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Religious Experience

Religious experiences can be characterized generally as experiences that seem to the person having them to be of some objective reality and to have some religious import. That reality can be an individual, a state of affairs, a fact, or even an absence, depending on the religious tradition the experience is a part of. A wide variety of kinds of experience fall under the general rubric of religious experience. The concept is vague, and the multiplicity of kinds of experiences that fall under it makes it difficult to capture in any general account. Part of that vagueness comes from the term ‘religion,’ which is difficult to define in any way that does not either rule out institutions that clearly are religions, or include terms that can only be understood in the light of a prior understanding of what religions are. Nevertheless, we can make some progress in elucidating the concept by distinguishing it from distinct but related concepts.

First, religious experience is to be distinguished from religious feelings, in the same way that experience in general is to be distinguished from feelings in general. A feeling of elation, for example, even if it occurs in a religious context, does not count in itself as a religious experience, even if the subject later comes to think that the feeling was caused by some objective reality of religious significance. An analogy with sense experience is helpful here. If a subject feels a general feeling of happiness, not on account of anything in particular, and later comes to believe the feeling was caused by the presence of a particular person, that fact does not transform the feeling of happiness into a perception of the person. Just as a mental event, to be a perception of an object, must in some sense seem to be an experience of that object, a religiously oriented mental event, to be a religious experience, must in some way seem to be an experience of a religiously significant reality. So, although religious feelings may be involved in many, or even most, religious experiences, they are not the same thing. Discussions of religious experience in terms of feelings, like Schleiermacher’s (1998) “feeling of absolute dependence,” or Otto’s (1923) feeling of the numinous, were important early contributions to theorizing about religious experience, but some have since then argued (see Gellman 2001 and Alston 1991, for example) that religious affective states are not all there is to religious experience. To account for the experiences qua experiences, we must go beyond subjective feelings.

Religious experience is also to be distinguished from mystical experience. Although there is obviously a close connection between the two, and mystical experiences are religious experiences, not all religious experiences qualify as mystical. The word ‘mysticism’ has been understood in many different ways. James (1902) took mysticism to necessarily involve ineffability, which would rule out many cases commonly understood to be mystical. Alston (1991) adopted the term grudgingly as the best of a bad lot and gave it a semi-technical meaning. But in its common, non-technical sense, mysticism is a specific religious system or practice, deliberately undertaken in order to come to some realization or insight, to come to unity with the divine, or to experience the ultimate reality directly. At the very least, religious experiences form a broader category; many religious experiences, like those of Saint Paul, Arjuna, Moses, Muhammad, and many others come unsought, not as the result of some deliberate practice undertaken to produce an experience.

1. Types of Religious Experience

2. language and experience, 3. epistemological issues, 4. the diverse objects of religious experience, other internet resources, related entries.

Reports of religious experiences reveal a variety of different kinds. Perhaps most are visual or auditory presentations (visions and auditions), but not through the physical eyes or ears. Subjects report “seeing” or “hearing,” but quickly disavow any claim to seeing or hearing with bodily sense organs. Such experiences are easy to dismiss as hallucinations, but the subjects of the experience frequently claim that though it is entirely internal, like a hallucination or imagination, it is nevertheless a veridical experience, through some spiritual analog of the eye or ear (James 1902 and Alston 1991 cite many examples).

In other cases, the language of “seeing” is used in its extended sense of realization, as when a yogi is said to “see” his or her identity with Brahman; Buddhists speak of “seeing things as they are” as one of the hallmarks of true enlightenment, where this means grasping or realizing the emptiness of things, but not in a purely intellectual way.

A third type is the religious experience that comes through sensory experiences of ordinary objects, but seems to carry with it extra information about some supramundane reality. Examples include experiencing God in nature, in the starry sky, or a flower, or the like. Another person standing nearby would see exactly the same sky or flower, but would not necessarily have the further religious content to his or her experience. There are also cases in which the religious experience just is an ordinary perception, but the physical object is itself the object of religious significance. Moses’s experience of the burning bush, or the Buddha’s disciples watching him levitate, are examples of this type. A second person standing nearby would see exactly the same phenomenon. Witnesses to miracles are having that kind of religious experience, whether they understand it that way or not.

A fourth type of religious experience is harder to describe: it can’t be characterized accurately in sensory language, even analogically, yet the subject of the experience insists that the experience is a real, direct awareness of some religiously significant reality external to the subject. These kinds of experiences are usually described as “ineffable.” Depending on one’s purposes, other ways of dividing up religious experiences will suggest themselves. For example, William James (1902) divides experiences into “healthy-minded” and “sick-minded,” according to the personality of the subject, which colors the content of the experience itself. Keith Yandell (1993, 25–32) divided them into five categories, according to the content of the experiences: monotheistic, nirvanic (enlightenment experiences associated with Buddhism), kevalic (enlightenment experiences associated with Jainism), moksha (experiences of release from karma, associated with Hinduism), and nature experiences. Differences of object certainly make differences in content, and so make differences in what can be said about the experiences. See Section 4 for further discussion of this issue.

Many have thought that there is some special problem with religious language, that it can’t be meaningful in the same way that ordinary language is. The Logical Positivists claimed that language is meaningful only insofar as it is moored in our experiences of the physical world. Since we can’t account for religious language by linking it to experiences of the physical world, such language is meaningless. Even though religious claims look in every way like ordinary assertions about the world, their lack of empirical consequences makes them meaningless. Ayer (1952) calls such language “metaphysical,” and therefore meaningless. He says, “That a transcendent god exists 3s a metaphysical assertion, and therefore not literally significant.” The principle of verification went through many formulations as it faced criticism. But if it is understood as a claim about meaning in ordinary language, it seems to be self-undermining, since there is no empirical way to verify it. Eventually, that approach to language fell out of favor, but some still use a modified, weaker version to criticize religious language. For example, Antony Flew (Flew and MacIntyre, 1955) relies on a principle to the effect that if a claim is not falsifiable, it is somehow illegitimate. Martin (1990) and Nielsen (1985) invoke a principle that combines verifiability and falsifiability; to be meaningful, a claim must be one or the other. It is not clear that even these modified and weakened versions of the verification principle entirely escape self-undermining. Even if they do, they seem to take other kinds of language with them—like moral language, talk about the future or past, and talk about the contents of others’ minds — that we might be loath to lose. Moreover, to deny the meaningfulness of religious-experience claims on the grounds that it is not moored in experience begs the question, in that it assumes that religious experiences are not real experiences.

Another possibility is to allow that religious claims are meaningful, but they are not true or false, because they should not be understood as assertions. Braithwaite (1970), for example, understands religious claims to be expressions of commitments to sets of values. On such a view, what appears to be a claim about a religious experience is not in fact a claim at all. It might be that some set of mental events, with which the experience itself can be identified, would be the ground and prompting of the claim, but it would not properly be what the claim is about.

A second challenge to religious-experience claims comes from Wittgensteinian accounts of language. Wittgenstein (1978) muses at some length on the differences between how ordinary language is used, and how religious language is used. Others (see Phillips 1970, for example), following Wittgenstein, have tried to give an explanation of the strangeness of religious language by invoking the idea of a language-game. Each language-game has its own rules, including its own procedures for verification. As a result, it is a mistake to treat it like ordinary language, expecting evidence in the ordinary sense, in the same way that it would be a mistake to ask for the evidence for a joke. “I saw God” should not be treated in the same way as “I saw Elvis.” Some even go so far as to say the religious language-game is isolated from other practices, such that it would be a mistake to derive any claims about history, geography, or cosmology from them, never mind demand the same kind of evidence for them. On this view, religious experiences should not be treated as comparable to sense experiences, but that does not entail that they are not important, nor that they are not in some sense veridical, in that they could still be avenues for important insights about reality. Such a view can be attributed to D. Z. Phillips (1970).

While this may account for some of the unusual aspects of religious language, it certainly does not capture what many religious people think about the claims they make. As creationism illustrates, many religious folk think it is perfectly permissible to draw empirical conclusions from religious doctrine. Hindus and Buddhists for many centuries thought there was a literal Mount Meru in the middle of the (flat, disc-shaped) world. It would be very odd if “The Buddha attained enlightenment under the bo tree” had to be given a very different treatment from “The Buddha ate rice under the bo tree” because the first is a religious claim and the second is an ordinary empirical claim. There are certainly entailment relations between religious and non-religious claims, too: “Jesus died for my sins” straightforwardly entails “Jesus died.”

Since the subjects of religious experiences tend to take them to be real experiences of some external reality, we may ask what reason there is to think they are right. That is to say, do religious experiences amount to good reasons for religious belief? One answer to that question is what is often called the Argument from Religious Experience: Religious experiences are in all relevant respects like sensory experiences; sensory experiences are excellent grounds for beliefs about the physical world; so religious experiences are excellent grounds for religious beliefs. This argument, or one very like it, can be found in Swinburne (1979), Alston (1991), Plantinga (1981, 2000), Netland (2022) and others. Critics of this approach generally find ways in which religious experiences are different from sensory experiences, and argue that those differences are enough to undermine the evidential value of the experiences. Swinburne (1979) invokes what he calls the “Principle of Credulity,” according to which one is justified in believing that what seems to one to be present actually is present, unless some appropriate defeater is operative. He then discusses a variety of circumstances that would be defeaters in the ordinary sensory case, and argues that those defeaters do not obtain, or not always, in the case of religious experience. To reject his argument, one would have to show that religious experience is unlike sensory experience in that in the religious case, one or more of the defeaters always obtains. Anyone who accepts the principle has excellent reason to accept the deliverances of religious experience, unless he or she believes that defeaters always, or almost always, obtain.

