Assess the view that the different forms of religious experience are nothing more than fantasy

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Assess the view that the different forms of religious experience are nothing more than fantasy. (45)

The term religious experience refers to an experience a person has which has religious qualities and significance. Many people have researched into the idea of religious experiences and it is surprising to find out that a third of people in Britain have said to of experienced some kind of religious experience. These experiences have been researched to discover what impact they have on people’s lives and whether this impact has a positive or negative result. Many scientists research the theory of religious experience to either prove or disprove the existence of God.

There are four main forms of religious experience which can be considered when assessing this question that religious experiences are nothing more than fantasy. The first is Mysticism; this refers to an experience where people have had an intimate direct experience with God or some kind of heavenly spirit. William James was a philosopher who approached the idea of religious experiences he wrote a book called the varieties of religious experiences and came up with the idea that there are four main qualities that an experience should have for us to justify calling it mystical. The first is the experience should have a Noetic quality or a divine knowledge after the experience. The next is Transience the experience is only short and lasts only a small while. Passivity which is the lack of control you have when the person is having the religious experience. And the last quality is ineffability which is the fact that the experience is indescribable ands cannot be explained.

Julian of Norwich was a famous English mystic who was born about 1342 and at some point during her adult life joined a religious order and became an anchoress living in complete solitude. She lived in a cell which was attached to a church in Norwich, and lived a complete ascetic lifestyle. Julian just before she died became seriously ill and on her deathbed she accounted for 16 visions she had experienced. These experiences are questioned though due to Julian’s poor health and cannot be used as proof for religious mystical experiences due to this reason.

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A second mystic is Margery Kemp she was 14th century English mystic who was from King’s Lynn in Norfolk. Margery Kemp became seriously ill after the birth of her first child and suffered from severe guilt from a past sin which had committed during her youth. She was very disturbed going to such lengths as biting through her own veins in her wrist and she also tried to jump out of a window, until one day she looked up to see Jesus and he asked her “Daughter, why have you forsaken me when I never forsook thee?” From then on ...

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