Religious

experiences sometimes happens when there is something going on with an individual. An individual reports contact with a transcendent reality .. An encounter or union with the divine. Religious experiences differs across cultures and has led to academic study.

 Religious

experiences can come in various forms because of the diverse amount of religions that are present in the world.

For example : Arjuna said to have seen Krishna Most recent : The movie Joan of Arc This film depicted Joan of Arcs commitment for her religious experiences.

 Left

home at the age of sixteen Became a warrior Help to keep the English from invading France She said that she heard the voices of the angels named Saint Catherine, Saint Michael, and Saint Margaret at the age of twelve. The angels told her to drive the English warriors out of France Died because of her religious experience and was accused of heresy.

 Of

God experiences Non-sensory experience Encounter with God Experience is intentional Has nothing to do with the persons mental state!

Humanistic Psychologist Argues that religious experiences are personal Validity is based on the individual s experience. Often are life changing Profoundly moving

Author William James wrote:

God is more real to me than any thought or thing or person. I feel his presence positively, and the more I live in closer harmony with his laws as written in my body and mind. I feel him in the sunshine or rain; and awe mingled with a delicious restfulness most nearly describes my feelings. I talk to him as to a companion in prayer and praise, and our communion is delightful. He answers me again and again, often in words so clearly spoken that it seems my outer ear must have carried the tone, but generally in strong mental impressions. I have a sense of his presence ,strong, and yet at the same time soothing, which hovers over me. Sometimes it seems to enwrap me with sustaining arms.

 What

are religious experiences ? What do they show? William Alston : a psychological experience of something s appearing to one, some positive seeming that in turn serves as the basis for an existence claim. Sensory practice using one senses to form beliefs about the external world.

 Mystical

practices- the part or element and practice that concerns the preparation for the consciousness of, and the effect of a direct and transformative presence of God. Prima facie first encounter , self evident from the facts . Having a religious experience provides prima facie justification for thinking that one has encountered God. Religious experiences does not have to meet a set of standards.

 Richard

Swinburne Emeritus Prof of Philosophy of the Christian Religion , Univ of Oxford Felt that Ordinary perceptual experiences as well as experiences of Gods being present to one should be treated as innocent until proven guilty. How does one prove it????

 Doubters,

rebutters, Critics, Skeptics !! People dont always stories about the experiences. One has to believe in God and that God exists to believe in another person testimony. Failure to experience God . Does not mean that God does not exist! Question : Why a benevolent God would remain experientially absent from someone who is seeking God?

 Religious

experiences vary ,depending on the individual. It can be more of a matter of the soul or mind. Both perception and experience involves our encounter with world Some people try to disprove the religious experience . We may limit our own accessibility to God if we fail to be open to the experience.

The two schools of thought are represented by Freud and Dennett

 Religion

is an illusion based on human

wishes. It is created by the mind to help us overcome: [1] inner psychological conflict [2] stress, which stems from the structure of society [3] fear of dangers of the natural world.

EKW

 Dennetts

philosophy summarized Religion and religious experiences are just an evolutionary survival mechanism. (Wood, 111) Memes are the bits of cultural DNA passed down from generation to generation, consisting of words, songs, phrases, gestures, etc. These reinforce certain religions, cults, and creeds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsTJezsnK0 c https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=h05h qigS-Qc&feature=endscreen

Dennetts hypotheses are philosophical, not scientific, however much he attempts to cloak them in the work of contemporary science Would knowing something of religions origins constitute good reason to think its claims false or to view religious experiences as fraudulent? Of course not. (Wood, 112)

are a testimony They are the truth according to the source

They

 Delusional

people hear voices Perfectly normal people see mirages People misremember and have false memories We take our sensory and memory reports at face value unless we have reasons for thinking otherwise.

 Whereas

there are objective, agreed upon test for determining when a persons sensory faculty is not functioning properly, there are no such tests for determining when a persons mystical faculty is not working properly. (pg. 104)

 The

procedures used to validate sensory experiences cannot even be applied to religious experiences God does not have a body God is not an object

 Religious

experiences are subject to various checking procedures or overridder systems as Alston calls them Gary Gutting- If one encountered an extraordinarily wise, good and powerful being who cares about us that one would under go such an experience that it would strengthen them to lead morally better lives

 The

Cumulative Effect Assessing/Measuring Evidence

Positive Evidence vs. Negative Evidence Cultural, Historical and Linguistic Factors

Character

Jerome Gellman -Individuals claiming to have experienced God do not agree about who or what they have experienced. Michael Martin -Religious experiences tell no uniform or coherent story and there is no plausible theory to account for the discrepancies among them John Hicks -ultimate reality is strictly speaking unknowable and thus not disclosed by any of our religious experiences. All accounts are incorrect.

*Suppose

Susan is a Christian and had religious experience:

1.Susan is aware that practioners of other religions have had religious experiences the propositional content of which is incompatible with her own.
2.Susan is rational in accepting the content of her own religious experience only if she has reasons independent of her own tradition for thinking her Christian religious practice and the experiences generated by are reliable or more reliable than its alternatives. 3.Susan lacks independent reasons for thinking her experiences are reliable or more reliable than those of experiences by persons in other religious traditions. 4.Susan Is Irrational to accept her own experiences as epistemically superior to those with which it is in competition.

 Gary

Gutting religious experience does successfully justify the claim that religious experience has had contact with a reality outside of ourselves. Caroline Davis Broad Theism.. is indeed justified by religious experience

 Religion

is just an illusion based on an individuals wishes. Religious experience varies because its an individually based experience on ones belief We have reason to believe that not all sensory experiences are verdical The connection between Experience and belief is not a globally recognized idealogy but rather a personal affirmation with ones religious community.