The Argument from Religious Experience
- Created by: Emily
- Created on: 11-05-13 17:24
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- The Argument from Religious Experience
- William James' Argument
- The existence of God is supported - not proven - by religious experiences
- RELIGION: individual and is based upon the feelings you have during a religious experience
- Religious experiences are more important than teachings and rituals
- Religious experiences are phenomena that occur in our brains
- However, there is a supernatural element too
- Argument is based upon 3 Principles:
- Empiricism: religious experiences are received through our senses, so can be studied scientifically
- Everything is biased, even scientific experiments, so it is not worth pointing out that REs are subject to bias
- Pragmatism: The truth is whatever is helpful to an individual at that time
- Therefore, if someone is claiming to have had an experience and it has had a positive effect, then it is true for them!
- Pluralism: religious experiences can contradict each other, but this doesn't mean they are not genuine
- Whether or not it contradicts another is irrelevant to whether it is true to reality
- People have varying backgrounds, so how someone interprets the experience will depend on their culture
- Empiricism: religious experiences are received through our senses, so can be studied scientifically
- Richard Swinburne's Argument
- Religious experience provides an important argument for the existence of God
- Argues religious experiences are genuine using 2 Principles:
- Principle of Credulity: If someone believes they've experienced something, they probably have
- Principle of Testimony: Unless they are a liar or disturbed a person's description of a religious experience is probably true
- The Cumulative Argument follows these principles:
- Most people who think they have had a religious experience actually have...
- ...and most people who say they had one actually think they did.
- Together, these mean most religious experiences are genuine: God probably exists.
- William James' Argument
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