Religious Experience - The Basics

No exact definition, each experience is completely unique to the individual. Factors that can describe them:
1. Each experience is unique
2. Experience is not God, just aids the person to be closer to God
3. Non-empirical occurence: supernatural
4. Can be a mental event, individual is aware
5. Can be spontaneous but people can train themselves to have them
6. Often creates more awareness of God and gives a deeper knowledge
Cumulative Argument
1. Looks at many accounts.
2. Comes up with one argument which combines factors from each account.
Inductive Argument
1. Commonalities are looked at and compared from different accounts
2. From the commonalities a conclusion is drawn up
Richard Swinburne
1. Principle of Credulity
  1. It is reasonable to believe that the world is as we experience it.
  2. What someone seems to have perceived is probably the case.
  3. Unless there are special reasons to cast doubt over validity.
  4. Relates to REs because it shows that we should believe accounts of them unless there is reliable evidence that the account is not true.
2. Principle of Testimony
  1. Without reason to disbelieve someone they are telling the truth and therefore God exists.
  2. Without sufficient reason to disbelieve someone, you should accept that eyewitess or believers are telling the truth when they testify.

Resource summary

	Created by Alice Buchanan over 9 years ago