CONVERSION RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

CONVERSION EXPERIENCE

• Conversion in the sense of religious experience refers to an assurance of the truth of the divine
• Conversion is usually the result of greater understanding of faith
• Conversion experience could cause a person to change life entirely , feel god etc
• They feel presence of god
• The person is dissatisfied about their current belief system
• They search emotionally to make a decision
• They feel pleasure and joy
• They change their life
• Conversion involves a recognition that the current lifestyle is wrong or incomplete
• Sudden conversion may not be permanent but gradual conversion is more likely to be permanent

EDWIN STARBUCKS

• Believes religious experience begins with incompleteness + imperfection + depression
• Starbucks argues that ppl who claim to have a religious experience could be just shifting their feelings to a religion
• Believes that all adults go through symptoms similar to religious experiences
• He believes that change can occur if we stop looking for change

WILLIAM JAMES

• - He identified that religious experiences indicate the probability of 'SPIRITUAL ASPECTS OF GOD'- He said that the experience is 'PERFORMED ON THE INDIVIDUAL'
• - He was mostly interested in the effects they produce
• -He believed dramatic changes in life = empirical evidence to show spiritual claims
• -Even when James sees conversion experience as being a natural process he maintained that it was inspired by the divine
• -William James believes that in a conversion experience the ' HABITUAL CENTER OF PERSONAL ENERGY' in a person is taken over by religious aims
• -William James argues that beings posses a subconscious region that gives access to higher spiritual agencies -James recognizes that there are 2 types of conversion - 2 forms of mental occurrence which leads to a difference in the conversion process:
• -1.VOLUNTARY - A concision voluntary experience , over a life time a person gradually places religious aims at the center of their life-
• 2.INVOLUNTARY - An unconscious experience , a person is suddenly forced by religious experience into a position of self surrender which pushes religious aims to the center
• -William James sees a conversion experience as leading to loss of worry , leading to truth , the sense that the world has objectively changed , self-awareness + happiness

EXAMPLE : ST PAUL

• - ST PAUL was angry about Christians so on his way to DAMASCUS a light suddenly strikes.
• -He fell onto the floor then JESUS appeared and said to ST PAUL that he was treating people badly + this was bad he shouldn't be doing this.
• - Saul was blinded for 3 days
• - God told a man named ANANIAS in his dream that he should see SAUL
• - ANANIAS found SAUL and laid his hand on him and SAUL was able to see again
• - After this SAUL dedicated his life to Christianity and became a good person he later became a saint so his name changed to ST PAUL
• WILLIAM JAMES would agree with this experience + say that there was a probability of spiritual aspects of GOD ,and he changed his life
• STARBUCKS would not accept this as SAUL did not want to change ,it happened suddenly ,+ he had no problems with depression

EXAMPLE : CAT STEVENS

• - He was drowning in the sea + he said if I survive I will believe in GOD , He changed his life + became a Muslim
• - WILLIAM JAMES would agree with this being a religious experience as he changed his whole life

EXAMPLE : JOHN WELSELY

• - He was an Anglican priest
• - One day he attended a meeting with his friends
• - He had doubts about Christianity
• - During the meeting his friend read a scripture
• - After the scripture he had no doubts about Christianity
• - WILLIAM JAMES would not accept this as a religious experience as it did not have a significant effect on his life
• -STARBUCKS would not accpet this as a religious experience as its not pschology

STRENGTHS OF CONVERSION EXPERINCE

• - If an atheist turns into a theist then strong evidence to show that there is God

WEAKNESS OF CONVERSION EXPERIENCE

• - Cannot distinguish between religion = psychological experience
• - William James argued that some people could never be converted due to cynicism (disbelief / doubts) or strong atheistic beliefs

GENERAL VIEWS - RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

• FREUD - Argued that Religious experiences are just 'ILLUSIONS' + just creations of the brain + false examples of our desires + Freud believes religious exp. could be hallucinations caused by unconscious which all humans have
• RICHARD DAWKINS - Wrote a book against religious experiences called 'THE GOD OF DELUSIONS' arguing that religious experiences just outcomes of alternative explanations
• AYER argued that religious experiences all together are FALLACIOUS + He also argued that humans are mistaken + unreliable to believe in them so therefore there is no proof for existence of GOD
• FLEW - Used the idea of having a blik to show that religious believers will not allow anything to count against their religion therefore they will always defend if they had a religious experience
• Starbucks argued that religious experiences may just be the normal process / development of adolescences finding its sense of identity
• Religious experience = subjective + not testable by empirical means
• KANT - Rejects the possibility of rebellious exp. as we do not have the sense to experience God , as go belongs in the NOUMENAL REALM.God is not an object within time + space

CONTINUATION OF GENERAL VIEWS

• MARX- Described religion as the 'OPIUM OF THE MASSES' argued that religion should be overthrown + religious exp = product of culture
• SWINBURNE - CUMULATIVE ARGUMENT : 1.So many people have had religious experiences in past that they simply cannot be making up.God must be the cause of it . 2. Cumulative argument shows that its probable that god exists , therefore the claim that religious experience are true and accurate are more likely to be true then false
• RESPONSE TO CUMULATIVE ARGUMENT : 1.Universal consent does not prove anything , many ppl can be mistaken or deceived e.g. believing the world was flat
• 2.Flew rejects this argument using his '10 leaky buckets analogy' to show that 10 deeply flawed arguments do not make 1 good one
• PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE : Over-excitement in the Limbic system leads to ppl to be more likely to have religious experience due to HYPER - RELIGIOSITY
• CRITICISM OF PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION = Not everyone who claims to have a religious experience has a abnormal brain system