Religious Experience - Does it Prove the Existence of God?

[@PhilosophyVibe]

The script to this video is part of... - The Philosophy Vibe 'Philosophy of Religion Part II' eBook, available on Amazon: mybook.to/philosophyvibe2 - The Philosophy Vibe Paperback Anthology Vol 1 'Philosophy of Religion' available worldwide on Amazon: mybook.to/philosophyvibevol1

[@Beanbag777]

Love these videos they should have more hits

[@PhilosophyVibe]

Thank you very much 😀

[@jonerickson2358]

I have had a "religious experience" in 1970. (Vietnam) It had the elements of William James's description. Had someone come along and "interpreted" for me, I am sure I would have become a Bible thumping fundamentalist!! (If the right person had come along, I might have become a Zen master or a Sufi as well.) Fortunately, I had a lot of issues to sort out and spent the next 50 years gradually coming to understand the feelings and my own mind in forming such an experience. I spent 25 years as a (liberal) pastor (practicing a guerilla ministry) and another 25 years working my way through being an atheist. I do not doubt people having "religious" experiences but certainly question their interpretation and description while dealing with the EXTREME FEELINGS that accompany those experiences.

[@vmphunter]

Omg this is another level of intellectual conversation.

[@PhilosophyVibe]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed.

[@particleconfig.8935]

godlevel

[@richardhaynes3925]

A brilliant video which once again helps my in my faith, theological study and church ministry. For the record I believe I've had religious experiences which without I'd never be a person of faith, working in ministry or studying theology. But I love the debate and respect all opinions. Many thanks again, gents.

[@PhilosophyVibe]

You're welcome, thanks for watching.

[@fatefulbrawl5838]

What exactly was the experience mate?

[@andrewb4824]

Such a great compilation of interesting ideas. Keep up the good work gentleman.

[@PhilosophyVibe]

Thank you very much :)

[@darrelldamon2745]

Interesting topic, intriguing reasoning

[@sad_doggo2504]

Very interesting. Even our own minds are mysteries to us, so it's no wonder that when something freaky happens, we tend to fall prey to superstitious ideas.

[@particleconfig.8935]

but what does whatever ''mundane'' we believe mean, is it different from superstition?

[@metolse475]

If possible, I'd like you guys to do a video on the hard problem of conciousness.

[@PhilosophyVibe]

Great suggestion, will definitely look into this.

[@silasnew15]

yes please!

[@particleconfig.8935]

very good comment, CRUX OF THE SITUATION

[@georgegrubbs2966]

People do have subjective experiences that are profound and life-changing. Neuroscience evidence strongly suggests that these are hallucinations rooted in the brain as so-called religious experiences can be produced by drugs and brain stimulation. Even presented with solid facts, people having religious experiences refuse to give up their fantasy-based beliefs that they believe are confirmed by inner experiences of God. These types of experiences prompt people to kill other people when they are challenged, and they even go to their deaths defending these beliefs. Whatever the cause, these experiences are quite strong and convincing.

[@homiesenatep]

Yes, religious experiences are very convicting and persuasive. Even myself that has experienced such mystical things, I cannot fully accept them as true. They're very powerful nonetheless

[@particleconfig.8935]

sounds like lifeforce

[@georgegrubbs2966]

@@homiesenatep The Egyptian soul was thought to have three parts, the K's, the Ba & the Akh. The Ka was the life force believed to live within the body during life & survive it following death. A person's thumos represented their will or life force and compelled them to action or fulfill their desires. Spirit (vital essence), in folk belief, the vital principle or animating force within all living things

[@fatefulbrawl5838]

​@@homiesenatep Do tell me what your experience was ❤

[@fatefulbrawl5838]

Very analytical approach, how'd you come to it?

[@aidanjohnwalsh2129]

The experience of being in the presence of God is not merely a feeling, it's a conversation, albeit mostly one-sided, until it isn't. I have every confidence in the existence of the consciousnesses of the ordinary people I speak with, although I cannot prove either mine nor theirs exists. I have never felt as heard or understood by a human though. The evidence of His interventions is superficially coincidental, but skillfully, also deeply personally significant, to the extent that someone with faith couldn't care less about looking stupid, or being humiliated. My view is such that, it would be wiser not to argue and to get on with the work of service, quietly, for the pacification of the masses, and their salvation from struggle and ignominy.

