2. CONTENT
1) The
nature
of
a
religious
experience
2) The
approaches
and
types
of
religious
experiences
3) Mys?cism
and
revela?on
as
forms
of
religious
experiences
4) The
argument
from
religious
experience-‐
James
and
Swinburne
5) Cri?cisms
of
religious
experience
3. THE
MAIN
QUESTION
Can
any
experience
of
the
divine
be
used
as
an
argument
for
the
existence
of
God?
4. THE
NATURE
OF
RELIGIOUS
EXPERIENCES
Religious
Experiences
have
been
argued
to
be
grounds
for
belief
in
God.
In
general
a
religious
experience
is
defined
by:
1.
A
sense
of
wonder
2.
A
sense
of
new
insight
and
values
3.
A
sense
of
holiness
and
profundity
.
5. DEFINITIONS
Rudolph
OWo
(The
Idea
of
the
Holy
1917)
stated
that
a
religious
experience
may
be
an
encounter
with
something
powerful,
uncanny,
weird,
awesome
but
also
aWrac?ve
and
fascina?ng.
He
spoke
of
this
as
an
encounter
with
the
numinous.
He
also
pointed
out
that
a
religious
experience
cannot
be
described
in
ordinary
language,
since
none
of
our
words
quite
capture
that
special
sense
of
something
being
‘holy’.
It
involves
the
whole
person-‐
mind,
emo?ons,
values
and
rela?onships.
William
James
states
that
a
religious
experience
‘is
the
feelings,
acts,
experiences
of
individual
men
in
their
solitude,
so
far
as
they
apprehend
themselves
to
stand
in
rela?on
to
whatever
they
consider
divine’.
6. TWO
GENERAL
APPROACHES
There
are
two
general
approaches
to
interpre?ng
religious
experience:
1.
The
experien;al:
This
is
concerned
with
the
experience
itself-‐
it
allows
the
experience
to
speak
for
itself
without
trying
to
define
exactly
what
is
experienced
2.
The
proposi;onal:
This
extracts
experiences
from
certain
definite
proposi?ons-‐
which
are
claimed
to
be
religious
truths
7. THE
PROPOSITIONAL
In
general,
the
philosophy
of
religion
tends
to
encourage
an
experien?al
approach,
since
the
proposi?onal
approach
does
not
allow
for
a
true
understanding
of
the
experience.
8. TYPES
OF
RELIGIOUS
EXPERIENCES
1.
Near
death
experiences
2.
Conversion
3.
Group
experiences
4.
Mys?cism
5.
Medita?on
9. MYSTICISM
(A
type
of
religious
experience)
In
his
Varie?es
of
Religious
Experience,
William
James
lists
four
quali?es
associated
with
a
religious
experience:
-‐Ineffability
(different
from
ordinary
experience)
-‐Noe;c
quality
(a
type
of
revela?on-‐
knowledge
which
cannot
be
properly
explained
)
-‐Transiency
(does
not
last
long)
-‐Passivity
(the
person
feels
that)
10. CAN
RELIGIOUS
EXPERIENCE
BE
DEEMED
REVELATION?
Revela?on
is
defined
as
God
‘revealing
his
will
to
humanity’
or
‘knowledge
which
is
given
through
supernatural
agency’.
It
can
come
through
events,
people
or
the
scriptures.
Revelatory
experiences
tend
to
be
authorita?ve
for
those
who
have
them,
going
beyond
what
can
be
known
ra?onally.
It
is
generally
thought
of
as
a
gif
from
God-‐
a
moment
when
God
chooses
to
reveal
himself.
11. PROBLEMS
WITH
REVELATION
Revela?on
raises
problems
for
philosophy
because
knowledge
can
only
be
ar?culated
using
words
that
have
a
commonly
agreed
meaning.
Without
that,
knowledge
does
not
make
sense.
Once
wriWen
down,
revela?on
is
inevitably
reduced
to
a
set
of
proposi?ons
that
can
be
assessed
ra?onally.
