Explaining Religious Experiences Without Invoking God (beliefs)

[rojse]

How do you explain other people's religious experiences without invoking the existence of God?

[Fluffy]

It either has to be delusion or illusion.

An illusion is an event in the external world which causes our perception to mimic reality incorrectly.
A delusion is an internal version of an illusion.

We can also hypothesise that these two might work in tandem. For example, if a person really wanted to believe that X was true then they might find it easier to delude themselves into accepting an illusion.

I realise that these terms have been viewed as offensive in the past but I am using them in the philosophical, not psychological, sense. I don't see how else to explain a belief, any belief, that does not cohere with reality.

I can't really be more specific without losing generality. There are probably hundreds of reasons why each individual has a religious experience.

[Kungfuzed]

Emotions, chemicals, and imagination.

[Panda]

I would agree with Fluffy that it is a delusion or illusion. However I would use the terms psychologically and say that they can often be a symptom of some form of mental illness. Or possible side effects to some form of drug.
I am not trying to be offensive here just give my opinion.

[Smoke]

Originally Posted by rojse

How do you explain other people's religious experiences without invoking the existence of God?

I don't. I believe their experiences to be psychological phenomena, but I don't know enough about psychology to explain them.

[TurkeyOnRye]

"Religious experience" is simply the brain shooting itself up with feel-good chemicals like serotonine and dopamine.

[Random]

Originally Posted by Fluffy

It either has to be delusion or illusion.

Yeah, spoken like someone who hasn't had any... Religious experiences, that is.

Originally Posted by Fluffy

An illusion is an event in the external world which causes our perception to mimic reality incorrectly. A delusion is an internal version of an illusion.

What nonsense. Beliefs about reality can be delusory if those beliefs can be proven false, but nothing else deserves the term "delusion". And illusions may exist regardless of whether you "mimic" them or not.

Put it this way, true religious experiences can happen only when you stop mimicking "reality", which is itself an illusion. You see what you want to see, always. That's the truth...

[heavyarms553]

Did you know that you can induce a near death experience with deep brain stimulation therapy? It happens to parkinsonian patients all the time and its a pretty common side effect. Severe, rapid orthostatic hypotension is supposedly also able to cause such a physiological response. Supposedly.

[GadFly]

Originally Posted by heavyarms553

Did you know that you can induce a near death experience with deep brain stimulation therapy? It happens to parkinsonian patients all the time and its a pretty common side effect. Severe, rapid orthostatic hypotension is supposedly also able to cause such a physiological response. Supposedly.

As you know a fly gets around a lot of situations and in the evening time around a lot of eating plates. For a fact, I know a lot of these experiences come from eating too many beans before bed time.
GadFly

[heavyarms553]

I fail to see how eating too many beans before bed equates to, or is even related to, deep brain stimulation therapy and the induction of near death experiences.