Section 3 Analysis

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Section 3 Analysis Steve and Plim
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What is Donovan saying? 1) The intuition that we
have about God existing is similar to that where
we have intuition of other selves. It brings two
sides of an argument together. 2) Our
intuition about God is based on the suggestion
of a creator and the religious experiences. 3)
Our knowledge of God is based on experiences we
have 4) Owen believes that all religious
experiences are forms of knowledge 5) If we feel
that God exists through intuition then it
reinforces Religious experiences 6) our
intuition of God can be formed through many ways
such as prayer and scripture etc. but also it can
be uninvited (such as Saul's conversion on the
road to Damascus) 7) Knowledge of God can be
gained through finite objects in the Universe
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General features of the natural world suggesting
a Divine creator and Particular religiously
significant experiences.
Brings together two arguments for the existence
of God. Using the idea of a designer to play on
our intuition, such as the complexity of the eye
and we think that a God must have designed it
(without any proof) and the idea of religious
experience, such as the Toronto Blessings (there
is no proof for God making that experience, yet
people use their intuition and believe that it
must be God)
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The sense of God's reality, in Owen's view,
underlies all other Christian experience.
Here, Donovan is paraphrasing Owen and he claims
that our intuition of Gods existence reinforces
the experiences that Christians have. i.e. if we
believe there is a God before we have an
experience then the intuition simply reinforces
our faith. If we pray to God every night and in
3 years time we have a religious experience then
the intuition and faith that we had before the
experience will reinforce the religious
experience. The religious experience forms the
basis of our epistemological knowledge of God
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Owen treats all cases of genuine religious
experiences as forms of knowledge.
Donovan says here that Owen believes that all
experiences of God should be accepted as
knowledge of God. For this we could suggest that
religious experiences are highly subjective and
with no empirical proof for them then we cannot
accept them as knowledge. Also we could use the
falsification principle, that if we accept an
event then it can be very easy to be shown to be
wrong by using empirical testing. No amount of
experimentation can ever prove me right a single
experiment can prove me wrong. Albert
Einstein
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The basic intuition of God
There is not a higher experience in the universe
than a religious experience.
    You have to leave the city of your comfort
and go into the wilderness of your intuition.
What you'll discover will be wonderful. What
you'll discover is yourself. Alan Alda
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Intuition and concepts constitute... the elements
of all our knowledge, so that neither concepts
without an intuition in some way corresponding to
them, nor intuition without concepts, can yield
knowledge. Immanuel Kant 
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What topics have we already studied? Religious
experience (also known as a spiritual experience,
sacred experience, or mystical experience) is a
subjective experience where an individual reports
contact with a transcendent reality, an encounter
or union with the divine. Design argument A
teleological argument, or argument from design,
is an argument for the existence of God or a
creator based on perceived evidence of order,
purpose, design, or direction Religious
language refers to statements or claims made
about God or gods
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IF..we accept that religious experiences do
genuinely occur Then.we can use them to gain
knowledge of God
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• If we are simply accepting that Religious
  experiences are facts and are using this highly
  subjective occurrence as evidence for God then we
  are simply allowing ourselves to be deceived.
  Without the possession of proven empirical
  evidence then it is hard to gain any knowledge
  from any experience. The article claims that our
  intuition can also add to religious experience to
  know God. However our intuition can often be
  wrong (such as believing that someone fancies
  us). Finally, the article claims that our
  intuition comes from the finite objects in the
  world and by the belief that there is a divine
  creator. However, for this we need to accept
  that the world is designed. If there are a
  billion solar systems in the galaxy and a billion
  galaxys in the universe and (possibly) an
  infinite number of universes, then surely, out of
  chance, there must be one planet which is capable
  of supporting life.

Intuition is truly a feminine quality, but women
should not mistake rash conclusions for this
gift Minna Antrim