Religious Experiences - Essay Plans

• Examine the main characteristics of mystical experiences A01

  - Otto and numinosity / numinous

  - James: ineffability (teresa of avila) and noetic quality (Julian of Norwich)

  - Stace introvertive

  - Visions and voices are not mystical
• William James A01

  - noetic quality

  - ineffability

  - transiency and passivity

  - definition of mystical experience
• Walter Stace A01

  - halfway house experience

  - introvertive way

  - extrovertive way

  - visions and voices not a mystical experience
• Rudolf Otto A01

  - tremendum

  - mysterium

  - what makes a religious experience

  - numinous
• Examine religious views about visions A01

  - definition

  - intellectual vision: Julian of Norwich. Gains knowledge

  - imaginary vision: John's book of revelation and vision of heaven and hell

  - corporeal vision and Bernadette at Lourdes (vision is something external)
• Scientific responses to religious experiences A01

  - Ramachandran temporal lobes

  - Persinger god helmet

  - Freud wish fulfilment

  - Freud collective neurosis
• Scientific responses to religious experiences A02

  - strength: Freud argues that religious experiences are wish fulfilment

  - weakness: Bernadette was possessed with information that she would not have known before her religious experience

  - strength: Ramachandran argued that temporal lobe epilepsy leaves people prone to such brain activity

  - weakness: peoples lives are changed dramatically (Gram Seed and John Wesley)

  - strength: persinger god helmet / Richard Dawkins experiment

  - weakness: example of Moses spoken to by God.
• Value of religious experiences A01

  - Bernadette Soubirous / Lourdes

  - Gram Seed

  - Julian of Norwich

  - John Wesley
• Value of religious experiences A02
• Examine Swinburne's principles of credulity and testimony A01 -
• Swinburne's principles of credulity and testimony A02

  - Strength: normal sense experiences are reliable. Subjective

  - Weakness: just because we test everyday things through peoples common experience it doesn't mean we can verify the supernatural. Objective

  - Strength: principle of credulity - someone who has had a religious experience of what seems to be God has reasonable reason for believing it was God

  - Weakness: may not be God. Freud and Persinger offer other explanations

  - Strength: testimony of others who report similar experiences supports such claims

  - Weakness: people may be liars or hallucinating
• Religious experiences can be verified.' A02

  - FOR: William James: qualities eg passivity, ineffability, noetic quality and transiency. Examples of Julian of Norwich and Teresa of Avila. ARGUMENT AGAINST: Persinger God helmet temporal lobes

  - FOR: Swinburne's Principle of testimony. AGAINST: could be lying

  - FOR: visions eg corporeal, intellectual and imaginary. AGAINST: Freud wish fulfilment