Religious Experiences are all Illusions

‘Religious experiences are all illusions.’ Discuss. Most arguments for the existence of God are ‘a posteriori’, seeking to move from experiences within the world to the existence of God rather than relying on the definition of God to prove his existence. Religious experience is an interaction with God or a feeling of connection with a higher power. It is interesting to note that William James never spoke of ‘God’ but of the ‘spiritual’, ‘unseen order’ or ‘higher’ aspects of the world. Does a person have to be sure they encountered God rather than connecting with a higher power for their experience to be classed as ’religious experience’? The basic problem when trying to verify religious experiences is providing proof to show others that what is claimed actually did happen and that it was not simply an ‘illusion’. Although there may be no evidence to fully prove religious experiences, there is also no evidence to disprove them, hence I will be looking at both sides of the argument but coming up with my own arguments that reflect my personal view that religious experiences have a real basis and are true encounters with something which we can only begin to try and comprehend. The word ‘illusion’ must be addressed. If one feels one encountered something beyond the normal world but did not know whether this was God then does this mean this was only an illusion? Freud believed that ‘we call a belief an illusion when a wish-fulfilment is a prominent factor in its motivation, and in doing so we disregard its relation to its reality, just as the illusion itself sets no store by verification.’ This suggests Freud believed that we only see the things which we would like to see. Freud’s view is that things which are not provable can only be classed as illusion. Therefore if we cannot prove religious experience at all, Freud would place all experiences, whether with God or a higher power, in the same category; illusion. Swinburne came up with five categories for religious

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