Essay help

[Imagine849]

Okay so this year at school i have to write a 5000 word dissertation for my religion and philosophy class. The final deadline isn't til March but the first draft is due this Friday and i only just found out my teacher is expecting it to be about 2500 words already plus notes on articles and books i've read

My title is 'religious experience: delusion or revelation?'

I've not really done a lot of research yet. Just wondered if anyone had any views on the subject, helpful links or books to read etc.

Any ideas/thoughts would be appreciated

[Xujhan]

The God Delusion is a good introductory read for lots of different points; I imagine it would be more than suitable for your paper. Some Mistakes of Moses is thicker reading, but also very good (and available for free). Why I am no longer a Christian, by youtube user Evid3nc3, is really interesting too, if you're allowed to use other forms of media. Who Wrote the Bible? is a nice short documentary on the history of the bible itself. All of these tend to focus solely on Christianity - it being fairly popular these days - but the ideas and methods themselves can be generalized to apply to all religions.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

If you want to bring some scientific evidence into play, you may find this paper to be useful. It examines changes in brain function in nuns when they're having a, "mystical experience". The overall idea is if a doctor stimulated these particular regions, they may induce religious experiences in the individual (i.e. using TMS which is a non-surgical technique or implanting electrodes, which is a surgical technique). http://www.scribd.com/doc/7066614/Ne...egard-Paquette

It's a bit of a complicated article but you probably won't need to mention any of the brain areas for your paper, just a useful argument. There aren't many of these studies though.

[Imagine849]

Thanks for the help guys, really appreciate it

Plus my teacher extended my deadline til Monday so i've got the whole weekend to work on it