Plantinga offers a different kind of argument. According to Cartesian-style foundationalism, in order to count as justified, a belief must either be grounded in other justified beliefs, or derive its justification from some special status, like infallibility, incorrigibility, or indubitability. There is a parallel view about knowledge. Plantinga (1981) argued that such a foundationalism is inconsistent with holding one’s own ordinary beliefs about the world to be justified (or knowledge), because our ordinary beliefs derived from sense-experience aren’t derived from anything infallible, indubitable, or incorrigible. In fact, we typically treat them as foundational, in need of no further justification. If we hold sensory beliefs to be properly basic, then we have to hold similarly formed religious beliefs, formed on experiences of God manifesting himself to a believer (Plantinga calls them ‘M-beliefs’), as properly basic. He proposed that human beings have a faculty—what John Calvin called the ‘ sensus divinitatis ’—that allows them to be aware of God’s actions or dispositions with respect to them. If beliefs formed by sense-experience can be properly basic, then beliefs formed by this faculty cannot, in any principled way, be denied that same status. His developed theory of warrant (2000) implies that, if the beliefs are true, then they are warranted. One cannot attack claims of religious experience without first addressing the question as to whether the religious claims are true. He admits that, since there are people in other religious traditions who have based beliefs about religious matters on similar purported manifestations, they may be able to make the same argument about their own religious experiences.

Alston develops a general theory of doxastic practices (constellations of belief-forming mechanisms, together with characteristic background assumptions and sets of defeaters), gives an account of what it is to rationally engage in such a practice, and then argues that at least the practice of forming beliefs on the basis of Christian religious experiences fulfills those requirements. If we think of the broad doxastic practices we currently employ, we see that some of them can be justified by the use of other practices. The practice of science, for example, reduces mostly to the practices of sense-perception, deductive reasoning, and inductive reasoning (memory and testimony also make contributions, of course). The justificatory status the practice gives to its product beliefs derives from those more basic practices. Most, however, cannot be so reduced. How are they justified, then? It seems that they cannot be justified non-circularly, that is, without the use of premises derived from the practices themselves. Our only justification for continuing to trust these practices is that they are firmly established, interwoven with other practices and projects of ours, and have “stood the test of time” by producing mostly consistent sets of beliefs. They produce a sufficiently consistent set of beliefs if they don’t produce massive, unavoidable contradictions on central matters, either internally, or with the outputs of other equally well-established practices. If that’s all there is to be said about our ordinary practices, then we ought to extend the same status to other practices that have the same features. He then argues that the Christian practice of belief-formation on the basis of religious experience does have those features. Like Plantinga, he admits that such an argument might be equally available to other religious practices; it all depends on whether the practice in question generates massive and unavoidable contradictions, on central matters, either internally, or with other equally well-established practices. To undermine this argument, one would have to show either that Alston’s criteria for rationality of a practice are too permissive, or that religious practices never escape massive contradictions.

Both Plantinga’s and Alston’s defense of the epistemic value of religious experiences turn crucially on some degree of similarity with sense-experience. But they are not simple arguments from analogy; not just any similarities will do to make the positive argument, and not just any dissimilarities will do to defeat the argument. The similarities or dissimilarities need to be epistemologically relevant. It is not enough, for example, to show that religious experiences do not typically allow for independent public verification, unless one wants to give up on other perfectly respectable practices, like rational intuition, that also lack that feature.

The two most important defeaters on the table for claims of the epistemic authority of religious experience are the fact of religious diversity, and the availability of naturalistic explanations for religious experiences. Religious diversity is a prima facie defeater for the veridicality of religious experiences in the same way that wildly conflicting eyewitness reports undermine each other. If the reports are at all similar, then it may be reasonable to conclude that there is some truth to the testimony, at least in broad outline. A version of this objection is the argument from divine hiddenness (cf. Lovering 2013). If God exists, and shows himself to some people in religious experiences, then the fact that he doesn’t do so for more people, more widely distributed, requires some explanation. Axtell provides another version of that objection. He argues that to insist that one’s own religious convictions are true in the face of the diversity of religions is to reason counter-inductively, and is therefore irrational. The reasoning is counter-inductive because your own convictions come from the same kinds of epistemic sources (investment in testimonial authority) as those you deem to be wrong, so if you are right, it is just a matter of luck. But if two eyewitness reports disagree on the most basic facts about what happened, then it seems that neither gives you good grounds for any beliefs about what happened. It certainly seems that the contents of religious-experience reports are radically different from one another. Some subjects of religious experiences report experience of nothingness as the ultimate reality, some a vast impersonal consciousness in which we all participate, some an infinitely perfect, personal creator. To maintain that one’s own religious experiences are veridical, one would have to a) find some common core to all these experiences, such that in spite of differences of detail, they could reasonably be construed as experiences of the same reality, or b) insist that one’s own experiences are veridical, and that therefore those of other traditions are not veridical. The first is difficult to manage, in the face of the manifest differences across religions. Nevertheless, John Hick (1989) develops a view of that kind, making use of a Kantian two-worlds epistemology. The idea is that the object of these experiences, in itself, is one and the same reality, but it is experienced phenomenally by different people differently. Thus, is possible to see how one and the same object can be experienced in ways that are completely incompatible with one another. This approach is only as plausible as the Kantian framework itself is. Jerome Gellman (2001) proposes a similar idea, without the Kantian baggage. Solutions like these leave the problem untouched: If the different practices produce experiences the contents of which are inconsistent with one another, one of the practices must be unreliable. Alston (1991) and Plantinga (2000) develop the second kind of answer. The general strategy is to argue that, from within a tradition, a person acquires epistemic resources not available to those outside the tradition, just as travelling to the heart of a jungle allows one to see things that those who have not made the journey can’t see. As a result, even if people in other traditions can make the same argument, it is still reasonable to say that some are right and the others are wrong. The things that justify my beliefs still justify them, even if you have comparable resources justifying a contrary view.

Naturalistic explanations for religious experiences are thought to undermine their epistemic value because, if the naturalistic explanation is sufficient to explain the experience, we have no grounds for positing anything beyond that naturalistic cause. Freud (1927) and Marx (1876/1977) are frequently held up as offering such explanations. Freud claims that religious experiences can be adequately explained by psychological mechanisms having their root in early childhood experience and psychodynamic tensions. Marx similarly attributes religious belief in general to materialistic economic forces. Both claim that, since the hidden psychological or economic explanations are sufficient to explain the origins of religious belief, there is no need to suppose, in addition, that the beliefs are true. Freud’s theory of religion has few adherents, even among the psychoanalytically inclined, and Marx’s view likewise has all but been abandoned, but that is not to say that something in the neighborhood might not be true. More recently, neurological explanations of religious experience have been put forward as reasons to deny the veridicality of the experiences. Events in the brain that occur during meditative states and other religious experiences are very similar to events that happen during certain kinds of seizures, or with certain kinds of mental disorders, and can also be induced with drugs. Therefore, it is argued, there is nothing more to religious experiences than what happens in seizures, mental disorders, or drug experiences. Some who are studying the neurological basis of religious experience do not infer that they are not veridical (see, e.g., d’Aquili and Newberg 1999), but many do. Guthrie (1995), for example, argues that religion has its origin in our tendency to anthropomorphize phenomena in our vicinity, seeing agency where there is none.

There are general problems with all kinds of naturalistic explanations as defeaters. First of all, as Gellman (2001) points out, most such explanations (like the psychoanalytic and socio-political ones) are put forward as hypotheses, not as established facts. The proponent assumes that the experiences are not veridical, then casts around for an explanation. This is not true of the neurological explanations, but they face another kind of weakness noted by Ellwood (1999): every experience, whatever its source, is accompanied by a corresponding neurological state. To argue that the experience is illusory because there is a corresponding brain state is fallacious. The same reasoning would lead us to conclude that sensory experiences are illusory, since in each sensory experience, there is some corresponding neurological state that is just like the state that occurs in the corresponding hallucination. The proponent of the naturalistic explanation as a defeater owes us some reason to believe that his or her argument is not just another skeptical argument from the veil of perception.

One further epistemological worry accompanies religious experience. James claimed that, while mystical experiences proved authoritative grounds for belief in the person experiencing them, they cannot give grounds for a person to whom the experience is reported. In other words, my experience is evidence for me, but not for you. Bovens (2012) gives a modern expansion and explanation of this claim. The claim can be understood in a variety of ways, depending on the kind of normativity that attaches to the purported evidential relation. Some (see Oakes 1976, for example) have claimed that religious experiences epistemically can necessitate belief; that is, anyone who has the experience and doesn’t form the corresponding belief is making an epistemic mistake, much like a person who, in normal conditions, refuses to believe his or her eyes. More commonly, defenders of the epistemic value of religious experience claim that the experiences make it epistemically permissible to form the belief, but you may also be justified in not forming the belief. The testimony of other people about what they have experienced is much the same. In some cases, a person would be unjustified in rejecting the testimony of others, and in other cases, one would be justified in accepting it, but need not accept it. This leaves us with three possibilities, on the assumption that the subject of the experience is justified in forming a religious belief on the basis of his or her experience, and that he or she tells someone else about it: the testimony might provide compelling evidence for the hearer, such that he or she would be unjustified in rejecting the claim; the testimony might provide non-compelling justification for the hearer to accept the claim; or the testimony might fail to provide any kind of grounds for the hearer to accept the claim. When a subject makes a claim on the basis of an ordinary experience, it might fall into any one of these three categories, depending on the claim’s content and the epistemic situation of the hearer. The most natural thing to say about religious experience claims is that they work the same way (on the assumption that they give the subject of the experience, who is making the claim, any justification for his or her beliefs). James, and some others after him, claim that testimony about religious experiences cannot fall under either of the first two categories. If that’s true, it must be because of something special about the nature of the experiences. If we assume that the experiences cannot be shown a priori to be defective somehow, and that religious language is intelligible—and if we do not make these assumptions, then the question of religious testimony doesn’t even arise—then it must be because the evidential value of the experience is so small that it cannot survive transmission to another person; that is, it must be that in the ordinary act of reporting an experience to someone else, there is some defeater at work that is always stronger than whatever evidential force the experience itself has. While there are important differences between ordinary sense-experience and religious experience (clarity of the experience, amount of information it contains, presence of competing explanations, and the like), it is not clear whether the differences are great enough to disqualify religious testimony always and everywhere.

