Donovan, "can We Know God By Experience?" Article

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Article Summary

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Donovan questions whether it is possible to have direct, intuitive knowledge of God.

He considers the views of 20th century theologians and philosophers (like H.P. Owen) who have argued that religious experiences may provide knowledge of God, through intuition.

This idea of intuitive knowledge of God fits with established Christian ways of thinking: God is a personal being who acts in history.

He distinguishes psychological feelings of certainty from actually being right on logical grounds.

He associates intuitive awareness of God with the psychological feeling.

He points out that our sense of certainty is often mistaken, an observation he takes from Bertrand Russell.

He considers the possibility that experience of God might be a type of personal encounter (I-You),

He rejects Intuition as a form of knowledge.

He does not accept that intuition can provide knowledge of God, but claims that this point does not undermine the value of religious experiences altogether.

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What is Donovan arguing?

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Donovan questions whether it is possible to have direct, intuitive knowledge of God.

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What type of Knowledge is he questioning?

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He is questioning whether intuition in itself can be a form of knowledge: he states that we uses it in everyday situations why can this not be extended to God.

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"an intuitions appropriateness to the reality" What significance is the line above to Donovan's article?

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He questions the difference between feeling certain and being right: feeling certain is reliant on your feeling of intuition: being right is being in line with reality.

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Can intuitions be verified?

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No, one can not rely on their sense of intuition about certain topics as they have no way to check their appropriateness to reality. Although one be Right through intuition once does not mean they may be again; you can not rely on a feeling of intuition to check intuition otherwise you end with secular reasoning. Example time- relationships.

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Through which medium does Donovan consider that a person may have a direct personal encounter with God?

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A Personal encounter: Donovan considers the world through two types of relationships: I-you: direct, personal, reciprocal relationships and I-it: objective, reasoning and analytical. God is only the subject to the former.

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What 3 Criticism's arise from the i-it and i-you view of the world?

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1.Our sense experience may be mistaken.

2.Experience presupposes knowledge of.

3.Intuition is not in itself knowledge.

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What is meant by "Our sense experience may be mistaken."?

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there is no way to check our feeling of god (I-youencounter) against a physical reality (I-It world) as god is Transient. in other words there is No way to check the appropriateness of our intuition to reality.

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What is meant by "Experience presupposes knowledge of."?

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The idea that the I-you relationship is of more significance than the I-it. We learn though experiential evidence rather than objective: however one cannothave an I-You without an I-it. This is where encounters of God differ frompeople: No it relationship.

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What is meant by "Intuition is not in itself knowledge"?

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Who knows moreabout Pregnancy the obstetrician or the Pregnant woman?: Experientialinformation is not knowledge in itself. Just because the woman experiencespregnancy tells her no more than the feelings associated with it, theobstetrician by contrast knows all the objective information to do with thePregnancy. Experience ismerely a tool to be used to increase our knowledge rather than knowledge in ofitself.

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What does Donovan conclude?

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Intuition is not a reliable source of knowledge: at least not by itself. However the entire feeling should not be discounted as it is possible (if god exists) that these intuitions may be correct.

There is no justification for taking such an all-or-nothing view of religious experience.

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Which philosophers, who's views have been mentioned here, does Donovan use and question?

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H.P.Owen: intuition is a reliable source of knowledge that is in line with traditional Christian Thinkers.

Bertrand Russell: we use ourintuitions to judge our relationships however intuitions are usually proven wrong and cannot be a basis of true knowledge.

Buber: i-you/I-it relationships.

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Other philosophers of interest?

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Swinburne: Principle of credulity

William James: the quality's of a R.E

Logical positivists: Ayer (verification) & Flew (Falsification).

Dawkin's: rejection of religion completely.

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Implications for religious experience if intuition works:

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knowledge of God and that God exists

Atheism is wrong and scholars like Dawkins are misguided in their attack on religion.

one can talk meaningfully about God and prove that religious language was cognitive.

God would not be considered as a purely transcendent being but instead one that is actively engaged with creation.

If God exists and is able to and does interact with us then the question arises why does he not interact with the world to stop terrible things happening?

Variety of Religious experience would leave theists hard pressed to prove there is only One God

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Implications For religious experience of intuition doesn't work:

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Doubt on Biblical accounts of God’s encounter with creation may be false.

Personal intuition of the divine seems discredited.

Religions which are founded upon a personal encounter with God (Christianity) would be dubious: we can have no certainty about intuitive claims of direct exp. of God.

The experiential/ mystical element of religion would be made redundant given that such experience can never, by itself, give us knowledge.

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Implications for Human experience if intuition works:

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Conflict between religion and science as S ‘replaced’ r as a much better explanation of the world, if religious intuition exists it would offer an alternative way to gain knowledge distinct from the scientific method.

Intuition in other areas of human experience might also be accepted, such as in ethics and in aesthetics: Subjectivity of Values.

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Implications For Human experience of intuition doesn't work:

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Intuition would play a secondary role in the quest for knowledge: evidence & verification would always be prioritised.

Intuition theory in ethics: Rejected.

Rejection of our everyday intuitions when we think we ‘just know’ something is true.

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Criticisms of Donovan.

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shady definition of intuition: intuitions such as 2+2=4 has a mathematical proof, I have two hands has an existential proof.