Examples Of Direct Religious Experience
Religious Experiences Are Not Really Experiences of God
To start, one must define what a religious experience is. It is generally agreed upon that there are two different types of religious experiences; a direct and an indirect. A direct religious experience is often described as ineffable- that it is beyond a humans’ capacity to explain and fully describe the divinity of their experience. The person does not prompt the experience; it is God who chooses to reveal him/herself directly to the person. A prime example of a direct religious experience was when The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) received the Qur’an from the Angel Jibrail. Conversely, an indirect religious experience is willed by the person. For example, many people have reported that when they are praying intensely, they have felt the presence of God next to them.
There has always been a great debate on the truth behind religious experiences. Sceptics question whether the accounts from people who claim to have seen or heard Gods voice are mentally sound. For instance, on the ninth of November 2012, a woman in South Carolina was charged with murder after stabbing her husband. She did this …show more content…
To extremely simplify his philosophies; Berkeley believed that to be is to be perceived, and that God was the one who created us, and everything that we perceive. Therefore if a person perceives that they are having a religious experience, then they are having a religious experience. Philosopher William Alston helps to strengthen Berkeley’s theory as well, arguing that as our perceptions are usually reliable, why should we not believe our senses when we have a religious experience? Swinburne’s principle of credulity matches well with Berkeley, as he thinks that, “things are as they seem to… Unless and until we have evidence that they are
To start, one must define what a religious experience is. It is generally agreed upon that there are two different types of religious experiences; a direct and an indirect. A direct religious experience is often described as ineffable- that it is beyond a humans’ capacity to explain and fully describe the divinity of their experience. The person does not prompt the experience; it is God who chooses to reveal him/herself directly to the person. A prime example of a direct religious experience was when The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) received the Qur’an from the Angel Jibrail. Conversely, an indirect religious experience is willed by the person. For example, many people have reported that when they are praying intensely, they have felt the presence of God next to them.
There has always been a great debate on the truth behind religious experiences. Sceptics question whether the accounts from people who claim to have seen or heard Gods voice are mentally sound. For instance, on the ninth of November 2012, a woman in South Carolina was charged with murder after stabbing her husband. She did this …show more content…
To extremely simplify his philosophies; Berkeley believed that to be is to be perceived, and that God was the one who created us, and everything that we perceive. Therefore if a person perceives that they are having a religious experience, then they are having a religious experience. Philosopher William Alston helps to strengthen Berkeley’s theory as well, arguing that as our perceptions are usually reliable, why should we not believe our senses when we have a religious experience? Swinburne’s principle of credulity matches well with Berkeley, as he thinks that, “things are as they seem to… Unless and until we have evidence that they are