Philosophy Mac and Rena Watson Lecture with Dr. Travis Dumsday -FR

Event Details:

Mass Religious Experiences: Their Nature and Evidential Significance will be presented by Dr. Travis Dumsday, Concordia University.

Religious experiences are usually private events; for instance, a single person experiences the presence of God or some other supernatural agent (or hears a voice or sees a vision etc.), and no one else shares the encounter at the same time. Less commonly, religious experiences occur in an intersubjective context in which multiple individuals allegedly undergo the same supernatural event at the same time. The latter sorts of events typically occur in small-group settings. However, there are also reports of mass religious experiences in which hundreds or even thousands of people experience a supernatural occurrence at the same time. This lecture will explore sample case studies of these mass religious experiences and examine the most prominent scientific explanations put forward thus far to account for them in naturalistic terms. It will be argued that at present there are some mass religious experiences that remain unexplained and constitute significant evidence for the reality of the supernatural.

Building: Bailey Hall

Room Number: 146