Part of The Student Room Group

  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

The classic religious experience is a group of like-minded individuals who claim to have experienced the same thing, in the example given; the disciples claim to see Jesus after he had died on the cross.

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

1) The classic religious experience is a group of like-minded individuals who claim to have experienced the same thing, in the example given; the disciples claim to see Jesus after he had died on the cross. It is normally not believed by others and also some within the group. The response tends to be that others tend not to believe your perception and experience. In John20, it was St.Thomas who disagreed with the other disciplines and stated, "Unless I see the scars... I will not believe." This gives an example of one of one of many claims opposing religious experiences. 2) When saying that religious experiences can provide a "fountain of faith" means it can confirm someone's faith and religion, making it more secure, or even making some believe in their own faith to a further extent. It is a subjective comment. 3) Swinburne's five types of religious experiences. Two being public and three private. Public: * Personal interpretation - An individual sees God or God's action in a public object or scene. I.e. Rainbow * Breach of natural law - Examples such as people walking on water, a person appearing in a locked room, and turning water into wine. Less emphasis on personal interpretation here, although the sceptic maintains that whilst something inexplicable may have occurred, there is no need to attribute this to God. ...read more.

Middle

The probability of this seems to be low, and therefore the quality of the statement must be proportionally high. Vardy essentially claims that not all religious statements are true according to Swinburne's theory. Swinburne states that we should believe what we have been told; however if it is a misconception then surely it cannot be rendered a religious experience. 8) Caroline Davis is generally anti the reliability of religious experiences. Her decision is highlighted when Vardy says that she maintains that, while some challenges may have been force, the balance of probability rests with religious experience pointing beyond themselves to something that has actually been experienced. She believes that religious experiences are due to psychological states, or that they should be dismissed because they are relative to different cultures. 9) David Hay of the Oxford Centre for Religious Experience. His contributions to religious experiences is that he had conducted many interviews throughout the country under carefully controlled conditions and has found that a very high proportion of people claim to have had experiences of a power or presence beyond themselves. 10) Being a believer affects your position as the claims can be substantial and, if they could be justified then religious believers would indeed be able to rely on religious experience. The claims could misguide or mislead believers in advocating such extraordinary perceptions on God and how others perceive him via a religious experience. ...read more.

Conclusion

* Or does it fit in with other claims that have been made within are traditional reports and other things that we claim to know? These tests will help distinguish between weather a claim is in fact true of false or weather it has made a development or transformed someone's life in a major way. 14) I believe that religious experiences tend to occur within faith as it justifies it more so than it not to be. However, I do feel that in some occasions religious experiences can occur to make an impact on an individual to either become a believer in faith and religion or convert into a different religion, highlighted with the immense change in St.Paul after his intervene with God. It tends to stay within the boundaries of faith, as those who tend to respect and worship God, are rewarded with visual and sometimes physical enlightenments of religious experiences. When it comes to affecting its credibility, I feel it proves it more, as we are more likely to believe someone who has believed in religion, faith and God for numerous amounts of years, to an individual who maybe an atheist or simply does not take any interest in religion. As a whole I personally wouldn't rely on any conception of a religious experience until I have experienced it myself. Jaspreet Samra. 13.2 ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Religion in the Media section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

or


Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related GCSE Religion in the Media essays

  1. Discuss the merits of theories of secularisation with regard to religion in modern Britain

    The general problems involved in the comparisons between historical data and present day data make it difficult to draw reliable conclusions about secularisation. 2. The statistical evidence does show that only a small proportion of people in our society actively practice religion (as measured in terms of membership, attendance and

  2. Crusading Began with religious passion but quickly progressed into cynical self interest." To what ...

    It would seem then, that in the third crusade, despite the noble efforts of Richard the Lionheart, cynical self-interest dominated religious passion to a greater extent than in previous crusades, and the attitudes of the other leaders, as well as that of the rank and file are the key to explaining this.

  1. Mystical experiance.A mystical experience is a type of religious experience. It is when a ...

    Swinburne uses the principle of credulity to show religious experience is not to be invalidated instantly. In the absence of good reason for thinking otherwise "if it seems to a subject that x is present, then x probably is present".

  2. How Can Religious Experience Be Defined And What Are The Problems Of Defining Religious ...

    If this is the case how can it be defined? And is this experience still religious? Friedrich Schleiermacher and Rudolf Otto both understand religious experience in terms of feeling. Schleiermacher says that religious experience is not an intellectual or cognitive experience, but " a feeling of absolute or total dependence

  1. Religion is simply a brain-washing control device to make individuals behave in the way ...

    Religion appeals to many through use of shared symbols, values and norms so people joined to a religious group gain a sense of collective identity and belonging in a society that may otherwise seem fairly lonely. People often hold religious beliefs to find meaning to their existence and situations, it

  2. Are Near Death Experience's a valid form of Religious Experience

    Otto's definition tended to ignore the mystical forms of religious experience. These experiences are intense feelings of union with God and not the distancing affect suffered under the numinous. A more concise definition of Religious Experiences could be 'an experience in which an individual is aware of the immediate presence of the divine.'

  1. Verification Principle

    language appears to be neither analytic nor synthetic therefore Logical Positivists argue that it is completely meaningless. It is not internally logical and the truth or falsity also cannot be obtained from sense experience. Logical Positivists hold, on the other hand, that if there is no evidence for a statement to be true then the statement is meaningless.

  2. "Assess the view that religious language is meaningless."

    so it commits a kind of suicidal philosophical error, because to say "the verification principle is meaningful" is meaningless because there is no evidence to back that up, and it is not true by definition. Another problem is that this principle jars with another put forward by John Hick who

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work