Philosophy of Religion |
Chapter 5 Arguments for the Existence of God: Experience |
Section 1. Introduction |
The heart of religion is in the religious experience. Just what is it and what can be deduced from it? For
many religious people there is in the center of their religious
nature the feeling that there is something more than their
individual consciousness could contact. There is a sense of
something "more" or bigger than anything in the known
universe. This issues into a hypothesis or idea of a supernatural
reality or dimension of reality beyond that which normal sensation
can encounter. A direct experience of something is a powerful basis for an argument to prove the existence of anything and in particular of a deity. Direct experiences of a deity are rather rare and often those who have not had them tend to doubt those who do claim to have had such an experience. Indirect experiences are far more common. In this chapter both types will be discussed. The objective here is to examine all the possible arguments for establishing the existence of a deity, of the One God, of the Supreme Being based upon experiences of any type. This is in contrast to the arguments which rely upon human reasoning o reach the conclusion that there is or must be a deity, god. What are the arguments based upon experience? There are several. There are those based on an individuals direct experience of a spirit or deity or an object from a spirit or deity. There are also those experiences which are of natural events but those events are such that they could only have been caused by a deity or supreme being, miracles. Here is a listing of the arguments: 1. Revelation- humans experience the deity through an act of the deity in which the deity reveals itself. In this case the revelation is accomplished through teachings given to humans and recorded in some form of scripture or gathered into a book, a bible. The contents of such collections are considered to contain direct instruction from the deity. 2.
Mystical Experience-
an experience of union with the deity which is ineffable and noetic, a numinous
experience- mystical consciousness of the "HOLY", infinite
dependence , mystery, terror, bliss. The mystical experience is a particular variety of religious
experience in which the subject is transformed and reports the loss
of individuality, the oneness of all reality, union with the deity,
the unity of the subject of the experience with the object of the
experience. 3.
Direct
Religious Experience
experience of a god or spirit or of the divine (the absolute). A
Religious experience
is an encounter of a human being with a supernatural being, be it a
deity or an emissary or intermediary for the deity, nevertheless a
spiritual entity. 4. Psychic Phenomena-which relates to a non-physical realm of existence and the existence of spirits or souls, of which the deity is a member, the Supreme Being, Spirit or Soul The type of psychic phenomena involved here would be those that would support the immortality of the soul and survival after death. They are the phenomena that provide support for the post-mortem survival hypothesis
5.
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