An introduction to religious and spiritual experience

Daniel Dennett (1942–)
An American philosopher and self-confessed ‘bright’ or atheist, Daniel 
Dennett has written widely on the problems of the mind, consciousness 
and mental states. In 
Breaking the Spell 
he discusses religion. In contrast 
to William James’ definition of religion as solitary feelings, acts and expe-
riences in relation to the divine, Dennett’s definition is: 
Social systems whose participants avow belief in a supernatural agent 
or agents whose approval is to be sought.
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Dennett considers James’ solitaries as spiritual rather than religious 
and sees religion as a group activity. In Dennett’s view, religion is such a 
powerful force in the modern world that it should be investigated thor-
oughly by means of a multidisciplinary approach. The spell Dennett wants 
to break is the taboo against such an examination and his book is a com-
prehensive investigation into the phenomenon of religion from a scientific 
and philosophical point of view. The book is in three parts. In the first 
part the relation between religion and scientific inquiry is considered; the 
second part takes an evolutionary overview of the origins of religions; 
and in part three, ‘Religion Today’ the pros and cons of belief are evalu-
ated, the benefits weighed against the dangers of extremism. Overall 
Dennett makes a strong case for the need for an open, informed inquiry 
into the nature of religion.
Richard Dawkins (1941–)
There is no God at all in Richard Dawkins’ universe. 
The God Delusion
took the UK by storm in 2007 and Dawkins triggered a national debate 
about belief, as well as ripostes such as Alister McGrath’s 
The Dawkins 
Delusion
and John Cornwell’s 
Darwin’s Angel
. Dawkins, a biologist, is 

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Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and frequently writes, 
lectures and broadcasts his anti-religious views. He maintains that 
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution has conclusively shown that the universe 
evolved over time, there never was a creator and religion is superstitious 
nonsense.
The God Delusion
begins with a religious experience which led 
Dawkins’ school chaplain to faith and eventually holy orders. Dawkins 
liked him, understood the experience, but would have interpreted it dif-
ferently. He later quotes another experience which led to ordination, this 
time, however, there was a natural explanation – the voice experienced as 
that of the devil was in fact a Manx Shearwater or ‘Devil Bird’. Religious 
experiences are illusions or constructions of the brain, convincing to those 
who have them, but not to others, particularly not to scientists.