sense of peace and love in relationships to others is also produced
mystical experiences
a direct experience of god or ultimate reality, a sense of oneness of all things
FC Happold - mystics understand this world as only part of ultimate reality, the world comes from a divine ground - can be known intuitively but not rationally - we are comprised of our ego and our eternal self - the eternal self aspect of us has the divine spark and the ability to connect with deeper truths - our purpose is to discover our true eternal self and unite with the divine ground
St Teresa of Avila - in her writings she argues that experiences should be subject to tests to determine whether they are genuine - these tests include whether there is a positive change in the person whether the experience left the person at peace rather than disturbed and whether the experience fits with the teachings of the church
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corporate v individual
corporate - shared by a number of people - given that one of the issues involved in studying RE is that experiences are private to individuals - corporate experiences are interesting as potentially there may be some external verification of the experience
examples
Fatima - in Fatima Portugal in 1917 a crowd of over 30000 gathered in response to visions that claimed that a miracle would occur on that day - as the crowd looked up to the sky reports claim that they witnessed the sun dancing and making strange movements in the sky
Medjugorje - in june 2981 six children experienced visions of the virgin mary over a period of several days - the children each claim to have received secrets and have has repeated visions in the years since
Toronto Blessing - in the 1990s a phenomenon known as the Toronto blessing began and spread worldwide - the most widely reported part of this was uncontrollable holy laughter as well as crying shrieking and falling on the floor 'slain in the spirit' - Christians claimed that they were acting under the influence of the holy spirit
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conversion experiences
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arguments on conversion
- william james - judge the experience by the fruit/effects
- edwin starbuck - similar to normal adolescence
- Freud - conversions as hallucinations, wishful thinking
- anthony flew - conversions are almost always to a religion the person has grown up with
- swinburne - principles of credulity and testimony
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