Key Concepts of Religious Experience as an Argument for the Existence of God The argument is of an 'a posterioi' nature, therefore it is inductive. This means the argument uses data and evidence from which conclusions are drawn. The argument of experience must involve a sense of encounter, the experience of the encounter therefore has been seen, felt and sensed and therefore making the experience exist to us (Hume). These experiences seem to be widespread throughout society and therefore can be claimed to be a normal occurrence. David Hay in his book "The Spiritual Experience of the British" in 1979 his findings are counter-intuitive, his findings show that roughly 50% of the sample reported having had a religious experience of some form. It also showed that more woman had had an experience than men, better educated people had more religious experiences than lesser educated. There are a range of different types of religious experiences, for instance, there are subjective experiences (the meaning and value of the experience is personal), there are relative experiences, these have meaning and value to a person as a member of a group; lastly there are Objective experiences. These experiences are of a factual nature and remain true irrespective of the person's ideas. Richard Swinburne believed that there are 5 different types of religious experience, 1) Perfectly normal non-religious experiences, 2) Unusual public experiences (Resurrection of Jesus), 3) Private sensation can be described e.g. as a dream, 4) Private sensation that cannot be described, 5) No sensation, when a person has a strong sense of encounter with something Holy, thi... ... middle of paper ... ...ating and awe-inspiring. Ninain Smart describes the Numinous differently, as an everyday devotional experience of believers during prayer, worship or the reading of the bible, but this is open to doubt as it is considered that the experience is of sufficient intensity. William James 1842-910, points out that Religious experience must involve a sense of high order and that Religious experiences have 4 main concepts which are, 1) The experience leaves the person with an awareness of something beyond the trivial material world, 2) Elation, the person is left feeling 'high', 3) Experience leaves the person with the feeling of having come into contact with a benevolent and high order and 4) Experiences have an impact on life and result in change, e.g. a move towards a more spiritual, charitable and morally-aware life style.
Researchers interested in the connection of the brain and religion have examined the experiences of people suffering from Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. Apparently the increased electrical activity in the brain resulting from seizure activity (abnormal electrical activity within localized portions of the brain), makes sufferers more susceptible to having religious experiences including visions of supernatural beings and near death experiences (NDEs) (9). Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE) sufferers also may become increasingly obsessed with religion, the study and practice of it (1). Why is it that this form of epilepsy results in religious experiences among the other supernatural experiences possible? Can people who have never studied or practiced religion be susceptible to these same religious experiences? Why do some interested researchers claim that such notable figures as Paul on the road to Damascus, Joan of Arc, Ellen White of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and other persons suffered from TLE because of their range of reported experiences with God, angels, and demons (1,3)? In my first paper, I highlighted the connection scientists have made between religious experience and the brain. In this paper, I intend to focus on Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, as one of those connections, specifically the symptom of hyperreligiousity.
The extra theistic landscape includes stories from the participants that include beliefs that transcend the mundane, but are not related to the belief in God. The third path of spirituality described by Ammerman is ethical spirituality. This is essentially the common ground between the theistic and extra theistic landscapes; ethical spirituality “is that real spirituality is about living a virtuous life, one characterized by helping others, transcending one’s own selfish interests to seek what is right” (45). Ammerman has found that most of the participants consider themselves spiritual and religious, the minority consider themselves spiritual but not religious, these participants included those from the unaffiliated and the non-attenders. This is the fourth and final path Ammerman outlines in chapter 2 of her book. As Ammerman continues, she describes activities of the theistic and extra theistic such as, praying, reading scripture, meditating, and using music as a way to show
Halligan, Fredrica R. Jungian theory and religious experience. In RW Hood, Jr. (Ed) Handbook of religious experience. Birmingham: Religious Education Press, Inc.
Saint Anselm takes a different approach than St. Thomas Aquinas and William Paley when trying to prove that God exists. In St. Aquinas' Cosmological Argument and Paley's Teleogical Argument, the premises were a posteriori, meaning they could only be accepted as true after ("post") experience. You must have experienced or dealt with motion before to accept Aquinas' argument, and you must know what a watch and rock look like to accept Paley's argument. Just understanding the concept of motion, a watch, and a rock is not sufficient to accept the arguments. However, St. Anselm's argument does not require that you experience things. It only requires a priori beliefs, meaning if you understand a proposition then you can believe it is true. Just as the term suggests, a priori propositions "are knowable prior to, or independently of, experience" (82).
Faith is something a person must have inside them to be able to succeed. Success and failure are two completely different things, but faith is what separates the two. In the short story “A Fable with Slips of White Paper Spilling from the Pockets” by Kevin Brockmeier, the author illustrates the struggles a man must overcome in society and the obstacles he must overcome when his faith is tested to the limit. In the fable, the author uses symbols of faith, magical elements, and realistic struggles to divulge the morals and struggles of life.
