Can Religious Experience Be Explained Away Ppt

7/28/2019 Can Religious Experience Be Explained Away Ppt

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Religious experiences sometimes happens

when there is something going on with an

individual.

An individual reports contact with atranscendent reality .. An encounter or union

with the divine.

Religious experiences differs across cultures

and has led to academic study.


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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.


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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 theangels named Saint Catherine, Saint Michael,

and Saint Margaret at the age of twelve.

The angels told her to drive the English

warriors outof France

Died because of her religious experience and

was accused of heresy.


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Of God experiences

Non-sensory experience

Encounter with God

Experience is intentional

Has nothing to do with the persons mental

state!


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Humanistic Psychologist

Argues that religious experiences are

personal

Validity is based on the individual sexperience.

Often are life changing

Profoundly moving


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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 livein closer harmony with his laws as written in my bodyand mind. I feel him in the sunshine or rain; and awe

mingled with a delicious restfulness most nearlydescribes my feelings. I talk to him as to a companion inprayer and praise, and our communion is delightful. Heanswers me again and again, often in words so clearlyspoken that it seems my outer ear must have carried the

tone, but generally in strong mental impressions. Ihave a sense of his presence ,strong, and yet at the sametime soothing, which hovers over me. Sometimes itseems to enwrap me with sustaining arms.


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What are religious experiences ?

What do they show?

William Alston : a psychological experience

of something s appearing to one, somepositive seeming that in turn serves as the

basis for an existence claim.

Sensory practice using one senses to form

beliefs about the external world.


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Mystical practices- the part or element andpractice that concerns the preparation forthe consciousness of, and the effect of adirect and transformative presence of God.

Prima facie first encounter , self evident fromthe facts .

Having a religious experience providesprimafacie justification for thinking that one has

encountered God.Religious experiences does not have to meet

a set of standards.


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Richard Swinburne Emeritus Prof of

Philosophy of the Christian Religion , Univ of

Oxford

Felt that Ordinary perceptual experiencesas well as experiences of Gods being present

to one should be treated as innocent until

proven guilty.

How does one prove it????


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Doubters, rebutters, Critics, Skeptics !!

People dont always stories about the

experiences.

One has to believe in God and that Godexists to believe in another person testimony.

Failure to experience God . Does not mean

that God does not exist!

Question : Why a benevolent God wouldremain experientially absent from someone

who is seeking God?


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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.


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The two schools of thought are represented by Freud and

Dennett


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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 naturalworld.

EKW


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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.


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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)
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They are a testimonyThey are the truth according to the source


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Delusional people hear voices

Perfectly normal people see mirages People misremember and have false memories

We take our sensory and memory reports atface value unless we have reasons for thinking

otherwise.


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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)


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The procedures used to validate sensory

experiences cannot even be applied to

religious experiencesGod does not have a body

God is not an object


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Religious experiences are subject to various

checking procedures or overridder systems as

Alston calls them

Gary Gutting- If one encountered anextraordinarily 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


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The Cumulative Effect

Assessing/Measuring Evidence

Positive Evidence vs. Negative Evidence

Cultural, Historical and Linguistic FactorsCharacter


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*Suppose Susan is a Christian and had religious experience:

1.Susan is aware that practioners of other religions have had religiousexperiences the propositional content of which is incompatible with herown.

2.Susan is rational in accepting the content of her own religiousexperience only if she has reasons independent of her own tradition forthinking her Christian religious practice and the experiences generatedby are reliable or more reliable than its alternatives.

3.Susan lacks independent reasons for thinking her experiences arereliable or more reliable than those of experiences by persons in otherreligious traditions.

4.Susan Is Irrational to accept her own experiences as epistemicallysuperior to those with which it is in competition.


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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


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Religion is just an illusion based on an

individuals wishes.

Religious experience varies because its an

individually based experience on ones beliefWe have reason to believe that not all

sensory experiences are verdical

The connection between Experience and

belief is not a globally recognized idealogybut rather a personal affirmation with ones

religious community.

Can Religious Experience Be Explained Away Ppt

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