[@anngel2041]

Pleaaaase I need a video about Materialism, Immaterialism and transcendentalism. I need it as soon as possible for an importent exam 😰 thank you in advance for all the great videos you're making 💓

[@PhilosophyVibe]

Apologies, we may not be able to create these videos in time for your exam, however we do have a video on Berkeley's Idealism and on Knowledge of the External World. You may find them useful. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rF7PdZ-ui7asasU kzbin.info/www/bejne/d6K1kHSnaNOaa6M Hope this helps. Best of luck in the exam.

[@FernandoSanchez-su6bf]

Agree with starting on the basis on incredulity. It is up to them to prove, not the other way around.

[@4jgarner]

The problem with the "until it happens to me i can't believe in them" logic is that together with the reasoning he uses up until that point, he still SHOULD not believe even his own experience. He would HAVE to conclude that his own experience was just some fulfillment of a subconscious desire to be "just a little more special" or was simply being tricked by his senses or could even reason that his own brain chemistry had simply gone "haywire" for most of the video would require him to never believe an experience like this, even if it is true. And I would argue that if your reasoning forces you to disbelieve even true things then it's faulty reasoning. I'm not even an advocate for religious experiences as proof of the supernatural but i find that reasoning to be faulty at best and dishonest at worst. I really loved the video though! ♥️

[@fatefulbrawl5838]

Neat take, really delivers the point on how open ended this is.

[@noah8236]

I like the principle of credulity. I think it's a good measure for most of the time of one's everyday life. However, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If you proclaim things that contradict the laws of nature as we know it or the secured knowledge that humankind accumulated, I won't just take your word for it.

[@johne5543]

Deception is difficult enough to have to deal with, nevermind self deception...

[@ClassyBaxy]

one again thank you since ur the only reason i dont have to spend 5 more hours on my rs homework

[@PhilosophyVibe]

Glad we could help, good luck in the RS homework.

[@Hey.i0]

This is great for ao2 question thank u

[@PhilosophyVibe]

Pleasure, thanks for watching.

[@cultofstupidity]

Religious experiences can have an adaptive value in many ways. It's likely that it is an evolutionary adaptation that has been incorporated over time because it provides a survival benefit. If this is the case it neither proves or disproves God. Fundamentally it doesn't really matter since the result of the religious experience will be the same whether is was created by biology or by God. Any argument about the existence of God must first start with a definition of God, otherwise we might as well be arguing about whether Flirzbhangs exist.

[@kpllc4209]

Yes pure biology from my experience but that just makes it more real.

[@prinstonstancy3397]

By very definition of God it means something than which nothing greater can exist. If God is flirzbhabgs he is not a God.

[@user-te5sh3wt5c]

Congrats on 70k

[@PhilosophyVibe]

Thank you :D

[@HiyaitsMya]

Well, there was this one weird experience I had, where the thought "Jackie Chan 1978" came to mind, so I googled it, and found out the movie "Drunken Master" came out that year, and a few days, or so, later, my step dad was watching that movie. There's really no other explanation for it, besides it being a devine being telling me, which I believe to be the God of the bible.

[@theflyingdutchguy9870]

so, you whitness a coincidense and conditioned yourself so much to think it has to be God. instead of just a coincidense.

[@HiyaitsMya]

@@theflyingdutchguy9870 nope, but perhaps it takes greater faith to believe out of a 1 in, however many movies there are in existence, (a trillion maybe?) chance, that it would just so happen to be that movie. Good on you for having such outstanding faith though. Quite admirable really! 👍🙂

[@demi683]

Amazing video thank you so much.

[@PhilosophyVibe]

A pleasure, thanks for watching.

[@slottibarfast5402]

The supernatural experience is in the large number of cases culturally based. The experiences in italy will be about Jesus, in Afganistan Allah, in China Buddha.

[@hesteredwards8050]

you guys are the best !!!

[@PhilosophyVibe]

Thank you!

[@joshjgraham]

I don't think there's any surefire way to have a religious experience, but there are things that people can do to make them more likely (e.g. spiritual disciplines). I think that this video demonstrates that some kind of faith is necessary to even try. And it's not like science where someone else can demonstrate what they find. You must find it yourself.

[@eliwhaley4804]

Very good stuff

[@PhilosophyVibe]

Thanks :)

[@tbillyjoeroth]

I think you missed the objective. The guy on the left merely said until it happens to him everyone is wrong. That doesnt answer the question about gods existence.

[@melchior2678]

Witness accounts are considered evidence in a court of law, so the answer seems to be YES.

[@fin7976]

hands down saving my A level

[@PhilosophyVibe]

Glad we could help :D

[@InWhoseOpinion]

Which God?

