True Epistemic Value of Religious Experiences
For many years, the idea of what it means to have a “religious experience” has been greatly debated. Philosophers and great thinkers alike have grappled with many questions, such as what constituted a “religious experience” and the difference between that and a mystical experience. Part of this great debate involves two philosophers from a similar time period, William James and C.D Broad, who each saw these experiences, despite some similarities, as having different epistemic values. Broad offers that these religious experiences can provide strong validation of a higher existence, while James take more of a perennialist view, in which all of the religious traditions of the world have on common belief about the world; therefore, his idea of mystical experiences don’t truly support the idea of a supreme being. I believe that neither James nor Broad are completely correct and rather the epistemic value of religious experiences lies somewhere in between their views.
C.D. Broad approach to the idea of religious experience is not far off from the views of others, where he believes that when a person goes through such an event, they feel the presence of the higher power such as G-d, or Jesus or Muhammad or whatever that higher being may be. Broad does state, however, that there is some degree skepticism is required when talking to other people about religious experiences, especially those who have never had the experience before. Broad says “when persons without religious experience regard themselves as being on the ground superior to those who have it, their attitude must be treated merely silly and offensive (Broad 121)”. This in combination with his point on these experiences leading to...
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Pojman, Louis P., and Michael C. Rea. "Religious Experience." In Philosophy of religion: an anthology. 6th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2012. 224-240.
Pojman, Louis P., and Michael C. Rea. "The Argument from Religious Experience." In Philosophy of religion: an anthology. 6th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2012. 120-126.
Stahlman, Sandy. "William James Defines Mysticism (synopsis)." William James Defines Mysticism (synopsis). http://sandra.stahlman.com/james.html (accessed March 1, 2014).
Rich, Gregory P. "Omnipotence And God's Existence." North Carolina Religious Studies Association, Wake Forest University. 20 November 2002 <http://www.wfu.edu/Organizations/ncrsa/papers/gregrich.pdf>
Book Reviews. Dialog: A Journal of Theology, Vol. 42(3), 237-238. No changes needed as these are citations and should not be edited.
Hobbes, Thomas. “Of Religion.” ed.Smith,Lacey Baldwin and Jean Reeder Smith. The Past Speaks. 2nd ed. 1 vol. Lexington: Heath, 1993.
Throughout this essay I will demonstrate how religion has played a role in the lives of humans as well as explicate the reasoning behind the true nature of the creation of religion by a psychopath.
Boyer, Pascal. Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2001.
The authors Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey's essay is credible because they both have knowledge and experience regarding the topic and researched various parts of the topic using reliable sources. Along with this essay, Charles Colson has written thirty books which have received much praise among the Christian community. He has also received many awards including the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1993, the Presidential Citizen's Medal
Burns, Thomas J. Canonical Texts: Selections from Religious Wisdom Traditions. San Diego, CA: Cognella/U Readers, 2012. Print.
New Essays in Philosophical Theology, ed. Anthony Flew and Alasdair MacIntyre, London, S.C.M. Press, 1955, p. 152.
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For William James, his perspective on religious experience was skeptical. He divided religion between institutional religion and personal religion. For institutional religion he made reference to the religious group or organization that plays a critical part in the culture of a society. Personal religion he defined as when an individual has a mystical experience which can occur regardless of the culture. James was more focused on the personal religious experience, “the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine” (Varieties, 31), and had a sort of distain for organized and institutional religion.
Broad. His argument is important because it solidifies the reliability of the mystics having the experiences. If mystics are considered unreliable then there is no need to continue on with the argument from religious experience. Broad creates an analogy between those who have religious experiences to those who have an ear for music. Those who have certain recognizable religious experiences are equivalent to those who have an ear for music. Those who do not have certain recognizable religious experiences are equivalent to people considered tone-deaf (Broad 120). Going along with this line of thinking, it would be absurd for someone who does not have any recognizable religious experience to not only consider themselves superior then those who do but to also construct their own theories. One should also not expect too much of people who have these religious experiences. Just because they have these experiences does not mean there is a guarantee of high intelligence. In the words of C.D. Broad, “He may also be almost as ignorant about other aspects of reality as the non-musical or non-religious man is about musical or religious experience.” (Broad 121). Those opposed such as Bertrand Russell accuse those who have these religious experiences as having certain neurological problems or physical ailments that cause them to have delusions that they consider religious experiences. This theory is
Mysticism as defined by Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary is: “a religious practice based on the belief that knowledge of spiritual truth can be gained by praying or thinking deeply.” Among the People of the Book, mysticism is a prevalent theme; albeit in various arrangements in the past. Rabbi Nehunia ben haKana that is attributed authorship of the Sefer ha-Bahir, otherwise known as The Book of Illumination, and Julian of Norwich’s (c. 1342-c. 1413) Revelations of Divine Love are two texts that each falls in line with this definition of mysticism.
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Kohn, Risa Levitt, and Rebecca Moore. A Portable God: The Origin of Judaism and Christianity. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. Print.