Explain how religious experiences can lead to, or support belief in God? Free Essay Example

A religious experience is an event that people feel gives them direct contact with God. There are four types of religious experiences:

* Numinous

* Conversion

* Miracle and

* Prayer

Here I will explain how religious experiences may lead or support belief in God.

Numinous is a feeling of the presence of something greater than you, some people believe this feeling to be the presence of God. You may get this feeling when in important buildings, a beautiful place or even something simpler like looking up at the stars on a dark night, it is at times like this when people are filled with the awareness or the feeling of the presence of something by far greater than themselves.

This feeling can be described as something that is beyond human experience that exists outside the material world. A numinous experience of mine was when my younger brother, Joseph, was born, the feeling of holding him for the first time made me think that there was something far superior to any human being.

Conversion is the word used to describe an experience of God. This experience makes that person or those people change their ways, life and future by giving themselves to God. This change may be a change of religion, for example, agnostic or atheist change their beliefs and begin to believe in God. I myself have never experienced a conversion and have always firmly believed in God. However, their are many people that have. St. Paul, previously know as Saul, is one of the most famous converts in the history of Christianity.

Famously converted on his way to murder some Christians, St. Paul was travelling on the road to Damascus, where he was knocked from his horse and consequently made blind. St. Paul took this as a sign from God telling him that what he was doing was wrong, so Paul changed his ways, from murdering Christians to becoming a Christian spreading God’s word. So St. Paul’s life was completely changed by him giving his life to God.

A miracle is something that seems to break a law of science leaving God as the only explanation. An example of a miracle is the story of St. Bernadette. Bernadette was a only young girl, when Mary, ‘The Immaculate Conception’, appeared to her for the fist time. Mary appeared to Bernadette over a series of eighteen different apparitions. The most famous apparition being the time Mary led Bernadette to a clearing, where Mary made Bernadette dig the small hole in the soil and the spring appeared. This spring, today, is now Lourdes. Today Lourdes is a place of pilgrimage where many people visit as it is a place of miracle as the waters at Lourdes are said to have healing properties. So a miracle is where God has acted on Earth and the people witnessing it have direct contact with God. Miracles are a major part of Christian beliefs. As in the Bible, miracles are linked to people’s faith and help their faith to grow.

All Catholics believe they can communicate with God, share their problems, worries and aspirations, with God, simply through prayer. People pray for all different kinds of things, although some more juvenile than others. The Catechism teaches that human beings are born searching for God and that prayer is away to complete that search. In my opinion I believe that when I pray to God, for whatever it may be, that I become closer to Him, as I feel that He listens to me and does His best to answer my prayers to help me with whatever He believes is best for me.

So people experience God in the four ways; numinous, conversion, miracles and prayer. So these religious experiences reassure people and make people feel that God does exist, resulting in them believing in God.