1. Do Religious Experiences prove God exists? Discuss in pairs.
Think, pair, share
Do Religious Experiences prove God exists? Discuss in pairs.

2. James’ Argument from religious experience

3. Learning Outcomes
To be able to explain James’ argument for religious experience.
To be able to evaluate James’ argument for religious experience.

4. How does RE prove God exists?
Religious Experience proves God through a direct experience of him it can be summarised into 4 statements:
Religious experience is an experience of a divine entity
Many have said to experience the divine
And there are many people who have testified to this
Therefore God must exist.

5. Does it work?
This argument seems logical at first, but it clearly shows that there’s a possibility that RE’s may not be caused by God.
It’s like saying; “If I drink too much wine I will fall over: I have fallen over therefore I drank too much wine”
Just as there may be other explanations for falling over, there may be other possible explanations for RE’s.

6. The principle of credulity
Swinburne’s Argument
He suggests that there is no reason why claims to religious experience should be treated any differently to ordinary perceptual claims. He offers to supporting principles:
The principle of credulity
The principle of testimony
We must accept what appears to be the case unless we have clear evidence to the contrary.
The clear evidence might mean that you have good reason to doubt the person, you prove that God does not exist or you show the experience was not caused by God.
Unless we have positive evidence that they are misremembering or are untrustworthy, we should believe the testimony of the experience.
He claims that “other things being equal, we usually think that what others tell us that they perceive, probably happened”

7. James’ Argument from religious experiences as a proof for God
James’ psychological approach shows God. All religious experiences show the probability of God.
But because he is pluralistic, he doesn’t speak of a specific God, but speaks of a ‘higher being’.
The effects RE’s had on people showed there is a God. The validity of a RE is based on what it does to the person.
His concern was more ‘does it work for the person?’ than ‘is it true?’
Truth is what we make to be valuable to ourselves because of this religion has some truth.

8. James’ Argument from religious experiences as a proof for God
Read through the article and summarise it 5 key points: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5)
Stretch yourself task:
Complete a table of the strengths and weaknesses of his argument in your notes.
What are the weaknesses?
E.g. Not real objective truths, but are subjective, doesn’t this make truth relative? So it’s not proper truth!

9. Are religious experiences proof for God’s existence?
Sort the cards out into a Zig-Zag with for and against reasons.
For
Against
Stretch yourself:
Add your own personal opinion and give reasons.
For
Against

10. Brian Davies: because it is a direct experience of God, one can say there is a God. Just as I can reasonably say there is a bed in my room because I have encountered it, so I can reasonably say that there is a God because I have directly encountered him.
Ockham’s razor: simplest explanation is the most likely and that if no other explanation is more obvious we should accept that it is an experience of the divine.
A.E. Taylor and problems with Religious Experience:
Religious experiences are open to abuse; may be used by fanatics and misinterpreted.
A lot of Religious Experiences are illusions e.g. some Sufi groups in Morocco have Cannabis to attain Spiritual Ecstasy.
Religious Experiences are not the only way to God, but is one way.
However, the religious man is the one who is able to experience the ‘Holy’ because he/she is the one who sees true reality and a Religious experience is otherworldly. So, the religious man is the best person to have a religious experience.
The ‘historical argument’ states that the experiences of key individuals have been so great and impressive that they must be true: Mohammed, St. Paul, etc.

11. Vardy: UFO criticism of Swinburne – that would need to verify the experience, can’t accept your own view from face value, you wouldn’t immediately say you have seen a UFO you’d go to a radar station for confirmation. Hence Swinburne would be wrong to say one should just accept the testimony
Religious Experience’s can be experienced in groups, this adds an objective credibility to the argument, i.e. everyone can view it and if a group experiences a religious experience then they can’t all be lying.
The ‘cumulative argument’ states that so many people have had religious experiences in the past that they simply cannot all be making it up. God must be the cause of all this.
There is a criticism on the grounds that religious experiences are results of a person’s psychological state, but one could argue that God works through psychology, e.g. God placed the words of the Quran in the heart/mind of Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) = extinguishes the psychological challenge by incorporating use of psychology into the religion.

12. Are religious experiences proof for God’s existence?
How would you conclude an essay on this? Write a conclusion based on your own opinion in your notes.

13. Think, Pair, Share
A: What is James’ argument for religious experience? B: What is Swinburne's’ argument? A:What does Davies say? B: What does AE Taylor say?