Analyse the key concepts of religious experience as an argument for the existence of God and evaluate the view that this argument supports the probability of the existence of God.

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Analyse the key concepts of religious experience as an argument for the existence of God and evaluate the view that this argument supports the probability of the existence of God.  (40)


The phenomenon of religious experience is described as contact between an individual and a transcendental reality. For many, such direct experience provides definite proof for the existence of God, so that the argument in this form is certainly
a posteriori. Religious experiences are varied in both form and intensity, and are largely seen as positive and subjective; that is, such encounters are open to individual interpretation. Most are termed as ‘mystical’ in that there is an element of spiritual recognition of truths beyond normal understanding involved. Experiences including prayer to life-changing conversion are grouped under this category, and indeed there have been many famous examples throughout history.

Most forms of religious experience are referred to as ‘mystical’. In this context, mysticism involves the spiritual recognition of truths beyond normal understanding. It also includes the gaining of knowledge of the ‘Ultimate Reality’, a sense of freedom from the limitations of time, space and human ego, and a sense of ‘oneness’ or unity with the Divine. Arguably one of the most famous examples of mysticism is stigmata- bodily marks or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the  wounds of . Padre Pio was one such person to experience stigmata, and claimed to have felt a ‘curious sense of authority’ and closer to the Divine during these unexplained incidences. The sense of an awesome power, whilst remaining separate from it, as proclaimed by Pio is termed as ‘numinous’. Rudolph Otto suggested that religion must derive form a being that is totally separate from this world and that is it in the presence of such a being that numinosity is experienced.

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In the 19th century, William James attempted to categorize and hence certify these peculiar events. In his book The Varieties of Religious Experience, James classifies experiences in accordance with four certain characteristics demonstrated. James asserts that a genuine religious encounter has the quality of being ineffable; that is, the recipient undergoes sensations beyond verbal portrayal. Similarly, he states that through perception knowledge is gained, so that all religious experiences are of a noetic quality, along with being transient and disproportionate to actual duration. Finally, James claims passivity as a vital characteristic of such incidents, pointing to a loss of control experienced by a ...

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