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16 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
- 3rd side (hint)
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Corporate Experience
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When a group experiences a religious phenomena.
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Eg. Toronto Blessing
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What happened at the Toronto Blessing?
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Uncontrollable laughter, speaking in an incomprehensible language, rolling on the floor etc.
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Signs of the Holy Spirit.
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What are the criticisms of the Toronto Blessing?
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1) Psychological: Already inclined to behave that way due to the reputation of the evangelical minister.
2) Theological: What does this show of God? Coercion, perhaps, why this instead of helping people? 3) Evangelical: Perhaps demons holding those people up to be ridiculed. |
Important note: The gift of tongues was not meant to be incomprehensible. In 'Act of the Apostles' the gift of tongues was given so that the apostles could speak to everyone regardless of language barrier.
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Example of Conversion Experience
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Saul becomes Paul. Eventually becomes a martyr of his faith.
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Book of 'Acts' in the bible.
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Wittgenstein
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Duck-Rabbit Ink Blot: There are a variety of possible ways to see things.
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William James
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What are James' Four Characteristics of Genuine Mystical Experience?
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Ineffability
Noetic quality Transciency Passivity |
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What is ineffability?
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Beyond the capacity of words.
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What is 'noetic quality'?
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Like a state of knowledge, but a type of knowledge beyond any normal experience.
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What is transiency?
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Experiences are brief, but life-changing.
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What is passivity?
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People affected feel as if their own will is in abeyance. In the grip of a superior power.
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Where does St Teresa come into this?
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St. Teresa had a series of visions. Some commentators saw her visions as psychologically driven, perhaps the result of sexual frustration.
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Teresa said: the sign of a genuine religious experience comes from its ability to permanently change your life, and also is consistent with the church in what it reveals.
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Dr Moody + AJ Ayer: Near-death experience.
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There are five stages of a 'vision' to patients who are dying. The latter stages are exiting a tunnel from darkness into light and eventually 'entering the bright light'.
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AJ Ayer had such an experience and stated that near death is not death, and thus cannot be evidence. He stated that his experience has not weakened his conviction that there is no god.
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Hobbes on Religious Experience:
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Hobbes asked how it was possible to tell the difference between talking to God in a dream, and dreaming about talking to God?
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What is Fideism?
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Holds that religious beliefs are can not be justified by rational means, but only through faith.
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What is subjectivism?
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It is not necessary to think of religious experiences as evidence for the existence of an actual being whom we call God. From this point of view, the important thing is the experience itself and the effect that it has on the individual.
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What is objectivism?
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The first of these theses, the Objectivist view, supposes that there is some object or actual entity - such as God - which exists independently of the experience, interaction with which causes the experience itself. An objectivist would argue that the religious experience is a proof of God's existence.
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