Just as there are a variety of religions, each with its own claims about the nature of reality, there are a variety of objects and states of affairs that the subjects of these experiences claim to be aware of. Much analytic philosophy of religion has been done in Europe and the nations descended from Europe, so much of the discussion has been in terms of God as conceived of in the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions. In those traditions, the object of religious experiences is typically God himself, understood as an eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, free, and perfectly good spirit. God, for reasons of his own, reveals himself to people, some of them unbidden (like Moses, Muhammad, and Saint Paul), and some because they have undertaken a rigorous practice to draw closer to him (like the mystics). To say that an experience comes unbidden is not to say that nothing the subject has done has prepared her, or primed her, for the experience (see Luhrmann 2012); it is only to claim that the subject has not undertaken any practice aimed at producing a religious experience. In such experiences, God frequently delivers a message at the same time, but he need not. He is always identifiable as the same being who revealed himself to others in the same tradition. Other experiences can be of angels, demons, saints, heaven, hell, or other religiously significant objects.

In other traditions, it is not necessarily a personal being who is the object of the experience, or even a positive being at all. In the traditions that find their origin in the Indian subcontinent—chiefly Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism—the object of religious experiences is some basic fact or feature of reality, rather than some entity separate from the universe. In the orthodox Hindu traditions, one may certainly have an experience of a god or some other supernatural entity (like Arjuna’s encounter with Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita), but a great many important kinds of experiences are of Brahman, and its identity with the self. In Yoga, which is based in the Samkhya understanding of the nature of things, the mystical practice of yoga leads to a calming and stilling of the mind, which allows the yogi to apprehend directly that he or she is not identical to, or even causally connected with, the physical body, and this realization is what liberates him or her from suffering.

In Theravada Buddhism, the goal of meditation is to “see things as they are,” which is to see them as unsatisfactory, impermanent, and not-self (Gowans 2003, 191). The meditator, as he or she makes progress along the way, sheds various delusions and attachments. The last one to go is the delusion that he or she is a self. To see this is to see all of reality as made up of sequences of momentary events, each causally dependent on the ones that went before. There are no abiding substances, and no eternal souls. Seeing reality that way extinguishes the fires of craving, and liberates the meditator from the necessity of rebirth (Laumakis 2008, 158–161). Seeing things as they are involves removing from the mind all the delusions that stand in the way of such seeing, which is done by meditation practices that develop the meditator’s mastery of his or her own mind. The type of meditation that brings this mastery and allows the meditator to see the true nature of things is called Vipassana (insight) meditation. It typically involves some object of meditation, which can be some feature of the meditator him- or herself, some feature of the physical or mental world, or some abstraction, which then becomes the focus of the meditator’s concentration and examination. In the end, it is hoped, the meditator will see in the object the unsatisfactory and impermanent nature of things and that there is no self to be found in them. At the moment of that insight, nirvana is achieved. While the experience of nirvana is essentially the realization of a kind of insight, it is also accompanied by other experiential elements, especially of the cessation of negative mental states. Nirvana is described in the Buddhist canon as the extinction of the fires of desire. The Theravada tradition teaches other kinds of meditation that can help the meditator make progress, but the final goal can’t be achieved without vipassana meditation.

In the Mahayana Buddhist traditions, this idea of the constantly fluctuating nature of the universe is extended in various ways. For some, even those momentary events that make up the flow of the world are understood to be empty of inherent existence (the idea of inherent existence is understood differently in different traditions) to the point that what one sees in the enlightenment experience is the ultimate emptiness ( sunyata ) of all things. In the Yogacara school of Mahayana Buddhism, this is understood as emptiness of external existence; that is, to see things as they are is to see them as all mind-dependent. In the Zen school of Mahayana Buddhism, the enlightenment experience ( kensho ) reveals that reality contains no distinctions or dualities. Since concepts and language always involve distinctions, which always involve duality, the insight so gained cannot be achieved conceptually or expressed linguistically. In all Mahayana schools, what brings enlightenment is direct realization of sunyata as a basic fact about reality.

The situation is somewhat more complicated in the Chinese traditions. The idea of religious experience seems to be almost completely absent in the Confucian tradition; the social world looms large, and the idea of an ultimate reality that needs to be experienced becomes much less prominent. Before the arrival of Buddhism in China, Confucianism was primarily a political and ethical system, with no particular concern with the transcendent (though people who identified themselves as Confucians frequently engaged in Chinese folk religious practices). Nevertheless, meditation (and therefore something that could be called “religious experience”) did come to play a role in Confucian practice in the tenth century, as Confucian thought began to be influenced by Buddhist and Daoist thought. The resulting view is known as Neo-Confucianism. Neo-Confucianism retains the Mencian doctrine that human beings are by nature good, but in need of purification. Since goodness resides in every person, then examination of oneself should reveal the nature of goodness, through the experience of the vital force within ( qi ). The form of meditation that arises from this line of thought (“quiet sitting” or “sitting and forgetting”) are very like Buddhist vipassana meditation, but there is no value placed on any particular insight gained, though one can experience the principle of unity ( li ) behind the world. Success is measured in gradual moral improvement.

The Daoist ideal is to come to an understanding of the Dao, the fundamental nature of reality that explains all things in the world, and live according to it. Knowledge of the Dao is essential to the good life, but this knowledge cannot be learned from discourses, or transmitted by teaching. It is only known by experiential acquaintance. The Dao gives the universe a kind of grain, or flow, going against which causes human difficulty. The good human life is then one that respects the flow of Dao, and goes along with it. This is what is meant by “life in accordance with nature,” and is the insight behind the Daoist admonition of wu wei, sometimes glossed as “actionless action.” By paying attention to reality as it presents itself, a person can learn what the Dao is, and can experience unity with it. This picture of reality, along with the picture of how one can come to know it, heavily influenced the development of Ch’an Buddhism, which became Zen.

All of the same epistemological problems that arise for theism will also arise for these other traditions, though in different forms. That is, one can ask of experiences of Brahman, Sunyata, the Dao, and anything else that is the object of religious experience whether there is any reason to think the experience is veridical. One can also ask whether testimony about those experiences carries the same weight as ordinary experience. Naturalistic explanations can also be offered to these experiences. It is equally true that the responses that have been offered to these objections in a theistic context are also available to defenders of non-theistic religious experience.

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• Moser, Paul, 2008. The Elusive God: Reorienting Religious Epistemology , New York: Cambridge University Press.
• –––, 2020. Understanding Religious Experience: from Conviction to Life’s Meaning, New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Netland, Harold A., 2022. Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God: the Evidential Force of Divine Encounters , Grand Rapids: Baker Books.
• Nielsen, Kai, 1985. Philosophy and Atheism , New York: Prometheus Books.
• Oakes, Robert A., 1976, “Religious Experience and Rational Certainty,” Religious Studies , 12(3): 311–318.
• Otto, Rudolf, 1923. The Idea of the Holy , John W. Harvey (trans.), London: Cambridge University Press.
• Phillips, D. Z., 1970. “Religious Beliefs and Language Games,” Ratio , 12: 26–46.
• Plantinga, Alvin, 1981, “Is Belief in God Properly Basic?” Noûs , 15: 41–51.
• –––, 2000, Warranted Christian Belief , New York: Oxford University Press.
• Rainey, Lee Dian, 2010. Confucius and Confucianism: the Essentials , New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Saver, Jeffrey L., and John Rabin, 1997. “The Neural Substrates of Religious Experience,” Journal of Neuropsychiatry , 9: 498–510.
• Schleiermacher, Friedrich, 1998. On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers , Richard Crouter (ed.), New York: Cambridge.
• Swinburne, Richard, 1979. The Existence of God , New York: Clarendon Press.
• Taylor, Rodney L., 1990. The Religious Dimensions of Confucianism , Albany: SUNY Press.
• Wainwright, William J., 1981. Mysticism: A Study of its Nature, Cognitive Value, and Moral Implications , Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
• Webb, Mark Owen, 2015. A Comparative Doxastic-Practice Epistemology of Religious Experience , New York: Springer.
• Wettstein, Howard, 2012. The Significance of Religious Experience , New York: Oxford University Press.
• Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 1978. Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology, and Religious Belief , Cyril Barrett (ed.), Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Yandell, Keith E., 1993. The Epistemology of Religious Experience , New York: Cambridge University Press.

How to cite this entry . Preview the PDF version of this entry at the Friends of the SEP Society . Look up topics and thinkers related to this entry at the Internet Philosophy Ontology Project (InPhO). Enhanced bibliography for this entry at PhilPapers , with links to its database.

• Religious Experience Resources , by Wesley Wildman, Boston University.

empiricism: logical | hiddenness of God | James, William | mysticism | perception: epistemological problems of | religion: epistemology of | religious diversity | testimony: epistemological problems of

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• The Secular Web - Religious Experience
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Religious Experience
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religious experience , specific experience such as wonder at the infinity of the cosmos, the sense of awe and mystery in the presence of the sacred or holy, feeling of dependence on a divine power or an unseen order, the sense of guilt and anxiety accompanying belief in a divine judgment, or the feeling of peace that follows faith in divine forgiveness. Some thinkers also point to a religious aspect to the purpose of life and the destiny of the individual.

In the first sense, religious experience means an encounter with the divine in a way analogous to encounters with other persons and things in the world. In the second case, reference is made not to an encounter with a divine being but rather to the apprehension of a quality of holiness or rightness in reality or to the fact that all experience can be viewed in relation to the ground from which it springs. In short, religious experience means both special experience of the divine or ultimate and the viewing of any experience as pointing to the divine or ultimate.

“Religious experience” was not widely used as a technical term prior to the publication of The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) by William James , an eminent American psychologist and philosopher, but the interpretation of religious concepts and doctrine s in terms of individual experience reaches back at least to 16th-century Spanish mystics and to the age of the Protestant reformers. A special emphasis on the importance of experience in religion is found in the works of such thinkers as Jonathan Edwards , Friedrich Schleiermacher , and Rudolf Otto . Basic to the experiential approach is the belief that it allows for a firsthand understanding of religion as an actual force in human life, in contrast with religion taken either as church membership or as belief in authoritative doctrines. The attempt to interpret such concepts as God, faith , conversion, sin , salvation , and worship through personal experience and its expressions opened up a wealth of material for the investigation of religion by psychologists, historians, anthropologists, and sociologists as well as by theologians and philosophers. A focus on religious experience is especially important for phenomenologists (thinkers who seek the basic structures of human consciousness ) and existentialist philosophers ( see phenomenology of religion ).

