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12 September 2012

Is Believing in God Irrational? Ch1 Other Religions Experiences

This post is inspired by Amy Orr-Ewing's book "Is Believing in God Irrational?" Chapter 1. Please see all the chapters in the post "Is Believing in God Irrational?" for the full picture if you'd like.

Ch1) What about the religious experiences of other faiths?
 Amy defends this point by demonstrating that other religions, Buddhism and Islam in particular, do not claim a personal experience with a personal God. I might be led to believe that nearly all religions other than Christianity lack this point. However, I am not satisfied for two reasons: First, there may be existing religions (or we could invent a religion) that claims to have such an experience. Second, what if these other religions nonetheless claim to have some sort of experience that validates their faith, not necessarily a personal one with a personal God?

a) It is easy to invent religions and claim to have personal experiences. I think in the case of such claims, because it seems impossible to validate them scientifically (though I am open to suggestions), we must look at the results of the persons life. Do they actually live out (or try very hard to live out) what they believe? Does their life exhibit change that seems greater than would come from a fantasized psychological crutch, the effects of the religious institution, or a conscious deception? I would argue that Christianity alone exhibits this, though this point of evidence is of course quite debatable.

b) What we are dealing with here is my interpretation of the ontological argument. Is there evidence that we have been influenced by something greater than ourselves and the natural universe? One argument points to our concept of infinity, which has no reality in the universe, and so - assuming we cannot conceive of any concept we have not seen - suggests the touch of something infinite, namely God. The same argument may be applied personally from religious experiences. That heart tug we feel cannot be produced by psychological phenomena, from within ourselves, and so points to God. However, other religions may claim this argument as well.
First of all, I may ask if any do. I think there are a number of New Age type people who might volunteer for this, but for many main world religions, I don't know. Buddhism may claim a disappearing of desire, though that is rather an absence than a presence, and I would accept it as an effect of shutting down the brain partially, a common element of meditation many religions.
However, if some religions still claim experiences that seem to come from outside the natural world, then again I may have call in the test of that persons life again. Do they act as if they have been touched by something outside?

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