Albert Einstein said that “The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious…a knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate… it is this knowledge and his emotion that constitutes that truly religious attitude”. What Einstein said was closer to what Otto called the numinous, “Otto describes the central 'feeling' of the Mystical experience as a kind of “creature-feeling”. The Holy or numinous experience, an experience of a wholly other which evokes boundless awe & wonder & which entrances & captivates. Numinous is the presence of awesome power”.
The relation between individual experience and the life of groups can be seen in mysticism and in the Sufi movements. The individual experience, as well as the belonging to a group, is felt as being privileged, being a part of the religiously privileged few. We can study the processes of transmission of religious knowledge and experience, especially in the form of spiritual relationship between master and pupil.
Swinburne’s principles of credulity and testimony to test the validity of a religious experience,
Credulity is the ‘apparent perceptions ought to be taken at face value in the absence of positive reason for challenge.’ Testimony is ‘other things being equal we think that what others tell us they perceived probably happened.’
The religious story of Lourdes began on Thursday, February 11, 1858, when three girls, one of whom was the fourteen-year-old Bernadette Soubirous, went to collect wood along the shores of the river Gave. In the course of that outing Bernadette heard a noise and, looking up, saw a woman dressed in white and praying the rosary. Following that first apparition, Bernadette was to see her "beautiful Lady" 17 times more. However, it was not until the third appearance, on February 18th, that the Lady finally spoke to Bernadette and asked her to come to the grotto every day for two weeks. In return, if Bernadette did as she was asked, the Lady said that while she could not promise Bernadette happiness in this life, she could and would do so in the next. Bernadette followed the Lady's direction and began to visit the grotto daily. As word of the story spread, crowds began to accompany Bernadette. In the course of these visits, the Lady revealed that she had come primarily to communicate a message of repentance and prayer for the conversion of sinners. Bernadette relayed this message, and others, to those who watched her mysterious conversations. On one occasion, the Lady instructed Bernadette to wash at the spring. There being no spring, Bernadette dug a small hole, and in the muddy water which appeared, washed herself. By the next day, an abundant spring of fresh water had begun to flow.
The Toronto Blessing started at the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church on January 20, 1994. Randy Clark, a Vineyard pastor from St. Louis, Missouri encountered Howard-Browne in Tulsa, Oklahoma and came under his influence. John Arnott, senior pastor of the Airport Vineyard Church had learned of these phenomenons and invited Clark to preach. To the great surprise of both, following the sermon people began to laugh hysterically, cry, leap, dance, and even roar as a result of what the church calls "a move of the Holy Spirit" Approximately 300,000 people have visited the church in Toronto. Millions have reportedly been affected from the spread of the movement to various places. While there is much concocted evidence of the spread of this movement, there is no certain way of empirically measuring the impact. However, it is clear that the move has had a tremendous impact.
Above we hear about two religious experience one individual and one corporate religious experience. For me both of these religious experiences are not fantasy because for me if I state that one is fantasy then I would have to state that so is the other. Although corporate religious experience is more believable I would not state that they are fantasy. For the person/people involved in the experience to them it can never be called fantasy because the majority of experiences affect a person for their lifetime.