A number of controversial issues have emerged from these studies, involving not only different conceptions of the nature and structure of religious experience but also different views of the manner in which it is to be evaluated and the sort of evaluation possible from the standpoint of a given discipline . Four such issues are basic: (1) whether religious experience points to special experiences of the divine or whether any experience may be regarded as religious by virtue of becoming related to the divine; (2) the kinds of differentia that can serve to distinguish religion or the religious from both secular life and other forms of spirituality , such as morality and art; (3) whether religious experience can be understood and properly evaluated in terms of its origins and its psychological or sociological conditions or is sui generis , calling for interpretation in its own terms; and (4) whether religious experience has cognitive status, involving encounter with a being, beings, or a power transcending human consciousness , or is merely subjective and composed entirely of ideas and feelings that have no reference beyond themselves. The last issue, transposed in accordance with either a positivist outlook or some types of empiricism , which restrict assertible reality to the realm of sense experience, would be resolved at once by the claim that the problem cannot be meaningfully discussed, since key terms, such as “God” and “power,” are strictly meaningless.

Proponents of mysticism , such as Rudolf Otto, Rufus Jones , and W.T. Stace , maintained the validity of immediate experience of the divine, and theologians such as Emil Brunner stressed the self-authenticating character of the human being’s encounter with God. Naturalistically oriented psychologists, such as Sigmund Freud and J.H. Leuba , rejected such claims and explained religion in psychological and genetic terms as a projection of human wishes and desires. Philosophers such as William James, Josiah Royce , William E. Hocking, and Wilbur M. Urban represented an idealist tradition in interpreting religion, stressing the concepts of purpose, value, and meaning as essential for understanding the nature of God. Naturalist philosophers, of whom John Dewey was typical, have focused on the “religious” as a quality of experience and an attitude toward life that is more expressive of the human spirit than of any supernatural reality. The theologians Douglas Clyde Macintosh and Henry Nelson Wieman sought to build an “empirical theology” on the basis of religious experience understood as involving a direct perception of God. Unlike Macintosh, Wieman held that such a perception is sensory in character. Personalist philosophers, such as Edgar S. Brightman and Peter Bertocci, have regarded the person as the basic category for understanding all experience and have interpreted religious experience as the medium through which God is apprehended as the cosmic person. Existential thinkers , such as Søren Kierkegaard , Gabriel Marcel , and Paul Tillich , have seen God manifested in experience in the form of a power that overcomes estrangement and enables human beings to fulfill themselves as integrated personalities. Process philosophers , such as Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne , have held that the idea of God emerges in religious experience but that the nature and reality of God are problems calling for logical argument and metaphysical interpretation, in which emphasis falls on the relation between God and the world being realized in a temporal process. Logical empiricists (also called logical positivists ), of whom A.J. Ayer was typical, have held that religious and theological expressions are without literal significance, because there is no way in which they can be either justified or falsified (refuted). On this view, religious experience is entirely emotive , lacking all cognitive value. Analytic philosophers following the lead of Ludwig Wittgenstein , an Austrian British thinker, approach religious experience through the structure of religious language, attempting to discover exactly how this language functions within the community of believers who use it.

Essay on Religious Experience

Students are often asked to write an essay on Religious Experience in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Religious Experience

Understanding religious experience.

Religious experience is a personal encounter with the divine or sacred. It is a feeling or perception that someone has when they come in contact with a higher power. This could be God, spirits, or other supernatural beings. These experiences are often very powerful and can change a person’s life.

Types of Religious Experiences

There are many types of religious experiences. Some people might hear a voice, see a vision, or feel a sudden sense of peace. Others might have dreams or feel a strong pull towards a certain faith. Each person’s experience is unique and personal.

Impact of Religious Experiences

Religious experiences can have a big impact on a person’s life. They can lead to a stronger faith, a change in behavior, or a new understanding of the world. Some people might even decide to dedicate their lives to their faith after having a religious experience.

Interpreting Religious Experiences

Interpreting religious experiences can be tricky. Some people might see them as proof of their faith, while others might see them as psychological events. It’s important to remember that religious experiences are personal and can mean different things to different people.

250 Words Essay on Religious Experience

What is a religious experience.

A religious experience is a special moment when a person feels a deep connection with a higher power. This higher power could be God, a spirit, or any divine being. These experiences are often very personal and can have a big impact on a person’s life. They can happen in different ways. Some people might have a religious experience during prayer, while others might have one while looking at nature.

There are many types of religious experiences. For instance, some people might have a ‘mystical experience’. This is when they feel a deep sense of unity with the universe. Some people might have a ‘conversion experience’. This is when they change their beliefs or their way of life because of a religious experience. Other people might have a ‘miracle experience’. This is when they believe that something impossible has happened because of the power of God.

Religious experiences can change a person’s life. They can make a person feel more peaceful, happy, and hopeful. They can also make a person feel more connected to other people and to the world around them. Some people might start to live in a different way after a religious experience. They might become kinder, more loving, or more understanding.

In conclusion, a religious experience is a powerful moment of connection with a higher power. It can happen in many different ways and can have a big impact on a person’s life. It is a deeply personal and often life-changing event.

500 Words Essay on Religious Experience

A religious experience is a special event or moment in a person’s life when they feel a strong connection to a higher power. This higher power could be God, a spirit, or a divine being. These experiences can vary greatly from person to person. Some people might see or hear things that others cannot. Others may have a deep feeling of peace and love. These experiences can happen anywhere, anytime – during prayer, in a dream, or even when simply looking at nature.

A third type is a “mystical” experience. This is a feeling of being one with the universe or God. It is often described as a deep sense of peace and love. Lastly, there’s a “conversion” experience. This is when a person decides to change their beliefs or way of life because of a religious experience.

Effects of Religious Experiences

Religious experiences can have a big impact on a person’s life. They can change how a person thinks and behaves. For example, a person who has a religious experience might decide to be kinder to others. They might also start to pray more often or read religious texts.

Understanding Religious Experiences

Religious experiences are personal and unique to each person. It’s important to respect everyone’s experiences, even if they are different from our own. Some people might not believe in religious experiences. That’s okay too. Everyone has the right to their own beliefs.

In conclusion, religious experiences are special moments when people feel a strong connection to a higher power. They can take many forms and have a big impact on a person’s life. Whether you believe in them or not, they are an important part of many people’s lives.

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

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Writing a level religious studies essays: ten top tips.

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Richard Barrow, Religious Studies Subject Advisor

Teachers regularly ask: “how should our students write essays for A Level Religious Studies ?” I spoke to the principal examiner for H573/01: Philosophy of religion and gathered the views of other principal examiners. Here, I collate their responses as tips for you to share with your students.

1. The question is supreme

Students should respond to the question actually posed , rather than one they have pre-learnt an answer for. 

We saw this with question 1 in the summer 2023 H573/03 Developments in Christian thought paper: Assess Augustine’s claim that only God’s grace can overcome human sin . For this question the focus was grace rather than the general topic of the Fall and Original Sin.  

Points can be made relevant to the question and all credit-worthy material will be rewarded.

2. Be selective with material – it’s as much about what you don’t write

Teachers and students ask how it’s possible to write a whole essay in 40 minutes. While this challenge should not be under-estimated, the concern betrays an underlying misconception. Questions are unlikely to be of the form: “tell us everything you know about X”. 

Careful selection of material enables students to meet time constraints and clearly focus on the question. Students should be reassured that they will be assessed positively on their selection of material rather than judged harshly for what they have left out.

As the principal examiner for H573/01 noted:   

Effective planning means selecting the points and material to enable you to respond to the specific question. Such planning will necessarily be quite brief but can really pay off in terms of structure. 

In terms of the focus of planning, here is some useful advice from the PE for H573/03: 

Often the best plans that we see are AO2-led. An AO2-led plan for the Augustine question mentioned in 1) for example would contain a couple of arguments showing the strengths and weaknesses of whether Augustine is right that only God’s grace can overcome human sin.

4. Scholarship, not (necessarily) scholars

The Levels of Response for A Level Religious Studies talk about “scholarly views”, not about scholars. There is no specific requirement for, minimum, or preferred number of scholars. Students sometimes shoe-horn scholars into essays when it doesn’t contribute to the discussion or argument. Examiners want to see scholarship: in-depth and nuanced understanding of the material. 

Having a range of “scholarly views” means using this scholarship to outline and decide between different possible positions on a question or issue. In practice, often these positions will be explained with reference to scholars, but it’s not the naming of people itself that should be the focus. 

Scholarship also covers things that students can do to enhance their knowledge and understanding. While grasping the fundamentals is key, students can deepen their knowledge of the material on the specification through primary or secondary reading where possible. Students will be rewarded for any credit-worthy material. This includes discussion of material that goes beyond the specification but there is no requirement for this.

5. Subtlety of understanding

Religious Studies is a demanding discipline – part of what makes it so interesting – and at A Level the concepts and discussion are often subtle and nuanced. We saw this with Q2 in the 2023 H573/01: Philosophy of religion paper, which was: Critically assess the views of William James about religious experience. 

The Principal Examiner for H573/01 said that: 

A notable proportion of responses did not address specifically James’ views but wrote about religious experiences in a more general sense and showed little direct knowledge of James’ views. James’ classifications of religious experience apply to mystical experiences rather than all religious experiences. James did not comment on the Toronto Blessings or corporate religious experiences. 

James is a good candidate for the sort of primary reading suggested in tip 4. The Varieties of Religious Experience is available as a free PDF.  

This was also noted by the Principal Examiner for H573/02: 

There was at times a lack of nuance and sophistication in the approach to ethical theories: situation ethics is more than just doing the most loving thing; Kantian ethics is more than just following rules and doing one’s duty. There was also a more noticeable confusion and conflation of ideas/terminology between the ethical theories.

