P2: religious experience

• William James (empiricist, pragmatist): REs = true relig; Practices, teachings = ‘second hand’ relig
• Caroline Franks Davis, Russell, Dawkins, Persinger: ppl misinterpret reality, ppl lie, drugs/fasting alter mental states
• Hume: no matter how many ppl agree REs exist, he will never believe them

  >> criticism: hypocritical - accepts testimony for evil (everyone agrees evil exists do it does) but not for REs
• Hick argument for religious experience

  experiencing (receiving sensory info) + experiencing-as (interpreting)

  • E.g. Christian + Hindu see same divinity; Christian experiences-as Mary, Hindu Krishna
• Swinburne argument for religious experience

  cumulative argument, principles of credulity + testimony
• William James: 4 marks of mystical religious experience

  Passive, Ineffable, Noetic, Transitory
• “There is no religion in which the numinous does not live at its innermost core” (Otto)
• example of REs:

  - 1994 Toronto blessing: uncontrollable crying, laughing caused by HS

  - 1917 Fatima visitations, Portugal: Mary visited 3 children + 10,000s saw sun zigzag
• Kenneth Ring: 4 common features of near-death experience

  Out-of-body, Feel at peace, Enter dark, See light
• Kenneth Ring: 4 common features of near-death experience


  Out-of-body, Feel at peace, Enter dark, See light
• propositional revelation - God directly communicates, e.g. through visions, dreams
• non-propositional revelation - someone comes to a moment of realisation about divine truth, with no direct intervention from God; e.g. scripture, natural world