1.6.5
Issues Relating to Religious Experience - Validity
Using Testimony to Validate Religious Experience
Using Testimony to Validate Religious Experience
Swinburne formulated a second principle called the principle of testimony to answer the question of whether we should rely on testimony of religious experience.
Basic principle of rationality
Basic principle of rationality
- Swinburne claims that a basic principle of rationality is that those who do not have an experience of a certain type ought to believe others when they say that they do (again, barring evidence which would make us disbelieve them - eg. they are a known habitual liar).
- Again, if we didn’t follow this principle of rationality, Swinburne says, we would have almost non-existent knowledge of geography, history or science.
Principle of testimony
Principle of testimony
- The principle of testimony is like applying the principle of credulity to the experiences of other people.
- So a summary of the principle of testimony is that, all other things being equal, other peoples’ experiences are likely to be as they report them to be.
- Swinburne, like William Alston, argues that religious experience has a prima facie evidential force. This means that the existence of seeming perceptions of the divine is sufficient to establish them as veridical (true) unless actually disproved.
Caroline Franks Davis
Caroline Franks Davis
- This actually answers one of the objections to this principle, which is that the lack of testimony of religious experiences by some people undermines the testimonies of others who have had them.
- But Caroline Franks Davis writes in The Evidential Force of Religious Experience: “Where the very existence of an entity is at issue, a failure to perceive it is not by itself prima facie evidence for its non-existence, whereas an experience of its presence is itself prima facie evidence for the entity’s existence.”
Experiences of 'higher power'
Experiences of 'higher power'
- Research by the Religious Experience Research Centre (based at the University of Wales) found that up to 40% of people report having experiences of some kind of ‘higher power’ - which further increase the likelihood of the argument.
Testimony/Witness Not Validating Religious Experience
Testimony/Witness Not Validating Religious Experience
On the other hand, personal testimony or witness alone is unlikely to support the validity of religious experience.
Needs other authority for validity
Needs other authority for validity
- Personal testimony or witness would have to be part of a network of other sources of authority - such as rational argument, officially sanctioned teachings (eg. The Magisterium of the Catholic Church), revelation in sacred scripture and elsewhere, and personal experience - to support the validity of religious experience.
Loch Ness monster analogy
Loch Ness monster analogy
- This becomes clearer if you examine the case of someone who says they saw the Loch Ness Monster.
- Why would it not be justified to believe them merely on the basis of their testimony alone? Because the background evidence is so slight for the existence of the creature.
- Richard Dawkins spends a large part of The God Delusion arguing along these lines. God is like the Tooth Fairy: you can dismiss anyone off-hand who tells you they’ve experienced them because there is no evidence for such a creature.
'Cumulative case' argument
'Cumulative case' argument
- But Swinburne argues that in the case of religious experience, we have a whole set of other reasons to believe in God which are part of what he calls his ‘cumulative case’ argument.
- These are things like the cosmological, teleological and moral arguments for God.
Raising probability of a God
Raising probability of a God
- Although Swinburne doesn’t claim that any of these are sufficient on their own to establish belief in God as reasonable, Swinburne argues that, together, they do raise the background probability of there being a God to the level of likely.
- A religious believer can then add the other sources of authority mentioned above and have confidence in the validity of the testimony, as long as it coheres with religious teaching.
1Philosophy of Religion
1.1Ancient Philosophical Influences: Plato
1.2Ancient Philosophical Influences: Aristotle
1.3Ancient Philosophical Influences: Soul, Mind, Body
1.4The Existence of God - Arguments from Observation
1.5The Existence of God - Arguments from Reason
1.6Religious Experience
1.7The Problem of Evil
1.8The Nature & Attributes of God
1.9Religious Language: Negative, Analogical, Symbolic
2Religion & Ethics
2.1Natural Law
2.2Situation Ethics
2.3Kantian Ethics
2.4Utilitarianism
2.5Euthanasia
3Developments in Christian Thought
3.1Saint Augustine's Teachings
3.2Death & the Afterlife
3.3Knowledge of God's Existence
3.4The Person of Jesus Christ
3.5Christian Moral Principles
3.6Christian Moral Action
3.7Development - Pluralism & Theology
3.8Development - Pluralism & Society
3.9Gender & Society
3.10Gender & Theology
Jump to other topics
1Philosophy of Religion
1.1Ancient Philosophical Influences: Plato
1.2Ancient Philosophical Influences: Aristotle
1.3Ancient Philosophical Influences: Soul, Mind, Body
1.4The Existence of God - Arguments from Observation
1.5The Existence of God - Arguments from Reason
1.6Religious Experience
1.7The Problem of Evil
1.8The Nature & Attributes of God
1.9Religious Language: Negative, Analogical, Symbolic
2Religion & Ethics
2.1Natural Law
2.2Situation Ethics
2.3Kantian Ethics
2.4Utilitarianism
2.5Euthanasia
3Developments in Christian Thought
3.1Saint Augustine's Teachings
3.2Death & the Afterlife
3.3Knowledge of God's Existence
3.4The Person of Jesus Christ
3.5Christian Moral Principles
3.6Christian Moral Action
3.7Development - Pluralism & Theology
3.8Development - Pluralism & Society
3.9Gender & Society
3.10Gender & Theology
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