[@ajaini1709]

class video , cheers mate

[@PhilosophyVibe]

You're welcome, thanks for watching.

[@FernandoSanchez-su6bf]

Love that , "Wish fulfillment"....

[@theflyingdutchguy9870]

no, its a neurological thing. and people of different religions interpret similar experiences to different God's wich "happen" to be the God they already believe in. there is no way to test if its actually real or imagination. if its just feelings then its just a chemical released in the brain they have learned to interpret it as a religious experience.

[@adsffdaaf4170]

Any experiences of the mind could be said to be doubted in another. I could doubt you are thinking or have feelings. Depending on what philosophy of mind you subscribe to

[@josefopeda]

What gets me is that if there was one divine source for these experiences (let's say the Abrahamic God as an example), then how come theists disagree religiously about the nature of the divine? As you mention in the last bit, there are so many people who have claimed religious experiences, and yet that hasn't led to a unified global faith that anyone who has an experience can agree upon (let's say Christianity for the sake of the example). Heck, even with a singular God concept--the Abrahamic deity--we have multiple religions who also have each their own sects with conflicting and contradictory claims about the nature of the divine. What is the purpose then of religious experience? If it is to relay the truth about the divine, then why can't all people who have mystic or religious experiences come to an agreement? Not to mention, religious experiences are contextual. A Buddhist will interpret their experiences differently than a Christian or a Hindu might and attribute those particular so-called experiences of the divine to whatever religious background they analyze those experiences from. Of course, the various theists will just claim that so-and-so religion is just interpreting it wrong. So epistemically, it seems like very weak justification for belief in the divine.

[@robhuhges]

Which God did you experience?

[@cadirichardson-nd9wv]

What if they just have schizophrenia

[@slottibarfast5402]

Tell evangelicals have these experiences all the time usually ending with asking the good audience to send money for gods work. God never sends money.

[@georgeflowers3730]

Religious Experience - Does it Prove the Existence of God? The thing is that many people that have had this kind of experiences can be really honest of what they have experienced, really believe something supernatural have happened to them, even have a positive result in their lives, but this doesn't prove the existence of the supernatural or a god, and what god are we talking about? a Christian god, Muslim, Hindu, etc., because many religions are exclusive, so how can a Christian god experience be true for their believers and a Hindu god experience be true for their believers at the same time? I would really like to heard more about a psychiatry explanation of a Religious or "supernatural" experience, because these experiences can be the result of chemistry unbalance in our brains and bodies, produced by an state of euphoria induced by external factors, such as music, images, etc. like when a movie makes you cry. James, Swinburne and Otto only describe the phenomena, but then you have to take the next step and find out what is that produce this kind of experiences in our brain. I'm looking at this from the perspective of someone who doesn't believe that you can prove the existence of god. I really enjoyed the video, good work!

[@kpllc4209]

They seem to be a psychological mechanism, there is a "God" spot in your brain. Sometimes it comes out in dreams, some people have it comes out spontaneously, some meditate, dance, chant, pray or take hallucinogenic drugs. It is a powerful hallucination and you draw your own conclusion, if you are a Christian, you might say you seen Christ, a Hindu would say Brahma etc. I am an atheist and had one myself, craziest thing that has ever happened to me. There needs to be a lot more study because it is virtually ignored but very real.

[@georgeflowers3730]

@@kpllc4209 I found a good book to read: "The believing Brain" by Michael Shermer

[@kpllc4209]

Here is a good video kzbin.info/www/bejne/oqSZomOQYqlphJY

[@saeedbaig4249]

The fact that so many people of different religions have religious experiences is evidence AGAINST them being true, not for it. Many religions are mutually exclusive (e.g. Hinduism and Christianity can't both be true); if people of conflicting religions all have religious experiences that reaffirm their faith in one particular religion over others, then God is sending mixed messages about which religion is correct. At most, only 1 religion's experiences are true; at least, none of them are. (DarkMatter2525 has a good video on this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hmGkkJx8ZqdmoZI )

[@blkbbw8295]

As a Christian I would argue that religious experience are complicated by the fact that there is more than just God in the supernatural world, that spiritual dimension of which we living humans in general tend to have no access to. So it is usually understood for Christians (& maybe other religions have a similar viewpoint?) that some religious experiences are a form of deception from a spiritual entity that is NOT the creator/God! but just one of his creations trying to control/manipulate/enslave his other creations. To clearify a bit, what I’m saying is it is often considered that demons (aka corrupted fallen Angels) are manipulating humans.