6. Don’t forget AO1

In the 2023 series, AO2 marks were in general higher than in previous years, which should be celebrated. However, AO1 marks seemed to dip. As the Principal Examiner for H573/02 said: 

Candidates on occasions didn’t outline the idea to be assessed or wrote generally about the topic without specific focus on the question. 

Using the examples of the H573/03 Developments in Christian thought questions, a greater focus on AO1 would mean explaining what grace actually is, what alienation and exploitation actually are, and so on.

7. …but don’t get hung up on classification

Teachers and students are often concerned about classification. An example is Natural Law - students can get hung up on whether it is deontological or teleological. In fact it can validly be understood as either – provided the candidate has justified their understanding. From the examiners’ point of view the quality of explanation is more important than classification.

8. Synoptic links – great if relevant, but not required

A persistent myth about the OCR A Level in Religious Studies is that making synoptic links is a specific requirement of the assessment. It is not, and synoptic links that are shoe-horned in risk irrelevancy. 

Synoptic links will be credited if they are relevant to the question. For example, Q1 in the 2023 H573/01: Philosophy of religion paper was: Evaluate the verification principle . Some students made excellent use of Anselm’s ontological argument to show how an a priori use of religious language could still fulfil the verification principle’s criteria, but the synopticity alone was not inherently credit-worthy.

9. Effective evaluation – a golden thread

It’s important to note that there is no preferred style for essay writing or evaluation. However, the Principal Examiner for H573/01 noted that in general, successful essays: 

• embedded the evaluation throughout the essay, using the material as a vehicle for discussion 
• focused directly on the question rather than more general issues raised by the topic
• outlined what was going to be argued at the beginning of the essay with a hypothesis and reasons, and developed this through the essay

This approach is described by the Principal Examiner for H573/03 as having a ‘golden thread’ running throughout the essay.

10. If it’s on the specification…

The specification is the definitive guide to the material that the students study and to the types of questions that they prepare for. Questions can be quite specific and we can ask a question on any area of the specification. 

For example, question 4 from the 2023 H573/03 Developments in Christian thought paper was Critically assess Marx’s teaching on alienation and exploitation . This is clearly referenced in the specification and hence there can be a question about it. 

Some questions are fairly broad in their scope, while others can be very focused. An example is Q3 from the 2023 H573/05 Developments in Jewish thought paper: Evaluate the view that the gemara is more important than the mishnah in understanding the Talmud . This is from the Jewish Oral and Written Law section of the Foundations part of the paper, but this is not simply a question generically about Oral and Written Law.

Stay connected

Share your thoughts in the comments below. If you have any questions, you can email us at [email protected] , call us on 01223 553998 or message us on X (formerly Twitter) @OCR_RS . You can also sign up to subject updates and receive email information about resources and support.

About the author

Richard studied philosophy and has a BA, MA and M.Phil from the University of East Anglia. Before joining OCR, he taught religious studies and philosophy for nearly 20 years at sixth form and university level, and has particular research interests in Learning Theory, Retrieval Practice and Flipped Learning. In his free time he enjoys weightlifting, rugby, gardening, nature/conservation and military history and also spends a lot of time looking after his children’s pets.

Religious Experience, Conversion, and Creativity: An Essay

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13 The Argument from Religious Experience

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Large numbers of people have religious experiences in the sense of experiences which seem to them to be experiences of God. It is a basic epistemological principle, the principle of credulity, that — in absence of counter-evidence — we should believe that things are as they seem to be. The only kind of counter-evidence which would tend to show a religious experience not to be veridical would be any evidence tending to show that there is no God. In the absence of any such evidence, any religious experience is evidence for the subject (and via his testimony, for others) of the existence of God.

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A Level Philosophy & Religious Studies

Religious Experience

Edexcel Philosophy

William James

James was a philosopher and a psychologist who claimed that religious experiences occur in different religions and have similar features. People who have and try to have religious experiences are often called ‘Mystics’ and their experiences are intense and totally immersive. Their experiences are called ‘Mystical’.

James’ four criteria which characterise all mystical religious experiences:

• Ineffable – the experience is beyond language and cannot be put into words to accurately described.
• Noetic – some sort of knowledge or insight is gained
• Transient – the experience is temporary
• Passive – the experience happens to a person; the person doesn’t make the experience happen.

James’ argument is that there must be some objective explanation of the cross-cultural similarity of religious experiences being defined by these four criteria, since it is astronomically improbable that it is due to chance. James’ explanation is that religious experiences are the core of religion, whereas religious teachings and practices were ‘second hand’ religion, i.e not what religion is really about. This makes James a pluralist, meaning he thinks all religions are true in that they point to a higher spiritual reality. All religious experiences have similar features no matter the religion of the experiencer. The ‘differences’ between religions are more superficial cultural additions onto that core.

James’ Pragmatism. James was most interested in the effects religious experiences had on people’s lives and argued that the validity of the experience depended upon those effects. This is because James was a Pragmatist – a philosophical view on epistemology which states that if something is good for us, that is evidence of its truth. James pointed to the case study of an Alcoholic who was unable to give up alcohol but then had a religious experience, after which he was able to give up the alcohol. They were unable to give up the alcohol before the experience, implying they lacked the power. After the experience, they had gained that power they lacked before. Where did it come from? James would argue that this is evidence for the validity of the experience, meaning it was probably ‘true’. Though again, James would only think this was evidence for the validity of ‘the spiritual’, not necessarily whichever God that alcoholic happened to believe in.

Alternative explanation: Cross-cultural similarity of the features of religious experiences could have a naturalistic explanation, however. It could be that all human brains hallucinate similarly because they evolved similarly.

James argues that religious experiences cannot be mere hallucinations, however, because of their life-changing effects (pragmatism).

Counter to pragmatism: Although it’s not that not all hallucinations are life-changing, that doesn’t mean some aren’t. If a hallucination happens to fit with certain beliefs a person might have then it might be life-changing even though it isn’t real. Furthermore, arguably the alcoholic happened to hallucinate Jesus because his mind’s preconceptions made that more likely. If an Atheist hallucinates a person walking down a road, that won’t change their life, however if a theist hallucinates an angel, it might be life changing but only because of their beliefs about its significance which their own mind is supplying, it’s not coming from some higher spiritual reality, it’s just a hallucination.

Rudolf Otto

Otto defined religious experiences as “numinous”; feelings of awe and wonder in the presence of an all-powerful being. Otto described the numinous experience as follows:

It is an experience of something ‘Wholly other’ – completely different to anything human.

The revelation of God is felt emotionally, not rationally.

Mysterium – the utter inexplicable indescribable mystery of the experience

Tremendum – the awe and fear of being in the presence of an overwhelmingly superior being

            Fascinans – despite that fear, being strangely drawn to the experience

Otto claims Numinous experiences are the core of any religion ‘worthy of the name’. For Otto, it is fundamental to true religion that individuals should have a sense of a personal encounter with the divine. This means that Numinous religious experiences are the true core of religion, whereas the teachings and holy books and so on are not the true core of a religion.

Otto was a protestant who clearly advanced religious experiences as a direct line to God in opposition to the Catholic view that the church was a necessary intermediary between common people and God. Otto tried to identify what made an experience religious rather than just an experience.

Otto thought too much focus had been placed on the idea that God could be known through logical argument or sensory experiences.

Persinger was a neuroscientist who created a machine dubbed the ‘God helmet’ which physiologically manipulated people’s brain waves and often caused them to have a religious experience where they felt the presence of unseen beings. If this is the case, arguably religious experiences originate from the brain, not God. Religious experiences are just an unusual state of the brain. Regular religious experiences are just examples of that.

Criticism of Persinger: However, maybe that brain manipulation is simply the mechanism by which God creates religious experience. Also, we know we can cause hallucinations by manipulating the brain with drugs like LSD. This shouldn’t necessarily count against the validity of religious experiences that occur without such manipulations.

Defence of Persinger: Arguably Persinger at least demonstrates that religious experiences could have a naturalistic explanation. Therefore, supernatural explanations are unnecessary.

Criticism of Otto #2: It also seems difficult for Otto to rule out alternative naturalistic explanations of religious experience such as Mental illness, Epilepsy, random brain hallucinations, drugs, alcohol, fasting, sleep deprivation, etc.

Swinburne on credulity and testimony

Swinburne  argued that religious experiences are evidence for God. His argument involves the principles of testimony and credulity. The principle of credulity argues that you should believe what you experience unless you have a reason not to. The principle of testimony argues that you should believe what others tell you they have experienced, unless you have a reason not to. Swinburne is an empiricist who argues that an experience of God should count as evidence towards belief in God, although it doesn’t constitute complete proof.

Swinburne argued that whenever we gain some new evidence, we can’t dismiss it for no reason – that would be irrational. It is only if we have other better-established evidence which contradicts that new evidence that we may rationally dismiss it. This is the rationale behind the principles of testimony and credulity. If we see a tree, that is evidence that the tree exists. Unless we have some other evidence suggesting the tree doesn’t exist, we would be irrational for dismissing the evidence of our experience. So too is it with God. Experiencing God is evidence for God, unless we have some other evidence to justify dismissing that experience.

Naturalistic explanations are always a reason not to believe. Any religious experience could be explained by mental illness, epilepsy, random brain hallucinations, fasting, drugs, alcohol, lack of sleep, etc. So we will always have a reason not to believe any religious experience.

Defence of Swinburne: We could defend Swinburne by pointing out that we could check for the presence of physiological and psychological causes of hallucinations. If none are present in a particular case, then we have no reason not to believe the experience in that case. In such cases, we cannot rule out random brain hallucinations or unknown medical causes of religious experiences, but we have no evidence for those explanations and therefore must accept such cases as evidence for God.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence: However, is a mere experience of God sufficient evidence to justify belief in God? Arguably the existence of God is an extraordinary claim which therefore might require extraordinary evidence.

