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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