Martin Buber (1878-1965) “Most lasting achievement was his philosophy of Dialogue, described in I and Thou (1923). In this treatise Buber differentiated between the I-Thou and I-It relationships. The former depicts the relationship between man and the world as one of mutuality, openness, and directness - a true dialogue. The latter - the I-It - is explained as the absence of these I-Thou qualities. The partners are not equal in the I-It relationship. However, the I-It dialogue cannot be discarded because it leads to objective knowledge, and must necessarily interact with I-Thou. Yet the ultimate objective is not only the I-Thou relationship between man and the world, but between man and the eternal source of the world, namely, God. God, Buber maintained, can be known through this subjective view of the universe. One can encounter God in the revelation of everyday existence. Indeed, Buber asserted that the Bible is a record of this dialogue experience between man and God. He stated that the essence of religious life is not the affirmation of religious beliefs but rather the way one meets the challenges of existence”. ()
Wallace Matson said that if the subject of a religious experience is to be believed there are certain requirements to be met. Any perception of an individual should be publicly confirmed. No private experience can establish the existence of God. You would first need to establish the existence of God by other means on order to confirm that what was experienced was both God and True. No indescribable experience can be publicly confirmed No mystical experience can be publicly confirmed. Mystics appear similar to people who are deluded, or mentally ill, not adjusted to reality. Their claims cannot be accepted without evidence. But you cannot have evidence without a prior belief in God. To confirm what any subject is experiencing there must be "checkable" statements. This is similar to a blind person, confirming what a sighted person sees. With the religious experiences there are no such "checkable" statements, so there can be no confirmation. Hence, they cannot serve as a proof of the existence of supernatural entities because they are not veridical. Louis P. Pojman also said that there is both a strong justification and a weak justification to be offered that Religious experiences do provide evidence of the existence of a supernatural entity, a deity. Strong: this argument would be so strong as to oblige all people to believe in God. Weak: this justification provides rational support only for those who have had such an experience (or already accepted the world view that holds such experiences are possible) Pojman argues against such a strong argument
1. The reports are too amorphous
2. The reports are circular- acceptance of them depends on background belief in God
3. Reports are not capable of being confirmed as with perceptual experiences thus, they are not checkable, not predictable. (http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/pecorip/SCCCWEB/ETEXTS/INTRO_TEXT/Chapter%203%20Religion/Arg_Experience_Psychic.htm)
Naturalism is an approach to religious experiences, which explains them as being the result of natural forces. It accounts for such phenomena in natural terms without recourse to anything that is beyond the physical realm. In general, all reality and all experiences can be accounted for in terms of physical processes. There are different explanations for the origin and nature of religious experiences. What they have in common is the rejection of a supernatural source or object and the attempt to offer a full explanation in empirically verifiable terms. Several theoreticians, including Sigmund Freud, have offered psychological explanations. Several other scientists, such as Emil Durkheim, have also developed sociological explanations. What they have in common is the refusal to accept religious experiences as being truthful, accurate, or believable in so far as the existence of any supernatural reality. One of the principle reasons for withholding acceptance of the reports is that the experiences cannot be verified and what they report encountering cannot be verified empirically. Therefore in this case both individual and corporate religious experiences are fantasy.
Gary Gutting claimed that in order to establish the veridical nature of religious claims there are three criteria to be met:
1. Many should have the experience
2. It should exist in different cultures
3. The experience should produce a major transformation involving, in part, the moral life of the individual ( )
Gary Gutting claims that the three conditions are met by reports of religious experiences and so they do provide a justification for belief in a supernatural being, a deity, God. Gary Gutting accepted that corporate religious experience is more valid that individual and he believed that individual religious experiences are religious fantasies as for him corporate experiences meant they were more people who had the vision and therefore it couldn’t be classed as fantasy.
Alternative explanations are when people hear of those who claim to have seen God or an angel or have heard a voice or were instructed by god to kill their child, most people are inclined to think that the claim is not an accurate and truthful report. Most tend not to believe the person making the claim. Most people would be inclined to suspect one or more of the following factors are the more likely explanation of the claim other than that the claim is accurate and true.
- Persons are mistaken, e.g., optical illusion, misinterpretation...
2. Persons are under the influence of mind-altering substances.
3. Persons are suffering from brain malfunctioning, e.g., chemical imbalance.
4. Persons are under the influence of group influence-social psychology.
5. Persons are making a false report to get attention.
6. Persons are making a false report to raise money.
7. Persons are making a false report to please others and gain acceptance.
8. Persons are making a false report to get power.
Another rejection for religious experience for me is, how can humans senses experience a timeless, space-less God? Theists would argue that a loving, Creator God who desires a relationship with human beings would create in them a spiritual dimension capable of responding to Him, and that this is an adequate explanation for religious experience.
As it is obvious, the validity of religious experiences suffers from the fact that the religious experience of any one religion is not universal. If, however, the same religious experience was felt by everyone, then it would hold more weight; but the fact of the matter is that these religious experiences vary significantly.
Religious experience can be fantasy to many but on the other hand many people believe in religious experience and have not experienced it. Although for the many people who do accept religious experience the guidelines to which the experience must comply, if we are to see it as genuine.
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Bibliography
Books
Philosophy of religion – H. J. Richards
The Question of God – Michael Palmer
Philosophy of Religion – Anne Jordan, Neil Lockyer, Edwin Tate
Questions About God – P.J. Clarke
The Puzzle Of God – Peter Vardy
Ethics and Religion – Joe Jenkins
Web Sites
- St Teresa of Avila
- Toronto Blessing
- St Bernadette Soubirous
- Martin Buber - ‘I and Thou’
- Alternative explanations
- Alternative explanations
- Gary Gutting, Louis P. Pojman, Wallace Matson
- Alternative explanations
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