Don't you think religious experience is only dependant on religion...?

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Alexm1

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I mean think about it, if you're Christian and you claim to have religious experience, what are the chances you will see in this "religious experience" anyone else but someone relating to Christianity, e.g Jesus, Mary or w/e. You're hardly going to see Vishnu.
Clearly this makes religious experience unverifiable?
 
On this side of eternity we will never be able to verify anything about Jesus. We can search the scriptures and find passage after passage that backs what is being preached but it all comes down to faith. I believe Jesus wants what is best for me even if I can't see it. I know he has a plan for me it's just late and hard to see. God is poetic with his justice.
 
Good point. The unreliability of witness testimony even in relatively trivial matters should lead us away from dogmatic assertion in something as important as religion. What if there were yet more horsemen of the apocalypse that were missed in all the excitement?
 
I guess if you were to believe that people have religious experiences then you would have to determine that God would appear to them in the way they view God themselves. Religion is a personal thing as would be any spiritual experience
 
Why does it make it unverifiable just because of that? All religious experiences are unverifiable but we can't doubt people who claim to have had one, we have to give them the benefit of the doubt. And of course religious experience is based on religion, if it wasn't it wouldn't be a religious experience.
 
I'm a Christian. You may be right about religious experience being generally unverifiable. It is an internal experience. However, I have a Christian friend who claims to have been visited by a certain Norse god (this friend is now a Heathen as a result of that vision), and others who have seen religious figures from other traditions. Mystical experiences are not always as insulated as one might think. They can cross cultural and theological boundaries. I have Pagan friends who claim to have seen both the Virgin Mary and the Archangel Michael.
 
Religious experience does seem to be dependent on our own particular religion.

As in, stigmata only ever appears in Christians.

Either the whole religious experience thing is psychological. Or the experiences are real, but appear in a way that is acceptable to the person.

I've had 2 experiences myself but don't belong to any particular religion.
 
I know, I hear this incredibly vague things like, "I was touched by the love and light of God..."

How do you know it wasn't Thor?
 
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