Religious Experiences

A religious experience can be defined in a number of ways but usually suggests an awareness or the presence of the divine.

• 2 Types:

1) Direct= The preson feels they are in contact with God.

2) Indirect= Where there is an inner experience of God's action in creation and something other.

• Martin Buber: God revealing himself to people on a personal level. 
• Tillich: A feeling of 'ultimate concern', a feeling that demands a decisive decision from the one receiving it. 
• James: God was present, though invisible he fell under not one of my senses yet my consciousness perceived.

• Mystical: Experience of direct contact or oneness with God or ultimate reality.
• Numinous: Experiences of awe and wonder in the presence of God.
• Corporate: Religious experiences that happen to a number of people at once in the same location.
• Conversion: The change of a person's religious identity because of their religious experience. 
• Near-Death: Experiencing some form of life after death before coming back to life.
• Responses to life and the world: A gentle, indirect experience which enhances a person's understanding of their life and the world around them.
• Revelatory: Receiving enlightenment and knowledge, perhaps through a revelation from God.

• Music and atmosphere

• Meditation

• Prayer

• A feeling of deep, inner peace.
• A certainty that everything will turn out for the good.
• A sense of the need to help others.
• A belief that love is at the centre of everything.
• A sense of joy.
• Great emotional intensity.

An experience of direct contact or oneness with God or ultimate reality.

William James relies on 3 main principles: Empiricism, pragmatism and pluralism.

• Julian of Norwich
• St Teresa of Avila

Why they prove God's existence?

• If you experience God, you believe that he does exist.

Criticisms:

• The experiences are deceptive.
• Manipulation of psychological needs and illusions.

The change of a person's identity because of their religious experience.

• The conversion of Saul
• Nicky Cruz
• John Pridmore

Why they prove God's existence?

• William James suggests that the drastic change to a person's lifestyle is empirical evidence of a religious experience and therefore God.
• Atheists have reported cases of religious experiences, so surely this is proof of God's existence.

Criticisms:

• The experience is individual and so there is a lack of evidence to support the claims.

Experiencing some form of life after death before coming back to life.

• Ian McCormack

Why they prove God's existence?

• The evidence suggests there is some form of life after death and would therefore imply that God does exist.
• The number of examples and evidence makes the argument more believable.

Criticisms:

• The experiences could have been due to medication that the person was given, causing them to hallucinate.
• As the experience is individual we can't really know what actually happened.
• There is no physical explanation.

Religious experiences that happen to a number of people at once in the same location.

• The Toronto Blessing
• Lourdes

Why they prove God's existence?

• As this type of experience happens to a number of people in the same location this suggests some kind of religious significance and would imply that God is intervening in the world thorugh religious experiences.

Criticisms:

• Some people argue that a corporate experience is only a pschological thing as we may see someone laughing and will get the same feelings.
• The number of people these experiences happen to takes away the importance and significance of the concept of religious experiences.