Religious experience
- Created by: evievie
- Created on: 20-02-17 18:08
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- Religious experience
- Types of religious experince
- Direct: a rare supernatural event, for which there can be no scientific explanation, explained as God seeking to interact with humanity directly
- Indirect:common occurrences such as the feeling of peace which lead, through interpretation, to a sense of knowledge about God
- C. Steven Evans
- William James
- Initially set out to write lectures
- Interviewed people who have experienced RE and wanted to find commonalities
- RE are 'solitary'
- testable by the long term changes to a persons life
- Pragmatism: someone who holds that the truth of something can be determined by its practical effects and consequences
- 4 characteristics
- 1. Ineffable: the direct experience of God goes beyond human powers of description
- 2. Noetic: refers to the fact that mystics receive knowledge of God that is not otherwise available
- 3. Transient: religious experiences are described as transient experiences often involve perception of time and duration of the event. Effects are long lasting.
- 4. Passive: Mystical experiences were found to be passive, meaning that the experiences were not under the control of the mystic.
- RE have authority and meaning only for the individual
- Experiences could be explained as part of a person's 'psychological makeup'
- Responses to James
- RE are similar to hallucinations caused by LSD
- Psychologists and sociologists claim that RE only happen to people who are already members of a religious tradition
- J.L.Mackie- if RE are explainable psychologically then they have no authority, even for the person who experienced it
- William James
- Initially set out to write lectures
- Interviewed people who have experienced RE and wanted to find commonalities
- RE are 'solitary'
- testable by the long term changes to a persons life
- Pragmatism: someone who holds that the truth of something can be determined by its practical effects and consequences
- 4 characteristics
- 1. Ineffable: the direct experience of God goes beyond human powers of description
- 2. Noetic: refers to the fact that mystics receive knowledge of God that is not otherwise available
- 3. Transient: religious experiences are described as transient experiences often involve perception of time and duration of the event. Effects are long lasting.
- 4. Passive: Mystical experiences were found to be passive, meaning that the experiences were not under the control of the mystic.
- RE have authority and meaning only for the individual
- Experiences could be explained as part of a person's 'psychological makeup'
- Hume: James believed that if a religious experience fit with his characteristics it supported the concept of God. perhaps there are other reasons (demons)
- Flew: statements that cannot be tested empirically are meaningless
- Veridical: a truthful, genuine experience of something that is actually there
- Swinburne: RE should be taken at face value unless there is good reason to be suspicious
- Principle of credultiy: have good reason to believe what a person tells us is correct
- God is more likely to interact with people who are capable of knowing Him (Christians)
- Swinburne: RE should be taken at face value unless there is good reason to be suspicious
- Otto: RE are a personal encounter with natural forces
- H.D. Lewis: individual is dissatisfied with their current system of ideas=RE
- Types of religious experince
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