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The Existence of God Essay

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The Existence of God

What we call religious experience can differ greatly. Some reports exist of supernatural happenings that it would be difficult to explain from a rational, scientific point of view. On the other hand, there also exist the sorts of testimonies that simply seem to convey a feeling or a peace of oneness- something which most of us, religious or not, may possibly relate to.

Firstly, I will consider the nature of an experience. Experience involves encounters which are empirical (testable via senses). We draw non- empirical conclusions about many things and people- that they have orange hair and are 5 feet tall, that they are lonely and confused. These conclusions are mainly …show more content…

This is known through testimonies of the recipients of these experiences.

In categorising religious experiences is helpful to look at them as explicable through one of two theories: the objectivist thesis or the subjectivist thesis.

The objectivist view supposes that there is some object or actual entity- such as god- which exists independently of the experience, interaction which causes the experience itself. God is described as numinous. This is a term often used to describe the experience in which God's separateness is highlighted. This was put forward by Rudolf Otto in his book The Idea of the Holy. Otto religion sprang from experience of the holly. Because the word numinous has many associations he used numen, something which is wholly other than the natural world

An objectivist would argue that the religious experience is a proof of God's existence. However, others have criticised the reliability of religious experiences. The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes asked how it was possible to tell the differences between talking to God in a dream, and dreaming about talking to God. The objectivist thesis is ultimately the most traditional viewpoint since it views God as 'object'- that is, something which exists independently of us (such as a table or another person). However,

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