Religious Experience as a means for proving God's existence

In this video I explore whether religious experience is valid proof for God's existence and conclude that it is.



Religious experience - a personal encounter with the divine

Self-authenticiating - In relation to religious experience it means that the individual created the experience in their mind and believes strongly that God is contacting them.


Spiritually short-sighted - This means that some people may not be able to describe the experiences well because they do not have the ability to understand the experience and thus can be used to explain why people encounter different religious experiences.


The problem of recognition states that it is difficult to experience something you have not recognised and distinguish between an experience of God and other entities like the devil. Furthermore, it is difficult to see features such as infinity, omnipotence and omniscience.

Flew and Life after Death

In this video I explain what Flew has to say about life after death. 

Modern Explanations of Miracles

In my earlier post we looked at some of these modern accounts of miracles in relation to David Hume but I want to look at modern explanations of miracles as a sole topic. 


As you would guess scientists would be against the existence of miracles as we have seen earlier this is in part to do with methodlogical naturalism. It makes sense then to start with the Chemist Peter Atkin.


Peter Atkin argues against miracles following oin the steps of David Hume's practical reasons against miracles. Atkins says that the only reason people endorse miracles is because they are seeking publicity, deluded or hallucinating. Swinburne, points out however that not all people who experience miracles are ill educated, deluded or seeking punlicity.


Richard Dawkins, too argues that miracles are just psychological events. He seems to take more the contingency definition of a miracle - arguing that they are mere coincidence which people take with special significance.  Dawkins explains that miracles such as Lourdes are just the placebo effect taking course. The placebo effect is essentially people people thinking that they will be healed and so are psychologically. He doubts any physical healing happens like someone gets up from a wheelchair and begins to walk. Dawkins concludes that for these reasons miracles are imporbable and God is not a neccessary explaination.


Polkinghorne, is a physicist and theologian, says that God is active through are world and points out that makes sense to say that God works through Natural Laws. His explanation is that God works through humans and affects physical processes because humans affect physical processes. 


Hume's work is based on Sir Isaac Newton's work which dictates that science is based on fixed laws of nature e.g. everything has an equal and opposite force. However, Einstein came along and updated Newton's work suggesting that it is not always correct and laws of nature are not always fixed. A good example of this is the recent interest in Quantum physics which fails to explain why tiny particles move the way they do. This implies that miracle events which 'violate the laws of nature' are actually scientific and science should accept them. However, this suggests that God does not exist as miracles can be explained through science just like Quantum physics.

Question regarding Kant and Environmental Ethics

I received an email asking me about Kant and Environmental Ethics, this was my response feel free to read it :)

Using Kant's universalisability principle we can come to the conclusion that we should not be driving everywhere (unsustainable pollution) we should not be chopping forests or eating animals. Can you see where I am going with this? Literally you can't do anything because if it were to be universalised then it would be unsustainable. This is a disadvantage too of Kant because it makes this theory very rigid and demanding.

The second principle means to an end - well you could say use animals because they are not rational beings but it would have to be a maxim like only kill animals under extreme circumstances because of the first universalisability maxim. Another disadvantage is that is it really fair to say animals and the environment can be treated as a means to an end on the basis that they are not ration beings.

Strengths would include it gives humans priority and could theoretically prevent huge crises like climate change.

Miracles Quiz I

Miracles Quiz I

1. What is St Thomas Aquinas’ definition of miracles?
2. Is Hume’s case against miracles inductive or deductive?
3. Swinburne argues that testimonies are not the only evidence against miracles what are the other two?
4. What is Alastair McKinnon’s position on miracles?
5. Under what grounds would Flew accept that a miracle has occurred?
6. What is the fundamental problem Wiles has with miracles?
7. Who are the two scholars who follow in similar footsteps to St Augustine and argue that we cannot judge that God is arbitrary and partisan but rather we may not understand his reasoning?
8. Why does Irenaeus reject the occurrence of miracles?
9. What is the contingency definition of a miracle?
10. What are the three types of miracles Aquinas states there are?

1. ‘Those things...which are done by divine power apart from the oder generally followed in things’.
2. Inductive - he bases it on the vast number of occasions when a miracle has not occurred.
3. Our apparent memories and physical traces left after the event e.g. dry clothes when Jesus walked on water.
4. That it is impossible for them to happen as a violation of a law of nature is not possible - it just means our understanding of the law was wrong and needs to be reassessed.
5. It primary evidence exists so you were there yourself when a miracle has occurred.
6. It leads to the belief in an arbitrary and partisan God. 
7. Neil Cantwell and Brian Hebblethwaite
8. Well it all begins with his soul-making theodicy which states that because we are made in God’s likeness and image we have free-will and intelligence. However, we are not made exactly because then we would be perfect. Natural evil then is to help us to grow and become perfect and moral evil is just the product of free will. Miracles do not occur as suffering is an important creation’s of God and it makes no sense to suggest he would intervene sometimes to stop this from happening. More on Irenaen Theodicy click here.
9. “A coincidence which can be taken religiously as a sign and can be called a miracle”
10. (i) Events which God does and nature cannot do e.g. stopping the sun in Joshua (ii) Event which God does does which nature could do but just not in that order e.g. the healing of exorcisms in Mark (iii) Events which God does without the use of natural laws e.g. forgiving of sins in Mark.

Aristotle and the Soul

 In this video I look at what Aristotle believed about the soul and life after death.

Plato and the soul

Plato's view on the soul, the slave boy example, analogy of the cave, the myth of err, cycle of opposites, charioteer example and perfect circle.









Plato and the Soul


For Plato, the soul is made up of three parts; reason, emotion and appetite. The reason is the most important element which controls the appetite and emotion. 

In terms of importance, reason is first because it provides knowledge then emotion because it determines much of our behaviour and lastly is appetite because that simply sets out our physical needs.


Plato and Slave Boy as Evidence that the world of the form exists


Plato observes that a slave boy even without education or prior experience can solve a maths problem with an intuitive idea of mathematics. This demonstrates that the soul has all the knowledge from the world of the Forms and it is simply about remembering it.


Plato and the Myth of Err


- This is a fictional story to demonstrate that philosophy is an important aspect to the development of our lives.
- Err, who this story is about, was a solider who died on the battlefield.
- But on the 12th day Err came back to life and told people what he had experienced.
- He told them once he had died he went on a journey in which he encountered judges who rewarded and punished the souls of those who had died.
-Souls were then reborn into a new life on earth which they themselves chose.
- In conclusion, only the philosophical, who understand the importance of choosing a new life of peace and justice benefitted from the cycle of life.


Western tradition of thought essentially are all foot notes on Plato.


Test yourself...


1. Does Plato believe the soul survived death? What is this category of thought called?
2. What does Plato say we are doing when are what we would call 'learning'?
3. When we encounter something why we are able to recognise it?
4. What is the true home of the soul?
5. What is meant when Plato describes the soul as simple?


____________________________________________




Answers
1. Yes, dualism.
2. Remembering information from the world of the forms
3. Because before birth we have experienced it in the world of the Forms
4. World of the forms
5. Unchanging and indivisible


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