RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE CHALLENGES

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE CHALLENGES

1. Physiological

   • Argument against religious experience - suggests that they have a physiological cause (product of physical change in body). For example, someone who had a RE may have had an epilepsy, this may explain the RE.
     • Weakness
       • There is no evidence that everyone who has had a RE was suffering from an illness e.g. hallucination.
       • The physiological changes could actually be the result of the experience. For example, after having the religious experience with the divine, it is natural for the body to release chemicals such as adrenaline.

2. Psychological

   • Sigmund Freud suggested that religious experiences are a product of human psychology. He argued that religion is an illusion as it expresses people's desires and that it originated from a child like desire for God as a father figure.
     • Religion meets people's psychological needs, and so religious experience is an illusion that derives from people's psychological needs.
       • Weakness
         • Scientists today understand little of the relationship between the body and mind.

3. Are religious expereiences verdical (can we actually demonstrate that RE of people are what they seem to be e.g exp of God rather than delusion)

   • Richard Swinburne - two principles to assess claims about religious experience
     • Principle of credulity: other things being equal, we have good reason to believe what a person tells us is correct. E.g. if a person tells us they saw a cat crossing the road, we believe them.

4. Challenge 4: it is logically impossible to experience God

   • Immanuel Kant argues that our senses can only experience things in the empirical realm. He goes further to say that if there is a realm beyond ours, we cannot experience it.
     • Being human limits us to experiencing an unlimited God, because our senses are finite
   • Weaknesses:
     • It may be possible for humans to experience God, if he chooses to reveal himself

5. Sociological

   • Suggests the origins of religion and religious experience are to be found in society. A RE thus reflects the society in which you live. For example, Catholics experiences of Mary reflects the society in which they lived.
     • Karl Marx is a sociologist who was influenced by a philosophical movement called Hegelians, who suggested that religion was an alienation from ones true self. So religion distracted people from their own reality, so he called it the opium of the people.
       • Religious experiences in this sense create alienation so your unable to be yourself and relate as you would in the real world. Religion for Marx was like a drug that stopped people seeing reality of world.
         • Hence, for Marx, a religious expereience is the product of the culture in which a person lives. It wouldn't be from God but a product of the desperate situation of a person.
       • REPLIES TO MARX:
         • For many people religion is more than a drug, religious people would argue that their relationship with God is real and not a product of society.
         • Religion is a force for change in society, not an oppression. For example, Martin Luther King Jr fought for black people's civil rights, and this came from his religious beliefs

6. Lack of evidence: a problem with religious experience is the lack of evidence that they have happened, beyond what a person has said.

7. Challenge 3: difficulties of interpretation

   • Different religions claim to see the God's of their religions.
     • For example, a Hindu may see Vishnu, whereas a Christian may see Jesus.
       • This creates issues in terms of not knowing which of these experiences is correct.
   • Weaknesses:
     • However, it can argued that all of our experiences are interpretations as we all describe events in our own way.
       • For example, when you are discussing an event with friend and you both think something different happened. This does not mean that the event is not true.