It
is
this
last
process
with
which
philosophy
is
tradi?onally
concerned.
12. PROBLEMS
WITH
REVELATION
Revelatory
experiences
are
powerful-‐
people
who
have
received
them
might
not
be
able
to
defend
what
they
have
experienced
ra?onally,
but
for
them
it
is
authorita?ve.
People
who
have
had
a
revelatory
experience
are
unlikely
to
be
dissuaded.
But
it
is
reasonable
to
dismiss
their
claim
on
the
basis
that
it
is
impossible
to
know
that
which
is
beyond
the
senses?
13. THE
ARGUMENT
FROM
RELIGIOUS
EXPERIENCE
Every
experience
involves
the
interpreta?on
of
sensa?ons
–
there
is
the
thing
that
is
experienced,
and
the
interpreta?on
and
understanding
of
what
is
experienced.
The
former
is
objec?ve
and
the
laWer
subjec?ve.
A
religious
experience
must
therefore
include
both
the
objec?ve
and
subjec?ve
elements
in
order
to
classify
as
an
argument
for
God
(or
even
in
order
to
even
count
as
an
experience
itself).
14. THE
ARGUMENT
FROM
RELIGIOUS
EXPERIENCE
There
is
an
evident
problem
with
this..
God
is
meant
to
be
beyond
the
limited,
physical
world.
So
how
can
people
know
that
they
have
experienced
God?
15. PRIOR
KNOWLEDGE
IS
NECESSARY
It
all
depends
on
prior
knowledge.
If
God
is
infinite,
he
cannot
be
located
in
a
par?cular
place,
nor
does
he
have
boundaries.
So
arguments
about
whether
or
not
an
experience
is
of
God,
require
a
prior
knowledge
of
what
God
is.
In
order
for
religious
experience
to
be
part
of
a
logical
argument
about
the
existence
of
God,
there
needs
to
be
an
agreed
defini?on
of
what
is
meant
by
the
word
God.
Otherwise
there
will
be
no
way
of
knowing
how
the
person
is
interpre?ng
their
experience.
16. WILLIAM
JAMES
In
the
Varie?es
of
Religious
Experience,
James
took
a
psychological
approach
to
his
subject.
He
made
no
aWempt
to
argue
from
his
accounts
of
religious
experiences
to
any
supernatural
conclusions-‐
he
was
simply
concerned
with
examining
the
effect
of
religion
on
peoples
lives.
He
points
to
religious
experience
as
a
phenomenon
that
can
have
a
profound
effect-‐
it
is
self
authen?ca?ng
for
the
person
who
has
it.
James
admiWed
that
it
did
not
offer
any
logical
proof
of
the
existence
of
God.
17. WILLIAM
JAMES
James
did
not
speak
of
‘God’
but
of
the
‘spiritual’.
He
was
against
any
aspects
of
dogma?c
theology.
It
is
only
in
the
most
general
terms
that
James
can
be
said
to
offer
any
kind
of
argument
for
the
existence
of
God.
James
simply
points
to
religious
experiences
and
the
role
they
serve
as
filling
people
with
love,
happiness,
humility
and
peace.
18. SWINBURNE
Swinburne
also
argued
that
religious
experiences
are
authorita?ve
for
the
individual.
Swinburne
does
not
argue
that
religious
experiences
should
offer
conclusive
proof
of
God,
but
rather
that
you
need
to
balance
out
probabili?es
when
it
comes
to
belief.
19. RICHARD
SWINBURNE
Swinburne
offers
a
way
to
classify
religious
experience
PUBLIC
EXPERIENCES:
Ordinary,
interpreted
experience
–
e.g.
night
sky
Extraordinary
experience
–
Jesus
walking
on
water
PRIVATE
EXPERIENCES:
Describable
in
normal
language
OR
Not
describable
in
normal
language
(mys?cal)
No
specific
experience
(for
instance
when
the
whole
of
a
believer’s
life
is
seen
in
a
certain
way)
20. SWINBURNE
Richard
Swinburne
puts
forward
two
principles
to
argue
that
we
should
balance
probabili?es.