[@saeedbaig4249]

@@blkbbw8295 I suppose that would explain how people of different religions could all think they're having religious experiences. But we still wouldn't know which religion's experiences are from God and which are from demons/spirits, so we still wouldn't be able to adjudicate between religions.

[@outofoblivionproductions4015]

@@saeedbaig4249 I doubt there are many deceptive religious experiences. I believe there are many REs and most from God. However we have to interpret the experience, and this is when errors can be made. Also there is much in most religions that share the same values, so that not only one religion has all the truth and the others none. Combine these predicaments and you get many religious experiences across many religions. However some religions have very few religious experiences and others like Catholicism have most, or at least the most profound miracles, like the public miracle at Fatima in 1917 witnessed by 100 000 people.

[@onlyabdelix]

@@outofoblivionproductions4015 mass hysteria event probably

[@tbillyjoeroth]

I see God as a white man. Africans see him as a black man. So we're both wrong? That's silly. You have no understanding of human nature.

[@theo9604]

SHUSH

[@hongkongfueynz3071]

I just had a religious experience a few movements ago, I’m still trying to makewhat to make of it

[@ultrasignificantfootnote3378]

Prophet Mohammed had religious expieriences, trees and rocks talking to him, he said water came out of his fingertips, flying into heaven on a horse, or perhaps he was just imagining it.

[@jeffk3746]

I was fully in agreement with the critic - just didn’t think it existed or people were misunderstanding the experience. Well I’ve since had a religious experience and….yeah the I’m misunderstanding was before. There is a difference between an intellectual understanding and an experiential understanding. Once you’ve had the experience you just Know. Can’t explain it

[@perryjphilip]

If you follow Swinberne's arguments then you will be at risk for believing contradictory statements simultaneously. Two people could tell you they had specific religious experiences which contradict each other and because they are subjective in nature you wouldn't be able to disprove either and have to except them both. This would be illogical and irrational. Not a good way to go about life ;)

[@FromValkyrie]

So religious experience isn't acceptable? The list keeps growing. I'm curious as to what godless people will accept as evidence for God. 😂 😂 😂

[@flowwiththeuniverse31]

i think spiritual awakenings are prime example of gods interference in one's life. they are so mind opening and a true wake up call!!

[@LinebackerTuba]

Nice video, could you go over properly basic beliefs? I think that is a natural extension to this video. Why if it is reasonable to believe in an external world (which cannot be proved) is it not reasonable to believe our first hand religious experience. Are both of these not properly basic beliefs? Obviously, religious experience only gives reason to the person who has the experience (purple jacket guys point).

[@PhilosophyVibe]

Thank you for the suggestion, we will look to do a follow up and include this.

[@capibaraluvr9398]

pLEASEEE make videos on hobbes

[@PhilosophyVibe]

We do have one in the pipeline.

[@SpeechOver9000]

You feel the religious experience, that everything is connected and then you realize, that it can't be an illusion, because everything is connected in some way :)

[@CheLanguages]

What's wrong with their voices?!

[@robertjsmith]

Experience is real ,thoughts about experience are fantasy

[@matthewsingleton8802]

The problem with the freudian conclusion is that a little boys need a father, in fact every boy comes from a father! On ther argument Atheist/humanist do not criticize their own metaphysics. When di they see the big bang, the multiverse, the universe atoms. the original cell an animal giving birth to a different kind etc? Should we not drop the working hypothesis when in fact it has not been experienced?

[@danterivero3181]

God is self evident, independent of human proving.

[@G_Demolished]

Cool story.

[@mohdhussain4604]

Religious experience is an illusion...how far Sigmund Freud is right?

[@akmalhussain5439]

soemone get kurzgesagt or crashcourse to hire these two, they deserve more than these trash animations, no matter how much effort was put in.

[@martinhavlicek4011]

Try talking with a truely clever atheist like Geneticly Modified Sceptic and you will see this is not reasoning well studied atheist would give

[@mccormyke]

I say no. Nothing can prove the existence of God. God must be apprehended through personal revelation & personal faith. Both of which is beyond the unaided human consciousness

[@hegel5816]

Try Kabbalah guys...

[@firesunone7807]

No

[@lucyadamson5456]

Things can happen you know

[@black-cross]

until i eat the poisonous mushroom multiple people told me not to, i wont believe it. you either go to the side that challenges you or you stay in your comfort zone. on judgement day: Jesus: why didnt you believe? i send your friend to tell you about the religious experiences... You: you didnt meet my standards. do better next time

[@FromValkyrie]

😂😂😂

[@shaansachdeva3547]

This is wrong