Freud’s critique of religious experience

Freud called religion an ‘obsessional neurosis’ and said it ultimately derived from two main psychological forces. The first is the fear of death. We have an instinctual animalistic fear of death which we can’t control but we can control our human thoughts and cognitions. While animals only have their fear of death triggered when in a dangerous situation, humans are the only animal that constantly are aware that they are going to die. We have the animalistic part of ourselves, but have since developed cognitive processes, which then unfortunately constantly trigger the fear of death on our animalistic side. So the solution is to manipulate those to believe that death is not the end. Also, Freud argued that the reason Christians call God ‘father’ is because they have a desire to be a child forever. It’s a desire for eternal innocence in the face of the painful reality of the world. Freud thought these psychological forces were so strong that they resulted in delusions which could explain religious experience.

Freud’s account of religion is unscientific, overgeneralised and overly-reductive. There seem to be plenty of non-neurotic religious people. The problem with psychological arguments is that while they could be true for many maybe even the majority, it’s hard to argue they are true for all and even if they don’t work for one person, that’s one person they can’t explain.

Freud is currently regarded by psychologists as being too unempirical in his methods for his theories to count as real science. He studied a small sample size which was not representative of society and had no method of experiment. Popper argued that Freud’s method was unfalsifiable.

Freud’s analysis seems to ignore mystical religious experience and its sense of unity with something infinite and unbounded. These seem to go far beyond the wish-fulfilling hallucinations of a neurotic. Arguably it is these ecstatic immersive experiences which are the foundation of religious belief, not wish fulfilment.

Freud admitted that this challenge was a difficulty for his theory. His response was to argue that intense mystical experiences are actually reliving of childhood experiences before the ego or ‘self’ had formed. This explains the dissolving of the sense of self and resultant unity with everything in mystical experiences. Freud argued that reliving experiences of selflessness is simply a feature of the mind and only later came to be arbitrarily associate with religion, but in essence has nothing to do with it.

Conversion experiences from one religion to another can’t be explained away as wishful thinking or a fear of death. The person having the experience already believed in a God and an afterlife, so whatever wishful thinking for an afterlife they might have had would already have been satisfied by the religious beliefs of the religion they were already in. E.g. St Paul on the road to Damascus saw Jesus and was converted from a Jewish persecutor of Christianity to a Christian.

Criticism of the case of St Paul: However arguably it could still be explained by mental illness. Much of Paul’s description of his experience – eg seeing a bright light, falling to the floor, being paralysed, are symptoms of epileptic siezures.

Defence of conversion experiences: It is hard to diagnose people based on writings from thousands of years ago though. Conversion could also be explained away by wishful thinking if the person’s previous belief was somehow unsatisfying. However it’s hard to argue this is the case with Paul, unless his killings were startling to weigh on his conscience.. but perhaps they were.

Corporate religious experiences

Corporate religious experience is when multiple people share the same experience. E.g Toronto Blessing or speaking in tongues (Pentecostalism). In the Toronto blessing, the congregation felt unusual emotions, some falling around crying, others laughing hysterically. They attributed this to the presence of the holy spirt, which they claimed to feel. The strengths of corporate experiences is that they can’t be explained by criticisms that could only apply to individuals – like mental illness, drugs, alcohol, fasting, or attention seeking.

Psychological group dynamics: there are peculiar psychological dynamics to crowds or groups of people such as mob mentality, mass hysteria and social compliance. In the middle ages, an entire village would form an angry mob who were all convinced they had seen a witch cast a spell, and would then execute some poor woman. We could even say the same of today regarding groups of people who think they have seen Aliens. So clearly group delusion is possible. This could then be claimed to be the case in corporate religious experience.

The multiple claims issue

Hume’s multiple claims argument. Any belief in the action or intervention of a God, such as a miracle or a religious experience, has the problem that similar claims are made by other religions. Most religions involve the claims that their particular God(s) intervene in the world and in human experience. Hume argued this means their claims ‘cancel each other out’. All religions cannot be true. At most, one could be true and the rest false, or none of them could be true. So, any religious person’s claim that divine intervention happened could be false.

One could reply with pluralism – the view that all religions are just different cultural manifestations of the divine, therefore all are true. This view is held by William James and Hick. James thinks that mystical religious experience occurring in all religions shows that they are all true. Hick argues that the different religions of the world are like blind men each touching a different part of an elephant. They each report they are feeling something different, yet that is because they are just too blind to see how they are really part of the same thing.

Hick argued that faith is a way of interpreting reality in a religious experience or “experiencing-as”. Hick thinks perceiving God is neither a “reasoned conclusion or an unreasoned hunch”. Hick was influenced by Kant to think that we only perceive a particular interpretation of reality. So experiencing God It is an interpretation of our experience just like anything else we see.

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Religious Experience - Edexel A2

Religious Experience Essay

“ Religious experience does not provide a secure basis for belief in God.” Analyse and discuss this claim.

Few topics in philosophy and theology cause as much disagreement as religious experience. With its different definitions and numerous types, anything from seeing the Virgin Mary to being relaxed at the sound of your favourite piece of classical music, religious experience has attracted the attention of many scholars, both pro and anti religious experience.

Although they can take many different forms, there are several things that link different types of religious experience, although they do not always appear in every experience. They are a personal experience, especially the ones that involve some sort of divine influence. They also have a direct and prominent effect on the person’s life. If a person had experienced a near-death experience, and found that they had experienced a pleasant afterlife, then they would be more likely to be relaxed about death. Indeed, there are certain scholars who believe that one can only say that a religious experience has taken place, if there is a change in life. For example, Saul, commonly called Paul, had a famous conversion on the Road to Damascus.

All religious experiences, however, are convincing for the individual; no matter what the mitigating evidence, or how illogical the experience, the individual normally truly believes what they have seen or felt.

One of the greatest theologians of the age, Richard Swinburne, argues in favour of religious experience, including a clumative argument for the existence of God from the experiences. When one looks at the arguments from design, from ontology and from cosmology, one is looking at a particular part of existence. Swinburne argues that it is religious experiences that provide the best argument for the existence of God. By personally experiencing God’s existence in one’s life, it can bring about a more convincing belief in God than an inferred argument. When all of the arguments are cululated, an argument is formed which makes for a reasonable possibility for God’s existence.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Swinburne feels that religious experiences can be put in to two main groups, public and private ones. Public religious experiences are ones where God’s actions are seen in the world at large, or in large scale events. When people argue for the existence of God from a design argument, they will often refer to seeing God’s wonder at work in the universe. Whilst the atheist may see nothing more than a starry sky, a theist may look at this and see the wonder of creation; a creation so perfect that it could only have come from God. The other group, private experiences, are ones that are for a certain individual only. They may include experiences such as seeing the Virgin Mary, or the feeling of a ‘presence’ that you associate as being religious. Although not always describable, the experiences are nearly always a lot more convincing to those who experience them, than to someone hearing about them. A J Taylor argues that have the presence of God semi-permanently or permanently in one’s life also counts a religious experience; although not a singular event, God’s presence as a guide in one’s life can bring about a similar effect to a singular experience.

Caroline Franks Davis broadly agrees with Swinburne, taking the view, in The Evidential Force of Religious Experience, that with all the inferred arguments for God’s existence, the probability is roughly equal for God’s existence as not.

Religious experiences, however, may tip the balance in favor of God’s existence.

C F Davis is most recognized in the field of religious experience for her three challenges over religious experiences, aimed mainly at Swinburne’s principles of testimony and credulity.

The description related challenge challenges the experience on the basis of self-contradiction, or the inherent difficulty that surrounds the use of language as a communicating tool. Since one person may not necessarily use language the same way as another, the use of language as a communication tool is flawed. The subject related challenge challenges the experience on the basis of the individual experiencing them, and the condition that they were in when they had the experience. If the person was under the influence, then their report may not hold as much weight as someone who had a religious experience when they were in a normal condition. However, a common rebuttal is that, just because someone is somehow mentally impaired, it does not nessecarly mean that what they experienced was not real. The third challenge is that of object related challenges, which challenges the existence of an object that was in the experience.

If someone said that they had experienced the Loch Ness monster, the objection may be on the grounds of the object related challenge. These challenges can be linked to objections to corporate religious experiences, where it is argued that people cannot know what the other people are feeling, on the basis of objections to understanding language, and the difficulties of expressing emotions and feelings in words.

Anthony Flew is also well-known for his objection to religious experiences, the vicious circle. Whilst perhaps the most relevant objections for long-term corporate experiences, the vicious circle challenge is one which questions the nature of the experience itself. As Flew says, the nature of religious experiences “seems to depend on the interest, background and expectations of those that have them, rather than anything separate and autonomous.” Religious experiences, according to Flew, only seem to reinforce our previously held beliefs, and should not be used for the basis of an argument for the existence of God. Despite C F Davis rejecting this argument, by saying that it is not easy to distinguish between an experience and its interpretation, it remains an important criticism for religious experience.

In Verities of Religious Experience , William James says: “Religion, therefore, as I ask you to take it, shall mean for us the feelings, acts and experiences of individual men in their solitudes.” This quite vague description includes nearly every experience where a person experiences an overwhelming emotional response to an event; this could even include listening to a favourite piece of music, or looking at an important picture. According to James, there are four markers of a mystical experience: ineffability, the impossibility of putting an experience accurately into words; noetic quality, intuitive states of insight or knowledge that cannot be reached by argument or reason; transiency, though the experience does not last for a long time, it alters life; passivity, the feeling of a person’s will being surrendered.

Although his definition of an experience is vague, his approach to identifying religious experiences is epically based, and is similar to more modern approaches, like those employed at the Hardy Institute. James also refers to the fruits of the experience being more important than the experience itself, a feeling that holds true with modern theologians.

If the objections are combined, then it appears that any religious experience can be objected to in some way: a person’s state, the language that they use, the experience, or the person themselves can all be used as an objection; Freud and Jung believed that religious belief was a neurosis, caused by the repressed love of the mother, or from “penis envy.” Hume took a less scientific route when he said that theists could not be truly trusted, as they are prone to lying, and are devoid of a “good sense, education and learning” to make sure that they are not fooling themselves.

In conclusion, if by a secure basis for belief, we mean a feeling of certainty, then religious experience will only boost the faith of those who believe, and strengthen the criticisms of those who do not believe in God. In short, the religious experience debate falls foul of Flew’s vicious circle.