THE
PRINCIPLE
OF
CREDULITY
Maintains
that
it
is
a
principle
of
ra?onality
that
(in
the
absence
of
special
considera?ons)
if
it
seems
to
a
person
that
X
is
present,
then
probably
X
is
present.
What
one
seems
to
perceive
is
probably
so.
Put
simply-‐
You
should
not
doubt
a
witness.
21. SWINBURNE
THE
PRINCIPLE
OF
TESTIMONY
Maintains
that,
in
the
absence
of
special
considera?ons,
it
is
reasonable
to
believe
that
the
experiences
of
others
are
probably
as
they
report
them.
Put
simply-‐
You
should
not
doubt
what
they
have
to
say.
22. IT
ALL
DEPENDS
ON
PRESUPPOSITIONS
If
one
believes
in
God,
if
God
is
real
within
the
‘form
of
life’
of
the
believing
community’,
then
the
whole
world
may
be
seen
as
being
imbued
with
God’s
presence.
St.
Francis
saw
the
whole
world
as
reflec?ng
the
presence
of
God.
However
this
is
NOT
the
same
as
saying
that
religious
experiences
establish
the
claims
that
God
exists
independently
of
the
created
universe….
23. CRITICISM
1-‐
The
Vicious
Circle
challenge
This
holds
that
religious
experience
depends
on
the
prior
assump?ons
of
those
involved.
Thus
Catholics
will
experience
Mary
and
Hindus
are
likely
to
experience
Kali.
This
implies
that
instead
of
religious
experience
being
a
BASIS
for
faith,
they
are
more
likely
to
be
generated
by
exis?ng
faith
commitments.
They
therefore
have
’no
epistemological
24. CRITICISM
2-‐
The
Conflic?ng
Claims
challenge
This
argues
that
if
Chris?an
religious
experiences
underwrite
Chris?anity,
then
Islamic
experiences
should
equally
be
held
to
underwrite
Islam
and
so
on.
In
other
words,
if
one
religion
relies
on
their
religious
experiences
to
prove
the
truth
of
their
religion
then,
philosophically,
each
religion
can
claim
the
same
and
this
provides,
as
David
Hume
put
it,
‘a
complete
triumph
for
the
skep?c
as
it
implies
each
religion
is
equally
true.
25. CRITICISM
3-‐
The
Psychological
Challenge
Some
psychologists
hold
that
religious
experiences
can
be
explained
by
psychological
factors.
For
instance,
(a)
St.
Paul’s
experience
on
the
Damascus
road
could
have
been
due
to
an
epilep?c
fit.
HOWEVER
it
is
one
thing
to
say
‘Some
religious
experiences
can
be
explained
psychologically’
and
another
to
say
that
ALL
religious
experiences
can
be
explained
like
this.
Also,
a
religious
believer
can
claim
that
if
there
is
a
God,
then
God
could
work
through
one’s
psyche.
26. CRITICISM
4-‐
From
Kant
Kant
took
the
view
that
human
beings
have
only
five
senses
and
that
all
they
know
comes
through
one
or
more
of
them.
Since
God
is
not
part
of
the
phenomenal
world
of
objects
that
is
apprehended
through
the
senses,
we
cannot
have
any
direct
knowledge
of
him.
Kant
would
rule
out
religious
experience
as
a
way
of
demonstra?ng
the
existence
of
God.
27. FINAL
THOUGHTS
Many
throughout
the
world
are
convinced
that
they
have
been
in
the
presence
of
God.
Many
have
staked
their
lives
on
such
belief.
Such
individuals
are
ofen
intelligent,
thoughlul
and
compassionate–
not
the
sort
of
people
who
would
lie
or
be
readily
dismissed.
Their
tes?mony
may
not
cons?tute
proof
but,
according
to
James
and
Swinburne
it
should,
at
the
least,
is
deserving
of
being
taken
very
seriously
and
not
discarded.
Religious
experience
may
well
point
to
the
possibility
of
a
divine
‘other’.
