Starter quiz
- Which philosopher researched religious experiences and recorded his findings in 'The Varieties of Religious Experience'?
- Richard Swinburne
- William James ✓
- Michael Persinger
- Ian McCormack
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- A philosopher who thinks about alternative explanations for religious experience is using the tool of ______.
- 'scepticism' ✓
- What is the name of the neuroscientist who performed the God helmet experiment?
- 'Persinger' ✓
- How can Persinger's God helmet experiment be used to support a sceptical approach to religious experience as a philosophical argument for God's existence?
- it offers an alternative explanation, suggesting the cause is brain activity ✓
- it suggests that they result solely from belief systems, not brain function
- it claims they are always triggered by external stimuli like rituals
- it suggests religious experiences are unreliable and may be caused by delusion
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- Which of the following statements is an example of Swinburne's principle of credulity?
- We should trust someone's experience unless there is evidence to the contrary. ✓
- Religious experiences should be questioned; they may be caused by mental events.
- A person's belief in a supernatural event must be verified scientifically.
- We should assume that people's experiences are false unless proven otherwise.
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- According to Swinburne's principle of testimony, when might we accept someone's account of a religious experience?
- when the account aligns with scientific evidence and can be verified
- if the person is honest and reliable, and there is no reason to doubt them ✓
- when the experience is consistent with other religious experiences
- when the account is part of an accepted religious tradition
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Exit quiz
- Bernadette saw a total of ______ visions of the Virgin Mary.
- '18' ✓
- What did Bernadette describe the Virgin Mary as holding during one of her visions?
- a rosary ✓
- a dove
- a lily
- a crown
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- Put these events in the order they happened.
- 1⇔Bernadette sees her first vision of the Virgin Mary at the grotto (cave).
- 2⇔The Virgin Mary reveals herself as the Immaculate Conception.
- 3⇔People begin gathering at the grotto (cave) to pray.
- 4⇔Bernadette discovers the spring of water at the grotto (cave).
- 5⇔The first miraculous healing is recorded at Lourdes.
- Why do many pilgrims visit Lourdes today?
- to attend a mass led by the Pope
- to see Bernadette’s incorrupt body
- to bathe in its healing waters ✓
- to perform daily rosary walks
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- How did people respond to St Bernadette's visions at the time?
- everyone immediately believed her and supported her claims
- she was doubted by many, including local priests ✓
- she was ignored entirely, and no one investigated her visions
- the Pope declared her visions authentic the same year they occurred
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- How did Plato define knowledge?
- as believing in something because it's a personal opinion, even if it's not true
- as having a belief that is true and supported by evidence or reasoning ✓
- as believing in something without needing any evidence
- as having a belief that is proven false but still personally important
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Worksheet
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Lesson Details
Key learning points
- Bernadette experienced visions of the Virgin Mary, who asked for a chapel to be built by a nearby muddy cave.
- Mary told her to drink the muddy water of the spring and the next day it flowed with clear water.
- Her body is said by the Catholic Church to remain internally incorrupt and she was named a saint.
- Lourdes is a place of pilgrimage for Christians, with the water said to have healing properties.
- Some philosophers would argue that Bernadette gained knowledge of God although others would disagree.
Common misconception
St Bernadette's visions were believed by everyone at the time.
Many, including her family and Church authorities, questioned her mental state, and her visions were only accepted by the Church as genuine following investigation.
Keywords
Knowledge - understanding or information believed to be true and supported by reasons
Lourdes - a French town where St Bernadette’s visions of Mary occurred, now a pilgrimage site
St bernadette - a girl who reported visions of Mary in 1858, inspiring the Lourdes pilgrimage
The virgin mary - the mother of Jesus, particularly honoured in Catholicism as pure and a helper in prayer
Vision - a religious experience where a person sees or feels a divine or spiritual presence
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