Document Details

• Word Count 1310
• Page Count 4
• Level AS and A Level
• Subject Religious Studies & Philosophy

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100-Word Faith Stories: (Very) short essays about unexpectedly experiencing God in the world today

God is in all things. But we don’t always expect to feel God’s presence in a particular moment or place. We asked readers to share these stories of surprising moments of faith and grace in no more than 100 words. These (very) short essays about unexpectedly experiencing God in the world today include feelings of joy, sadness, laughter, anger and anything in between. They demonstrate the many ways in which God is with us, if only we would take the time to notice.

Two parents and four boys make a small house feel like a sardine tin packed with firecrackers. I had my eye on a larger fixer-upper nearby. But despite its apparent practicality and my eagerness, my husband wasn’t enthused. I suggested a quick attempt at discernment: Pray one Hail Mary while imagining we had settled on each choice, buy or stay.

We both felt God’s presence. The “Stay” prayer brought unwelcome but undeniable inner peace. “Buy” brought anxiety rather than excitement.

I could only respond, “Thy will be done.” Our house is cramped and noisy, but we’ll stay for now.  Jessica Carney Ardmore, Pa.

My sons and I were enjoying the wave pool at our local amusement park on a beautiful sunny day. There was the usual crowd of people—of different ages, from different neighborhoods and cultures—all enjoying the pool. I closed my eyes and was suddenly aware of the joyous cacophony. All the voices, screams and laughter of my siblings, my fellow children of God. I was awestruck, and with my eyes still shut, I smiled broadly, and I thanked God for that sudden grace of connection and awareness. Matthew Whelehan Rochester, N.Y.

My husband is a stroke survivor; I’m his caregiver. Ron has balance issues, garbled speech and swallowing difficulties. Once the primary breadwinner, Ron’s now on SSDI. I struggle to bring in money while handling the numerous responsibilities of caring for my husband and household.

Earlier today I read the abandonment prayer of the newly canonized St. Charles de Foucauld: “Father, I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will. I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures.”

I am now at peace. Jerilyn Burgess North Olmsted, Ohio

At my first holy Communion, when I was 7 in 1958, I came up to the altar and was so small I had to stand rather than kneel at the rail. The priest approached and put the host on my tongue. I felt drawn out of myself, forgetting where I was, feeling a sense of presence. It was like being a mini Samuel, and I said to the Lord, “Speak, for your servant is listening . ” My love for the Eucharist continues to this day. William Eagan, S.J. Weston, Mass.

I invited my all-white classmates to Mass at my Black Catholic parish. During Mass, my friend nudged me, “Lee, we’re the only white people here.” I responded, “Frank, how do you think…” but before I could finish my statement, Frank added, “Lee, I never thought about you that way.” The experience helped him to see my struggles as the only Black kid in our classes. We had just had a class that taught we were made in the image and likeness of God. We saw that in one another more clearly now. Lee Baker New Orleans, La.

As I walked a labyrinth, I couldn’t shake the image of playing hide and seek with God. Shrubs around the path made me alternately feel hidden and then exposed. I know God is always there waiting for me, but I often “hide.” I fear I haven’t done enough, or I’m not good enough to earn God’s love. But those doubts come from me, not God. Although I may think I’m hiding, God sees and loves me. When I embrace God’s unconditional love, I will grow into the person he created me to be. Cathy Cunningham Framingham, Mass.

Deep in grief as I grappled with my husband’s determination to divorce, God felt absent, my faith rocked. My friend, Sister Noreen, told me to read the Bible. I mocked her. Unfazed, she insisted: “Open it at random. What have you got to lose?” On March 19, as I opened a newly purchased Bible, I cried: “God where are you?!” My eyes fell upon Jer 29:11. “For I know the plans....” I can still feel the jolt that coursed through my body at that moment—in shock and joy—the first of many such moments since then. Mary Margaret Cannon Washington, D.C.

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Huxley and God : essays on religious experience

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Religious Experience at a Muslim Service Essay

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Becoming familiar with the common practices of the world’s religion is an important part of enhancing a person’s perception and education. Attending other congregations is an invaluable experience that allows inquisitive people to compare the exact manners of worship and communication. In this regard, services that are held at mosques appear to be the most interesting ones, as they represent the views of a large portion of the world’s population. Islam is an integral part of today’s global community, meaning that its religious practices deserve additional exploration.

First of all, the peculiarity of the experience starts at the entrance to the mosque. Muslim people are encouraged to pray five times per day, facing Mecca. This frequency is surprising, as compared to the Christian tradition. Even though Muslim people are not obliged to attend the mosque for all of the five daily prayers, the midday service saw a great number of visitors. Perhaps, the reason lies in the fact that mosques appear to be more than a place of worship for these people.

They serve as the centers of entire communities where members of the congregation communicate with each other, passing knowledge and experience. From this perspective, I found the image of the Muslim service highly reminiscent of my Christian experience. Both settings serve the same purpose of uniting people on divine premises, building stronger and kinder communities with shared values.

Even though I could not partake in the service through prayers, I respected the rules of the place. For example, I had to take off my shoes at the entrance and did not speak out loud when visiting the mosque. At the same time, I followed the dress-code etiquette, which was typical for the Muslim service. All visitors were dressed modestly and wore clean clothes. As I entered the mosque, I was surprised by the level of security, as guards paid special attention to every person. However, this supervision did not serve to divide the visitors in any sense. On the contrary, it sought to ensure the safety and comfort of every single person inside the mosque.

The enhanced security measures helped me understand the pressure applied to Muslim congregations. They face serious threats both from within and outside their religious communities. I understood the context of the situation and did not object to any security checks, and neither did any of the visitors.

During the prayer, everyone followed the directions of the imam and only engaged in communication when the service was over. Another difference that drew my attention consisted in the ritual washing that was performed by every believer before the service. They attended special bathrooms, which I find highly uncommon in most Christian places of worship. Furthermore, the interior of the mosque did not include any seats, and every person sat on the floor and special rugs. As a visitor, I was allowed to observe quietly from a distance, so I stood throughout the midday service.

Overall, this experience provided me with a more in-depth understanding of how Muslim services are held. Most differences were observed in the level of specific rituals performed before and during the service. However, the overarching atmosphere of the event was highly reminiscent of my Christian experience. In both cases, services united entire congregations, forming strong communities of people united by their faith and values. In my opinion, such observations are highly important to enhance an individual’s understanding of other religions while learning to appreciate their own.

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• Importance of Nostra Aetate
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2022, November 6). Religious Experience at a Muslim Service. https://ivypanda.com/essays/religious-experience-at-a-muslim-service/

"Religious Experience at a Muslim Service." IvyPanda , 6 Nov. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/religious-experience-at-a-muslim-service/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Religious Experience at a Muslim Service'. 6 November.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Religious Experience at a Muslim Service." November 6, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/religious-experience-at-a-muslim-service/.

1. IvyPanda . "Religious Experience at a Muslim Service." November 6, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/religious-experience-at-a-muslim-service/.

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What it’s like to be a Catholic in the world’s largest Muslim country

By Courtney Mares

Jakarta, Indonesia, Sep 3, 2024 / 06:08 am

As a Catholic living in the world’s largest Muslim country, Baso Darmawan does not think twice about making the sign of the cross as he prays before a meal at a restaurant in the bustling capital of Jakarta.

Darmawan says that he personally knows many Indonesians who have converted from Islam to Catholicism, including his own father. He told CNA that living alongside his Muslim neighbors in Bogor, Indonesia, can also be an everyday reminder of faith.

“With the Muslims praying five times a day, sometimes I use their prayer call as a reminder for me to pray the Angelus or the Office of the Hours because the time is similar to our times to pray,” he said.

Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, is home to more Muslims than any other nation. While 87% of the country is Muslim , 29 million Christians are also scattered across the vast archipelago’s 17,000 islands.

As Pope Francis visits Indonesia this week, the delicate and complex relationship between the nation’s Muslim and Catholic communities will be put in the spotlight.

In the capital city of Jakarta, Istiqlal Mosque is located across the street from Jakarta’s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption. The buildings even share a parking lot. Many Indonesians, including local Catholics, point to this as a sign of the country’s religious tolerance and peaceful coexistence.

However, Indonesia faces challenges to its tolerant image, most notably the rise of hardline Islamist groups who have been more vocal in recent years. These groups have sometimes clashed with more moderate Muslim voices and religious minorities leading to concerns about the erosion of Indonesia’s tradition of pluralism.

In 2021, two suicide bombers attacked Sacred Heart Cathedral in Makassar on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island during a Palm Sunday Mass, wounding 20 people. The two attackers were believed to have been a part of the local Islamic State affiliated group, Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), according to the national police chief.

More in Asia - Pacific

Pope Francis begins Indonesia visit with call for Catholic-Muslim dialogue

Despite these incidents, numerous efforts have been made to promote interfaith understanding in Indonesia. Dr. Paul Hedges, a professor in Interreligious Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University , observes, “In general terms, over the last few decades, Catholic-Muslim or general Christian-Muslim relations have been quite good in Indonesia.”

“It’s a place of a very moderate and inclusive form of Islam, and it’s something actually the government has wanted to stress quite a bit.”

The professor points out that Indonesia’s social stability is deeply tied to its religious tolerance, a principle enshrined in the national ideology known as Pancasila . 

“If you lose your social cohesion, you start having more tensions, and this affects both the economic conditions on the ground and also a lot of inward investment that people become less willing to come and invest there,” he explains. 

Hedges also notes that Indonesia, as the largest Muslim-majority nation, often gets overlooked internationally, but Pope Francis’ visit may draw significant global attention.

Pope Francis, who has prioritized building bridges and outreach to Muslim-majority countries in his international travels, has chosen Indonesia as a key destination in his broader mission to foster global interreligious dialogue.

While in Jakarta Sept. 3-6, the pope will visit both the cathedral and the Istiqlal Mosque, where he will take part in an interfaith meeting with representatives of the six officially recognized religions in Indonesia: Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Catholicism, and Protestantism.

(Story continues below)

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Istiqlal mosque’s Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar told EWTN News that many Muslims in Indonesia are very happy that the pope will visit their country “because the pope is one of the most important people in the world today.” 

