‘Arguments from religious experience are never convincing.’ (35 marks) Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud present challenges to religious experiences. Marx’s challenges to religious experience arguments are sociological; he suggested that the origins of religious experience are to be found in society. He states religion is about mythological beliefs and an unreal god that distracted people from the real world‚ religion is ‘the opium of the people’‚ religious experiences create alienation and a religious
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Persinger’s Helmet Persinger’s Helmet or ‘The God Helmet’ is a helmet that was created to test the creativity and the effects of subtle stimulation of the temporal lobes. Reports by participants of a "sensed presence" while wearing the God helmet brought public attention and resulted in several TV documentaries. The device has been used in Persinger’s research in the field of neurotheology‚ the study of the neural correlates of religion and spirituality. The helmet‚ generates very weak fluctuating
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Śrī Surēśvarācārya shines like an ever glittering star in the horizon of Advaita philosophy with his insight. Śrī Surēśvarācārya‚ the author of the work Naiṣkarmyasiddhi‚ was a direct disciple of Śrī Śaṅkarācārya. He has made a specific note of it in the book and reveals that spiritual illumination was gifted to him by this great Guru. It is found‚ on an in-depth scruitiny of Surēśvara’s stance that he differs from Maṇḍana Miśra with whom he is identified with traditionally and also his Guru Śaṅkarācārya
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To explain whether a person can show evidence of their religious experience‚ one needs to explain the differences between a numinous experience and a mystical experience. A numinous experience is “the feeling that mortal flesh is somehow despicable in the face of eternal majesty” (Davis 171). In other words‚ a numinous experience is a feeling of the divine right in front of a person. It is describing what is happening to a person within the religious experience. A mystic experience is broken into
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The mystical experience‚ an experience felt beyond the realms of ordinary consciousness that has affected many prominent figures throughout history. Mystical experiences often defy any physical description and such experiences involve ineffable awareness of time‚ space‚ and physical reality. These experiences are universal and share common characteristics no matter what religion‚ beliefs‚ or culture in which the person attends and the experiences are often spiritual rather than religious. William
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“William Butler Yeats deals with an interesting variety of subjects and his poetry is full of powerful images and impressive descriptions. Discuss.” Submitted by Hollie McLaughlin. I very much enjoy reading the poetry of William Butler Yeats. What I like about the poetry is the multi-faceted man who emerges. In Inisfree he is the searching‚ restless 25 year old‚ looking to nature as a kind of redemptive force. In ‘September 1913’ he is the ardent political critic of the soul-destroying materialism
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experience that alters the state of consciousness and brings the person to claim a new awareness of ultimate reality. It can involve the experience of oneness with nature or a union with a personal God. William James identified 4 main features of mysticism. The first is ineffability – it is difficult to find the words to describe the experience to those who haven’t had the mystic experience. The mystic state seems to allow insight into depths of truths that are unobtainable by human intellect alone
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Kabir and the Divine Thought Kabir is recognized as one of the most influential saint poets of India. He belongs to the first generation Hindi poets of India who composed couplets and songs in the vernacular for the masses. Born in Benares in the 15th century‚ he was profoundly influenced by the Muslims who dominated India from 11th century until the advent of British. In the 15th century‚ the Muslim influence was predominantly in the form of Sufism and various Persian Mystics through their poetry
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Rabi’a al-Adawiyya is recognised as the first female Saint of Islam due to her major role in the early maturation of Islam‚ specifically‚ the expansion of Sufism. It was she who focused on a rigorous asceticism that required complete abandonment of ones worldly pleasures in order to detach one from the fear of hell and enter the passionate love and devotion for God. Her belief in this notion “Muhabbah” (Divine Love) and her dismissal of materialism became a strong prestige throughout her teachings
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“Adam’s Curse” William Butler Yeats William Yeats’ “Adam’s Curse” is a poem that addresses a profound truth of time. Any human accomplishment such as poetry‚ music‚ or physical beauty requires much labor and is appreciated by few. He says this through an emotional recollection of a conversation between himself‚ his lover and her friend. I believe the meaning of the work lays waiting like a net‚ waiting to catch the reader at surface level. The poem is simplistic in nature‚ which is quite atypical
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