...ng in pure nature the flame of spirituality is re-ignited. The person is in a virtual Eden.
Blackburn, a British academic philosopher believes that the existence of evil strongly suggests that there does not exist a god who is all good, all knowing and all powerful, I agree with Blackburn’s beliefs, that having negativity present causes there to be a close assurance that there is not an existent all positive and sain god. Blackburn begins to question the coexistence of evil while having an AAA god. An AAA god is known to be an all good, all knowing and all powerful god. A god that does, nor causes any harm to occur, one that knows exactly when everything will happen, and one that has all the power to prevent any and every positive or negative thing that occurs. These similar thoughts were the ones that roamed around through Blackburn’s
The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God The ontological argument is an a priori argument. The arguments attempt to prove God's existence from the meaning of the word God. The ontological argument was introduced by Anselm of Canterbury in his book Proslogion. Anselm's classical argument was based on two principals and the two most involved in this is St Anselm of Canterbury as previously mentioned and Rene Descartes.
One argues that today we have a crisis of belief, not a crisis of faith. To explain this crisis, I will briefly examine the relationship between faith and belief, explain why cultural shift is important to note when trying to understand religious issues, go into detail on the three hallmarks of each of the two cultures by showing how they compare to each other, show how Tillich’s notion of correlation deals with this idea of culture and a crisis of belief, and explain how Marsh’s notion of a “theology of negotiation” (33) fits with Lonergan’s definition and allows him to argue that film can help us raise theological questions.
Spirituality can be defined as ‘‘ways of relating to the sacred’’ (Shults and Sandage 2006, p. 161) that involve the experience of significance (Zinnbauer and Pargament 2005)”. (Jankowski and Vaughn, 2009, p.82).
God can be defined as a being conceived as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient originator and ruler of the universe, the principal object of faith and worship in monotheistic religions (1). There are many people that do not believe in any religion. People who do not believe in a religion have no reason for believing in a God. People who do not believe in a God and argue against the existence of God are proving something that is completely false. There is a God for numerous reasons.
In many aspects of our lives, the use of faith as a basis for knowledge can be found. Whether it is faith in the advice of your teacher, faith in a God or faith in a scientific theory, it is present. But what is faith? A definition of faith in a theory of knowledge context is the confident belief or trust in a knowledge claim by a knower, without the knower having conclusive evidence. This is because if a knowledge claim is backed up by evidence, then we would use reason rather than faith as a basis for knowledge . If we define knowledge as ‘justified true belief’, it can be seen that faith, being without justification, can never fulfill this definition, and so cannot be used as a reliable basis for knowledge. However, the question arises, what if a certain knowledge claim lies outside of the realm of reason? What if a knowledge claim cannot be justified by empirical evidence and reasoning alone, such as a religious knowledge claim? It is then that faith allows the knower to decide what is knowledge and what is not, when something cannot be definitively proved through the use of evidence. When assessing faith as a basis for knowledge in the natural sciences, the fact arises that without faith in the research done before us, it is impossible to develop further knowledge on top of it. Yet at the same time, if we have unwavering faith in existing theories, they would never be challenged, and so our progress of knowledge in the natural sciences would come to a standstill. Although I intend to approach this essay in a balanced manner, this essay may be subject to a small degree of bias, due to my own non-religious viewpoint.
... God and how He is related to us – how powerful He is to make everything in this world works; how He made everything almost perfect for us. I have also learned that believing He exist, makes me understand more about His existence, just like what St. Anselm said. I believe that believing He exists, is what makes Him exist. For me, Yes, God really exist.
My personal vision of God is a spirit made up of power, wisdom, and goodness that can’t be fully understood by any amount of writing or philosophical studies. I think God’s ultimate concern is to teach us to help one another to serve our fellow neighbor. In today’s society we have tried to better each other by using different tactics, some good, and others bad. We need to reevaluate our actions on how to enhance our society, starting with eliminating the bad tactics we use. To do this, we should revise the bible and how we perceive the two different Testaments, based on moral values then and now. By doing this, we will enhance our definition and understanding of morality.
Do you want to learn who your God is? once my granny asked me. I knew that God existed, but I had no idea who he was. When I was a 5-years-old girl, my granny showed me the church. It was a hot summer day and we were walking near the Black Sea. We stopped in front of the huge church with golden domes. I was impressed by its greatness. We came in, and granny started to tell me stories about God’s existence on the Earth. I do remember how beautiful this church was. Everything was in gold decorations, icons and the light was breaking through the windows. That moment I felt God inside of me. Since then God is always with me. For me believing in God has positive effects on my life, such as: knowing he is always near,