Religious Experience
- Created by: TheAwesomeOne
- Created on: 06-04-15 16:37
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- Religious Experience
- Types of REs
- Prophecy - getting knowledge in a direct way.
- Miracles - a subjective interpretation
- Toronto Blessing - people started acting bizarrely (eg: barking like dogs) & this spread to certain Christian churches
- Numinous - The feeling of a presence of something higher than you
- Speaking in Tongues - speaking in an apparent language but no-one knew the language
- Views and Descriptions of REs
- Schliermacher
- REs are a sense of ultimate awareness of wholeness; conscious of infiniteness and finitenesss
- The world is infinite but I am finite - once I die, I disappear an the world will continue
- a "feeling"
- faith is a fundamental feature of human experience
- REs are a sense of ultimate awareness of wholeness; conscious of infiniteness and finitenesss
- Davies
- There is a God because he has directly encountered Him
- William James
- Emotional content of REs were directed towards something divine
- RM Hare
- You can look at something and conclude that it is a religious experience, despite the false interpretations
- A 'blik' - an unvable and unfalsifiabof looking at the worrld
- You can look at something and conclude that it is a religious experience, despite the false interpretations
- Wittgenstein
- "seeing-as"
- random set of dots and lines - perceived differently by an individual.
- No objective reality (no correct answer)
- "seeing-as"
- Schliermacher
- Key Ideas
- Verification
- If something is verifiable, it can be tested by experience or by sense expeience
- If something is not verifiable, it is either meaningless or tautological (a circular argument)
- If something is subjective, it is not verifiable as knowledge is not subjective
- Everything is truth claim" until you verify it.
- It can be turned into knowledge through the process of VERIFICATION
- Everything is truth claim" until you verify it.
- GOES AGAINST RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
- Analogy
- KEY ARGUMENT THAT THEISTS USE
- Using one thing to describe another
- not a perfect similarity, but is used to see whether the similarities outweigh the differences
- Knowability
- How do you define something to someone that has never seen it before?
- How do you get a checklist of God's characteristics to test his existence?
- Theoretically, you have verified His existence by the characteristics that you have acquired from meeting him beforehand
- (Mrs Goodwin example)
- Cyclical process that isn't proving anything
- You would accept only the good qualities and not the bad ones - WHY?!
- Theoretically, you have verified His existence by the characteristics that you have acquired from meeting him beforehand
- Metaphysical metanarrative
- Reality encompasses the universe and the spiritual realm where there is a God in charge of everything
- Swinburne's Principles
- Principle of Testimony
- You should believe what people you, because the majority of the time, they are telling the truth
- Principle of Credulity
- Experience of X = reality of X
- If someone claims to have experienced something, they probably have.
- We should believe them, unless there is evidence that goes against their claims
- If people claim to have had a RE, we should believe them
- Evidence against them could be w they are suffering from a mental illness and/ or take drugs/ a intoxicated
- We should believe them, unless there is evidence that goes against their claims
- If someone claims to have experienced something, they probably have.
- Experience of X = reality of X
- Problem of Induction
- Some experiences are credible, others are not
- Principle of Testimony
- The argument in its simplest form
- Premise 1: Experience of X indicates the reality of X
- Premise 2: Experience of God indicates the reality of God
- Premise 3: It is possible to experience God
- Conclusion: God exists
- Premise 3: It is possible to experience God
- Premise 2: Experience of God indicates the reality of God
- Premise 1: Experience of X indicates the reality of X
- Verification
- Examples of REs
- Paul
- 1) Bright Light 2) A voice gave him instructions 3) others heard the voice but couldn't see anything 4) went blind 5) Ananias was given information & had a conversation with God 6) Ananias healed Paul's blindness 7) Paul converted
- "Bright light" = sun; "voice" = hidden Christian; "blind" = caused by looking at the sun; "information about Paul" = heard he was in town
- 1) Bright Light 2) A voice gave him instructions 3) others heard the voice but couldn't see anything 4) went blind 5) Ananias was given information & had a conversation with God 6) Ananias healed Paul's blindness 7) Paul converted
- Teresa of Avila
- a woman who was ill and felt God was inside her.
- Paul
- Types of REs
- Key Ideas
- Verification
- If something is verifiable, it can be tested by experience or by sense expeience
- If something is not verifiable, it is either meaningless or tautological (a circular argument)
- If something is subjective, it is not verifiable as knowledge is not subjective
- Everything is truth claim" until you verify it.
- It can be turned into knowledge through the process of VERIFICATION
- Everything is truth claim" until you verify it.
- GOES AGAINST RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
- Analogy
- KEY ARGUMENT THAT THEISTS USE
- Using one thing to describe another
- not a perfect similarity, but is used to see whether the similarities outweigh the differences
- Knowability
- How do you define something to someone that has never seen it before?
- How do you get a checklist of God's characteristics to test his existence?
- Theoretically, you have verified His existence by the characteristics that you have acquired from meeting him beforehand
- (Mrs Goodwin example)
- Cyclical process that isn't proving anything
- You would accept only the good qualities and not the bad ones - WHY?!
- Theoretically, you have verified His existence by the characteristics that you have acquired from meeting him beforehand
- Metaphysical metanarrative
- Reality encompasses the universe and the spiritual realm where there is a God in charge of everything
- Swinburne's Principles
- Principle of Testimony
- You should believe what people you, because the majority of the time, they are telling the truth
- Principle of Credulity
- Experience of X = reality of X
- If someone claims to have experienced something, they probably have.
- We should believe them, unless there is evidence that goes against their claims
- If people claim to have had a RE, we should believe them
- Evidence against them could be w they are suffering from a mental illness and/ or take drugs/ a intoxicated
- We should believe them, unless there is evidence that goes against their claims
- If someone claims to have experienced something, they probably have.
- Experience of X = reality of X
- Problem of Induction
- Some experiences are credible, others are not
- Principle of Testimony
- The argument in its simplest form
- Premise 1: Experience of X indicates the reality of X
- Premise 2: Experience of God indicates the reality of God
- Premise 3: It is possible to experience God
- Conclusion: God exists
- Premise 3: It is possible to experience God
- Premise 2: Experience of God indicates the reality of God
- Premise 1: Experience of X indicates the reality of X
- Verification
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