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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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsTJezsnK0
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=h05h
qigS-Qc&feature=endscreen
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)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsTJezsnK0chttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsTJezsnK0chttps://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=h05hqigS-Qc&feature=endscreenhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=h05hqigS-Qc&feature=endscreenhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=h05hqigS-Qc&feature=endscreenhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=h05hqigS-Qc&feature=endscreenhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=h05hqigS-Qc&feature=endscreenhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=h05hqigS-Qc&feature=endscreenhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsTJezsnK0chttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsTJezsnK0c -
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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.
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