Religious experience (OCR A-Level Religious Studies): Flashcards

Believe things are as they seem unless evidence to contrary

Believe what people tell us unless good reason not to

Sheer quantity of testimony points to validity of experiences

Beliefs from experience are justified at first sight

Unjustified view that only empirical knowledge is genuine

An awe-inspiring fascinating mystery

Awe-inspiring holiness that can't be explained otherwise

Religious experiences require no testing to be genuine

Freud's description of religious belief as mental illness

Selfish, pleasure-seeking element present from birth

Brain creates models from sensory input, can mislead

15-24 year olds

Over 80% of test subjects had induced experiences

Temporal lobe epilepsy linked to religious visions

Nearly all who took hallucinogen reported religious experience