Mysticism

Philo Lec6: Mysticism
Mysticismreligious empiricism (experience based knowledge)
• Problem: if they are trying to convince us if there’s sth worth to pursuit
• Conformation of mystic report lifetime of labour they reach pinnacle of experience, outcome from great trials
o Difficult time doubling of experience, foggy language, they don’t suppose they will have encounter with God in this life, or defer it to later time
• Dawkin – lack insider understanding of religion, religion not just about faith, religion devoted their life find their religious (monastery), direct their life to direct experience (monks – devout life to contemplation of God)
o Monk – you can’t actually believe God unless you have experiential aspect to it (special founder & imitiation of Jesus) – imply that he is the model for Christian
 In some sense have to have experience
 Jumping to conclusion from vague data
• Problem of mystic
o It’s private, one can experience the experience vividly, other may not feel it
o Transcendent, privacy of the experience make it diff from sensual experience
o Always subject to objection unless have experience about it
 Mystic connect to language
o Experience so diffly that’s hard to describe or repeat like the scientific empiricism

Alston
Experiential Basis of Theism
Main conclusioncertain types of quasi-perceptual experiences can give an indiv good reason to believe in God
• Doxastic practice = forming particular belief about God’s presence & activity in our lives on the basis of theistic experience

Natural Theology vs. Experience of God
Theistic experiencerange over all experience that are taken by the experience to be an awareness of God (where God is thought of theistically)
• No restriction on its phenomenal QL
o Loss of conscious self-identity in the mystical unity w/ God
o Vision & voices
o Awareness of God thru experience of nature, world of Bible or interaction w/ other
o Background sense of God’s presence, sustaining...