Ahead of the pope’s trip, Imam Umar proposed the creation of an underground “Tunnel of Friendship,” which physically connects the cathedral and the mosque, to symbolize the harmony between the two faiths.

Pope Francis will visit the tunnel with the grand imam before both sign a joint declaration, which Umar describes as addressing “humanitarian, tolerance, and environmental issues” during the pope’s visit to the mosque on Sept. 5. 

Sheikh Yahya Cholil Staquf, the general chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama, the world’s largest independent Muslim organization, welcomed Pope Francis’ visit with a message: “Enjoy the country of unity, the country of tolerance and brotherhood.”

The Indonesia-based Nahdlatul Ulama movement calls for a reformed "humanitarian Islam" and has developed a theological framework for Islam that rejects the concepts of caliphate, Sharia law, and "kafir" (infidels).

Staquf told CNA in an interview in 2019 that he was "thrilled and excited" when Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar Ahmed el-Tayeb signed the Abu Dhabi declaration on "Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together," because it expresses the vision of "compassionate Islam" his organization has advocated for decades.

The experience of religious tolerance in Indonesia is not just theoretical but lived out in everyday interactions. Sister Martha Driscoll, the founding superior of the Monastery of Gedonof on the island of Java, said that her Trappist community lives in peace and friendship with the local Muslims. 

“All of our workers are Muslim, and we have sisters who were from Muslim families who converted to Catholicism. Their families would come and visit, and there is no problem,” she said.

The sister said she also had “Muslim spiritual sons, who are still Muslims but they come to the monastery. They are deeply moved when I speak of forgiveness, something that is lacking in normal Muslim practice. A number of Muslim figures have come just to pray and to spend the night. Not to have formal discussions — just to be friends.”

“That’s a side of Muslim life that many people in the West don’t realize,” she said, adding that Muslims in Indonesia can show the world what it is like to live in harmony with a minority.

Despite being a minority, Catholics in Indonesia — who number around 8.3 million according to the latest Vatican statistics — play an active role in the nation’s social, religious, and cultural life.

Yanuar Nugroho, a Catholic who works in the Indonesian government’s Ministry of National Development Planning, told EWTN News that he has never personally experienced discrimination for being a Christian. 

Nugroho described the Catholic Church in Indonesia as “quite strong” on the country’s social issues by taking the side of the poor, upholding human rights, and giving a “moral voice” to issues facing the country.

Father Thomas Ulun Ismoyo, deputy secretary for the Archdiocese of Jakarta and spokesperson for the papal visit committee, said, “Catholics are only 3% of the total population. But we don’t feel inferior with the numbers. Quality is more important than quantity.”

“If you come and visit Indonesia’s Catholic churches on Sunday, the church is packed. People are coming to the church not only on Sunday,” he said, but also are very involved in religious activities in their parishes.

Indonesia also produces many vocations. St. Peter Major Seminary on the island of Flores is considered among the world’s largest Catholic seminaries by enrollment. According to the Vatican, the country has 4,024 major seminarians and 3,945 minor seminarians.

For many Indonesian Catholics, Pope Francis’ visit represents a moment of spiritual reinforcement. Darmawan believes that the pope's presence in his country will be “a blessing for Indonesia.”

“I think for the Catholics in Indonesia, the pope’s visit is in a way strengthening not just the faith, but also the unity,” Nugroho said.

For more on the Catholic Church in Indonesia, watch EWTN ’s special coverage of Pope Francis’ trip to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Singapore Sept. 2-13.

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Teachers' Day 2024: Ten Lines, Short and Long Essays For School Students

Published By : Suramya Sunilraj

Trending Desk

Last Updated: September 04, 2024, 09:00 IST

New Delhi, India

Students celebrate their teachers’ dedication and arduous work on this day by participating in exciting activities (Representative Image/ Shutterstock)

This special day encourages students to express their gratitude and admiration for their teachers, who have a significant impact on their lives and future

Teachers’ Day is an occasion set aside to celebrate and appreciate their hard work, dedication and contributions. Teachers’ Day is held every year on September 5 to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a prominent scholar, teacher and India’s second president. This special day encourages students to express their gratitude and admiration for their teachers, who have a significant impact on their lives and future.

Students celebrate their teachers’ dedication and arduous work on this day by participating in exciting activities and events such as delivering speeches and writing essays, making cards and posters, reciting poetry and slogans, engaging in fun games, and singing and dancing. Here are some simple essays to write and share with your adored teachers.

10 Lines Essay on Teacher’s Day (Primary Level):

– Teachers play an important role in our lives.

– In India, people celebrate this day on September 5 of every year.

– The Teacher’s Day celebration was started in 1962.

– The day is commemorated to honour Dr S Radhakrishnan, the first vice president and second president of India, on his birthday.

– In addition to being a renowned scholar, diplomat and President of India, he was also acommitted teacher.

– He stated that people shouldcelebrate September 5 as Teacher’s Day rather than his birthday.

– The teaching community is respected on this day and is widely observed across the country.

– To show love and appreciation for teachers, students make greeting cards and give presents.

– Schools and other institutions host a variety of events and programmes on this day.

– A few exceptional teachers get awarded with National Awards from the Ministry of Education in recognition of their outstanding work.

Teacher’s Day 2024: Short Essays 150 words (Secondary Level)

Every year on the birth anniversary of Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, India observes Teachers’ Day. He was deeply committed to the teaching profession. Some kids reportedly approached him and asked whether he wanted to celebrate his birthday on September 5. He then suggested that they honour all teachers on this day to mark their outstanding efforts and accomplishments. Teachers are the genuine builders of the nation’s future, influencing the lives of students, who in turn shape the nation’s destiny.

Teachers have an essential role in nation-building. However, one hardly recognises the necessity of teachers in the community. Teachers’ Day has been honoured on September 5 each year since 1962. Our teachers not only teach us, but they also help us develop our personalities, confidence and abilities. They assist us in overcoming whatever hurdles we may encounter in life. Here’s a Happy Teachers’ Day to all the hardworking teachers across India!

Teachers’ Day 2024: Long Essays 250 words (Higher Secondary Level)

Every year on September 5, students observe Teacher Day. It honours the birth anniversary of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, India’s first Vice President and a dedicated teacher. He was a staunch promoter of education and was well-known for his work as a scholar, diplomat, educator and former President of India.

Teachers’ Day is a wonderful time to honour and cherish the relationship between teachers and students. Nowadays, students and instructors in schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions exhibit their enthusiasm and excitement. Students often wish their teachers a long life. The relationship between teachers and students is something to be thankful for and treasure for a lifetime. These days, students and professors gladly participate in the celebrations at schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions.

Students organise several events on Teachers’ Day to show respect for their teachers. These activities include cultural programmes, lectures, poems and small expressions of gratitude. Some students show their gratitude through heartfelt comments or notes. In some schools, senior students serve as instructors for the day, gaining experience with the problems and responsibilities of teaching.

We should recognise and cherish the teachers in our lives, and we should celebrate Teachers’ Day every year to express our gratitude for their work. Teachers, like our parents, help us develop our minds to thrive in life. And, it is our responsibility to honour them by adhering to all of their lessons and teachings. Happy Teachers’ Day to all!

• Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
• teacher's day
• Teachers day celebrations

Judge rejects Trump's second bid to move New York hush money case to federal court

A federal judge on Tuesday denied former President Donald Trump's second and last ditch bid to transfer his New York hush money case to federal court.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York found that there was no good cause to grant Trump’s lawyers permission to even file a motion. Trump's attorneys filed a notice of appeal late Tuesday evening.

The judge's order said that in arguing “good cause” to move the case, Trump primarily argued that the state judge presiding over the criminal case, Juan Merchan, is biased against him and that the U.S. Supreme Court’s immunity ruling from July presents a valid federal defense for the hush money case.

Hellerstein rejected both arguments, finding first that a state court judge’s alleged bias does not present a federal question that would justify jurisdiction in a federal court, and was an issue for a state appeals court to decide.

Trump’s attorneys also argued the U.S. Supreme Court’s  ruling on presidential immunity  in a separate Trump criminal case should result in the charges him being dismissed because prosecutors used some evidence of Trump's "official acts" as a part of their case.

Hellerstein said he was standing by his July 2023 conclusion — following briefing and an evidentiary hearing — that removal of the case was not warranted because the case was centered on Trump's personal actions.

"I held in my Order and Opinion of July 19, 2023 that 'hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a President's official acts,'" Hellerstein wrote. "Nothing in the Supreme Court's opinion affects my previous conclusion that the hush money payments were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority."

The judge’s decision comes after prosecutors in New York urged Merchan not to allow Trump’s eleventh-hour effort to move the case to federal court to prevent him from ruling on pending motions in the historic state criminal case.

Trump had asked Merchan to set aside the jury’s verdict because it allegedly relied on evidence of Trump’s “official,” and therefore immune, conduct, but also has requested that Merchan delay his sentencing until after the November election. Both motions are still pending.

"Federal law is clear that proceedings in this Court need not be stayed pending the district court's resolution of defendant's removal notice," the DA's letter said. It also added that "the concerns defendant expresses about timing are a function of his own strategic and dilatory litigation tactics: This second notice of removal comes nearly ten months after defendant voluntarily abandoned his appeal from his first, unsuccessful effort to remove this case; three months after he was found guilty by a jury on thirty-four felony counts; and nearly two months after defendant asked this Court to consider his CPL § 330.30 motion for a new trial."

The DA’s office opposes Trump’s efforts to overturn the verdict and contends the impact of the “official acts” that were referred to in the case were negligible.

Merchan is expected to rule on that matter Sept. 16 — two days before Trump’s sentencing.

Prosecutors have also said they would  defer to the judge  on pushing back the Sept. 18 date in order to give Trump “adequate time” to try an appeal, but also urged him to pronounce sentence “without unreasonable delay.”

Lisa Rubin is an MSNBC legal correspondent and a former litigator.

Adam Reiss is a reporter and producer for NBC and MSNBC.

Laura Jarrett is a senior legal correspondent for NBC News.

Dareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.

Raquel Coronell Uribe is a breaking news reporter.