REALISM / NON-REALISM
In one sentence, what does a religious realist claim?
That religious claims refer to a mind-independent, transcendent reality, true or false independent of belief.
What is the difference between cataphatic and apophatic theology?
Cataphatic speaks of God in positive terms (what God is); apophatic speaks of God only in negative terms (what God is not).
Name the three categories of religious experience covered in this unit.
Regenerative, charismatic, and mystical.
What is the argument from religious experience, in one sentence?
Religious experience resembles perception, and since we trust perception absent a defeater, we should trust religious experience too.
What does Freud mean by calling religious belief an ‘illusion’?
A belief derived from a wish rather than evidence — not necessarily false, but not formed by a truth-directed process.
What is the difference between a substantive and a functional definition of religion?
Substantive = defines what religion is (e.g. belief in spiritual beings); functional = defines what religion does (e.g. unites a moral community)
In one sentence, what does a religious non-realist claim?
That religious claims are internal to belief, culture, or practice, without necessarily referring to a mind-independent reality.
According to logical positivism, what makes a statement meaningful?
The verification principle — a statement is meaningful only if it can, in principle, be empirically verified.
Give an example of a charismatic religious experience.
Speaking in tongues, prophecy, trance, possession, or visions (any one).
What is the circularity objection to the argument from religious experience?
Experience seems to justify belief, but prior belief shapes what a person is capable of experiencing.
According to Freud, what psychological need does the idea of God fulfill?
The need for a protective father-figure, rooted in infantile helplessness and the desire for protection against nature
Name the anthropologist whose minimal definition is ‘religion is the belief in spiritual beings.’
Edward B. Tylor.
Whose ‘leap of faith’ objects to religious realism, and why?
Kierkegaard's — any concept of God we can hold is shaped by finite human experience, so it can't fully capture a truly transcendent God.
Summarize Antony Flew's parable of the invisible gardener.
It challenges believers to say what would count as evidence against their claim; if nothing could, the claim risks being empty of factual content.
List James's four marks of mystical experience.
Ineffability, noetic quality, transience, passivity.
What is Swinburne's principle of credulity?
Things are probably as they seem to be, absent counter-evidence.
What is Jung's alternative to Freud's account of religion?
Religion arises from the collective unconscious and its archetypes, serving individuation — not merely infantile wish-fulfillment.
What does Durkheim mean by describing religion as ‘relative to sacred things’?
Beliefs and practices organized around things set apart and forbidden, uniting adherents into one moral community.
Give one objection to religious non-realism.
Religions and religious experiences actually exist and produce real effects whether or not we ‘believe in’ them — non-realism risks explaining religion away.
How does Tillich distinguish a symbol from a mere sign?
A sign merely points to something else; a symbol participates in the reality it represents and opens up a level of reality otherwise closed off.
What does James mean by ‘ineffability’?
The experience cannot be adequately put into words or described.
Explain the ‘conflicting claims’ objection.
Different traditions report incompatible objects of experience (God vs. Nirvana vs. Brahman), challenging the idea of one tracked reality.
Name and briefly define the four positions on religious diversity.
Exclusivism (only mine is true), inclusivism (mine is fully true, others partially participate), pluralism (same ultimate reality), relativism (truth relative to a tradition).
Explain what Wittgenstein means by ‘family resemblance’ as applied to religion.
Religions may share overlapping similarities without any single feature common to all, rather than fitting one rigid definition.
Why might Geertz's use of the word ‘seem’ (moods and motivations ‘seem uniquely realistic’) suggest a non-realist reading?
It describes a felt/psychological effect of religious symbols rather than asserting that what they point to is mind-independently real.
Explain what Wittgenstein means by religious language being its own ‘language game.’
Meaning comes from use within a practice or form of life, not correspondence to an external empirical fact.
According to James, what is the ‘uniform deliverance’ of religion?
An uneasiness — something is wrong with us as we naturally stand — and its solution: connection with a higher power.
What is Gellman's ‘best explanation’ approach?
Given the pattern of religious experiences reported across cultures, theism may be the best available explanation of that pattern.
What is the ‘genetic fallacy,’ and why does it matter for evaluating Freud?
Concluding a belief is false merely from its origin; even a correct psychological origin story doesn't by itself prove God doesn't exist.
What is Jonathan Z. Smith's challenge to the entire project of defining religion?
That ‘religion’ is not a natural category found in the world but a construct created by scholars for their own analytic purposes.