Religious experience

• Religious Experience


  The most popular proof for the existence of God (unlike ontological, design and cosmological) as it is usually individual, personal and life-changing. A posteriori – based on experience.
• Different types of religious experience

  • Public a) Sees God / God's action in a public object or scene i.e. the sunset
  • Public b) Unusual public event - seem to be a breach of natural law
  • Private a) Sense of God acting on their lives - a guide e.g. for the right job, house etc.
  • Private b) Experience that can easily be explained in normal language
  • Private c) Experience that is difficult to describe in everyday language (mysticism)
• Inductive Argument


  Looking at testimonies of people claiming to have had religious experiences and concluding that this can only be explained by God (due to common characteristics)
• Swinburne's Principle of Credulity

  If we normally trust our sense – 'how things seem to be is good ground for a belief about how things are'. As long as you are satisfied with special considerations, experience should be regarded as genuine.
• Swinburne's Principle of Testimony

  If you normally trust a person (i.e. with your life) then why not for an experience – usually honest and reliable we should believe them.
• Concerns with Swinburne's Principles

  • Reliability of claim – frequent liar – trust?
  • Truth of the claim – unlikely perceptual claims – trust?
  • Difficulty in showing God was present in experience (cannot set up a 'test condition)
  • Maybe alternative explanations (psychological; medical)
• Swinburne's replies to concerns


  • May have lied in the past does not mean they have now
  • All these claims don't have to all be untrue
  • God is everywhere – onus on the doubter to show God was not in the experience
  • God as Creator – able to create experience within the brain
• Challenges from science


  • Product of the mind – psychology – tells us about human psychology 'the mind' and not God
  • Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) – prone to have religious experiences – argues just abnormal state of the brain
  • Neuroscience can re-create aspects of religious experience – maybe a 'religious experience' is simply a specific state of the brain
  • Caused by certain drugs – product of brain state
• Near Death Experience (NDE)

  Lack of oxygen; brain shuts down from the pain; hallucination; see what they expect to see
• Further Psychological explanations


  • Puberty girls; mid-life for men; approaching death – all states of life that could induce an 'experience' which is described as 'religious'
  • Hypnotism (Benny Hinn)
• More criticisms


  • Vicious Circle – they see what they expect to see, based on the doctrines of their religious faith
  • Cultural Conditioning – Religious experiences could be said to be shaped by the religious community
  • Religious experiences occur within the context of a particular religious language - language gives shape to the experience
  • How can you say that you have experienced God – what does eternal, infinite look like? If God is external to the world how can God be part of the world?
• Influence of Religious Experiences

  • Founder of religion and faiths (Judaism – Abraham; Christianity – St Paul)
  • Inspirational – to do great things; willingness to die for their faith
  • Heart of the experience of pilgrimage – e.g. Lourdes
  • Life-changing – empathy; hope; courage; James – zest for life; conversion St Paul
• Value for Religious Faith

  • Confirm faith
  • Link back to 'belief in' and 'belief that' from other arguments
  • Issue is that it confirms the faith you belong to (see vicious circle argument)
• The only way you 'see' is through your senses but these are interpreted by your brain.
• Conclusion

  They give certainty for those who claim to have the experience.

  However the issue is ‘knowledge’ and ‘experience’ what comes first or do they

  simply self-justify (self-certify) each other continually. Can you separate the two for a believer?

  The only way you ‘see’ is through your senses but these are interpreted by your brain.
• Value for Religious Faith (see previous section)

  1. Confirm faith

  2) Link back to ‘belief in’ and ‘belief that’ from other arguments

  3) Issue is that it confirms the faith you belong to (see vicious circle argument)
• Influence of Religious Experiences

  1. Founder of religion and faiths (Judaism – Abraham; Christianity – St Paul)

  2) Inspirational – to do great things; willingness to die for their faith.

  3) Heart of the experience of pilgrimage – e.g. Lourdes

  4) Life-changing – empathy; hope; courage; James – zest for life; conversion St Paul
• Religious Response to the above

  1. Hypotheses from Freud – may provide comfort but does not deny God.

  2) Drug-induced experiences – God works through the brain

  3) Mind can also interact with God (prayer) and is personal

  4) James argues it does not matter if an experience is aided by help (Indian yoga)
• NDE – Near Death Experience – scientific explanations

  • Lack of oxygen; brain shuts down from the pain; hallucination; see what they expect to see.

  Further Psychological explanations – puberty girls; mid-life for men; approaching death – all states of life

  that could induce an ‘experience’ which is described as ‘religious’. Also hypnotism (Benny Hinn)
• Freud (1856-1939)


  Wishfulfilment of the unconscious mind. Helps to control fear of the unknown and death. Hallucinations to deal with a helpless state.
• Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE)


  Prone to have religious experiences - argues just abnormal state of the brain. (St. Paul's conversion experience could be this)
• Challenges from science

  Product of the mind – psychology – tells us about human psychology ‘the mind’ and not God.
• Neurotheology


  • Produced by electrical stimulation of the temporal lobes of the brain
• Continued issues with Swinburne: Still issue over reliability; can you ‘get inside’ someone’s head; may

  believe God is the explanation but you may not be right (see below for more criticisms)
• Michael Persinger - 'The God Helmet'


  • Stimulates the temporal lobes - people wearing this have visions; mystical states and even NDE
• Neuroscience can then re-create aspects of religious experience - maybe a 'religious experience' is simply a specific state of the brain
• Certain drugs


  Product of brain state (think back to William James)
• Effects of experience are similar to those from 'hallucinogenic' drugs e.g. LSD
• Entheogens


  Meaning generating/becoming the Divine from within
• 1962 Walter Pahnke - study of 20 Theology students on Good Friday listening to a preacher (friend of MLK)


  • 10 given a drug psilocybin the other 10 a placebo. Those who had the drug had similar experiences to those wearing the 'God Helmet'
• Swinburne’s reply

  1. May have lied in the past does not mean they have now.

  2) All these claims don’t have to all be untrue.

  3) God is everywhere – onus on the doubter to show God was not in the experience.

  4) God as Creator – able to create experience within the brain.
• Concerns:

  1. Reliability of claim – frequent liar – trust?

  2) Truth of the claim – unlikely perceptual claims – trust?

  3) Difficulty in showing God was present in experience (cannot set up a ‘test condition)

  4) Maybe alternative explanations (see below for psychological; medical explanations)
• Credulity – if we normally trust our sense – ‘how things seem to be is good ground for a belief about how

  things are’. As long as you are satisfied with special considerations, experience should be regarded as

  genuine.
• Testimony – if you normally trust a person (i.e. with your life) then why not for an experience – usually

  honest and reliable we should believe them.
• Mysticism


  Non-sensuous and non-intellectual union with the divine
• Mystical experience


  • Senses cease to exist
  • Conscious 'I' ceases
  • Leads to pure consciousness
• Mysticism has nothing to do with parapsychological phenomena (clairvoyance; paranormal)
• Genuine mystical experience has no form; shape; colour; smell or sound
• Apprehension of an ultimate non-sensuous unity in all things

  A oneness or a One
• Types of mystical experience

  • Extrovertive
  • Introvertive