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Published byMeagan Freeman Modified over 9 years ago
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Religious experience
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What is religious experience? In a broad sense, religious experience refers to any experience of the sacred within a religious context, including religious feelings, visions, and mystical and numinous experiences Three common features Universality – significant portion of population Diversity – some similarities, many differences Importance – can result in world view change
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Regenerative Experience in which the experiencer undergoes life transformation or conversion Charismatic Experience in which special abilities, gifts, or blessings are manifested Mystical Ineffability Noetic quality Transiency Passivity
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Ineffability: the experience cannot be adequately described, if it can be described at all Noetic quality: the experiencer believes that he or she has learned something important from the experience Transiency: the experience is temporary, and the experiencer soon returns to a “normal” state of mind Passivity: the experience occurs without conscious decision or control, and it cannot be brought to happen at will
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God/Absolute Reality Identity or union with God or Absolute Reality Natural Experience with nature, even an atheist can have one Numinous An encounter with a separate self, will, or power which unexpectedly and profoundly forces itself upon the consciousness of the experiencer
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No empirical tests for religious experiences Psychological States Martin Argument from analogy, (trees and God) Verifications Wainwright Doxastic practices Experiences are just as valid as sensory perceptions Alston Principle of credulity Unless there is good reason to doubt Swinburne Best explanation of experience Strength in number greatness Gellman
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Lack of verifiability Either religious experiences are corrigible, or they are incorrigible If religious experiences are corrigible, then people could be mistaken If religious experiences are incorrigible, then they are subjective, personal, and worthless as justification for other’s religious beliefs
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Conflicting claims Religious experiences are widely divergent, conflicting, and even contradictory The reliability of religious experiences seems to be shaken
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Circularity of reasoning A person’s worldview seems to dictate the kind and focus of the religious experience that is experienced In other words, people have religious experiences in line with what they already believe to be true
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Briefly explain the three categories of religious experience described in this chapter. Do you think the variety of religious experiences fall neatly within them? Is there overlap? How might a person having religious experiences differentiate between real experiences of God or the Absolute on one hand, and delusion or hallucination on the other?
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