William James and Religious Experiance

AS and A Level Religious Studies & Philosophy

Philosophy Essay

Q1a) Explain William James’s argument from religious experience. (33)

A1a) William James an American doctor began to show interest in Philosophy and now he is known as the most famous commentator on religious experiences. He tries to prove the existence of God using religious experiences.

William James begins by explaining different forms of religious experiences. He believed that this would allow us to identify different experiences. The first form is an ineffable experience. He believed that this is the most easily recognisable experience as it cannot be described in any words. Also some descriptions are meaningless to the listener who has no experience of such an occurrence. For example it is impossible to explain being in love. The only way one can find out is by having such an experience. Another example is describing the taste of alcohol to a non-alcoholic person. For the non-alcoholic it is impossible to understand unless they have that drink or relate its description to another non-alcoholic drink but even still it wouldn’t be 100% accurate.

The second form of religious experience is a noetic experience. This is whereby you gain knowledge through intuition and perception. It can be called a revelation. The knowledge gained is more like information than in the conventional manner. For example Muhammad received a revelation- The Quran. He received information not intellectual knowledge.

The third form is a transient form of religious experience in which the actual experience is short but its significance and effects last for a long time. For example a dream is very short but appears to have taken a long time and it is also well remembered. Another example is a person receives a sign from God telling him not to steal, the experience itself was very short but its effect has lasted a long time.

The final form of religious experience is passivity. This is whereby a person feels a loss of control to a more powerfully being, namely God. For example, a person speaking in a different language without ever studying it or even writing a prophetic message with the hand opposite to ones normal.

William James then went on to explain the differences between an existential judgement and a value judgement. An existential judgement is a judgement which is beyond us, beyond our humanly knowledge whereas a value judgement is a judgement which is important to us. It is also known as a ...

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He believed that living a religious life was about accepting the idea that the word is part of something much bigger and spiritual. As humans he believed that our aim is to reach and unite with that spiritual thing. And any type of communication with that being can produce real effects and causes, real things to happen-religious experiences. Here it is also important to explain mysticism which is a type of religious experience. A mystical experience is a self induced experience, you make the connection with the higher being e.g. Sufism whereas a religious experience is where a connection is made with you from a higher being e.g. St Paul on the road to Damascus.

Now to prove that God exists, William James explained that regardless of which religion we might look at we will always find a feeling that there is something wrong with us (the person) and so he said that the solution to this, was when we become conscious of a being that is higher than us. He then claimed that the pathway to this higher being was religious experiences in the form mysticism and prayer and like he said before that when any communication with that being causes real causes and effects. He then pointed out that there could be no reason, not even scientifically to believe that the involvement of this higher being in people lives was not real. He stated:

“that which produces effects within another reality must be termed a reality itself, so I feel as if we had no excuse for calling the unseen or mystical world unreal.”

In other words, the cause of the experiences which people seem to have, and are undoubtedly affected by is real; if that cause is believed, then God exists.

Q1b) “Arguments from religious experience are never convincing.” Discuss. (17)

A1a) Many philosophers have tried to prove the existence of God through religious experiences. I believe that religious experiences are never convincing as how can anyone communicate with a supreme being. Communication is a human property, we communicate with each other. If someone says that they have communicated with God or God has communicated with them then that is anthropomorphic.

Caroline Franks Davis criticised the argument by saying that the circumstances in which experiences occur generally produce unreliable results. For example if the person has been taking drugs or is drunk then we can’t accept the account as it is coming from an unreliable source.

The principle of Credulity by Richard Swinburne states that what a person perceives is probably what actually happens unless there are considerations that the person is unreliable. William James said:

“The drunken consciences is one bit of the mystic consciences, and our total opinion of it must find its place in our opinion of that larger whole”

One of the main reasons for suggesting that religious experiences are not convincing is that there are many different religions and people of different religions have different experiences. For example a Hindu will see a Hindu God where as a Muslim will feel as they have made a connection with Allah. It can be said that because we are all different people that’s why we see God in different ways. Also because we have free will, if we didn’t then we might experience God in the same way. For example all moral dilemmas are unique but they all can’t be solved with one solution. William James said:

“I do not see how it is possible that creatures (people) in such different positions (places and cultures) and with such different powers...should have exactly the same functions and the same duties. No two of us have the same difficulties, nor should we be expected to work out identical solutions.”

Most people don’t believe in things unless they can be empirically tested. Religious experiences can be considered as emotions therefore people can’t believe in the experience therefore they believe in Gods existence. Love is an emotion, it can’t be measured but still everyone believes in it also hate, opposite to love but it still exists. Therefore religious experiences are an emotion and exist.

The problem that I have seen most often used is that God is ineffable so therefore how can we be sure that we see God in a religious experience making a connection. The way I see it is that God is perfect and that is His definition. If something is perfect then there definition is that it is perfect and that’s it. For example the definition of a perfect hole puncher is that it punches holes into paper perfectly.

I believe that we cannot use religious experiences to prove Gods existence as some experiences are self induced. For example if you’re sitting in a church and singing hymns then you are more likely to induce a religious experience than just by sitting at home and watching TV.

Personally I believe that God exists but His existence cannot be verified through religious experiences. The only people who believe in God through religious experiences are the people who believe in God before hand or the people who have encountered the experience. Also going back to my first statement that we cannot attribute a human quality to God. To believe in God, there doesn’t have to be science or any empirical testing it should just be faith but logically God’s existence can be proven, for example the teleological argument.