Religious Experience

Religious Experience

There are various interpretations of the definite meaning of a

religious experience, where each are unique and different.

There have been many, many stores put forward by certain individuals

who have claimed to have such an experience. Various people have

studied them, and have come to the conclusion that in most cases, very

similar subjects are brought up in them.

Some say that a religious experience involves having some sort of

contact with God. For example, it has come to our awareness that

people over the years have ‘heard the voice of God’. It is usually

described as a ‘mental event’ which is undergone by someone, and to

which they are conscience about it all.

A religious experience can also be described as ‘spur-of-the-moment’

situations that come completely out of the blue. These situations

could be the result of months, perhaps many years, of praying and

showing devotion and great loyalty to God.

Usually, when people talk about there experiences, they speak mainly

about the fact that an extremely special and sacred bond has developed

between themselves and God, which has allowed them to become closer

spiritually.

There is also a big difference between genuine religious experiences

and fictional ones. For example, real experiences tend to be hopeful

and heartening. They try and help the individual to live an enhanced

life and to get the best out of it. Religious experiences normally

puts the message across that to have an improved lifestyle, the main

way to achieve this is to help others.

Most experiences usually last only minutes, to perhaps a couple of

hours. However the informatio...

... middle of paper ...

... conversion leads to the adoption of a positive religious attitude, or

a religious lifestyle.

Edward D. Starbuck, a famous professor, showed that the non religious

younger generation, when converted, showed that there were very

similar conversions experienced by most adolescents, suggesting that,

‘Conversion is a normal adolescent phenomenon, incidental to the wider

intellectual and spiritual life of maturity’. (Edward Starbuck)

However, William James disagrees and thinks that there are some people

around in the world who cannot be converted, mainly because religious

ideas could never become the centre of their spiritual and religious

energy. Perhaps they are extremely negative and pessimistic, or maybe

it is because they refuse to believe anything with religious

importance.