Unit 5: Optional theme — Philosophy of religion

Topic 5.3: Religious experience and behaviour Questions

Practice 20 exam-style questions for IB Philosophy Topic 5.3. Review the question stems below, then unlock the full Question Bank to access markschemes, model answers, and AI grading.

1Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.1
A 'religious experience', in this topic, means:
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2Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.1
Mystical union is best described as:
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3Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.1
To say a religious experience is 'ineffable' means that:
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4Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.3
Fill the gap: the strongest objection to pluralism is that the religions plainly ______ — one God or many? reborn or resurrected? — so calling all 'partial' denies each its core claims.
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5Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.1
True or false? A religious experience is just another name for holding a religious belief.
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6Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.1
Fill the gap: people say a religious experience is ______ — words fail — and ______ — a sense of something beyond the ordinary world.
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7Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.2
What is the difference between PRIVATE and PUBLIC evidence, here?
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8Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.2
Alston's central comparison is between experiencing God and:
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9Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.2
The hard question in this micro is whether a religious experience can:
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10Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.2
Why does 'it's just brain activity' NOT by itself prove a religious experience is empty?
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11Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.2
The 'understanding problem' for religious experience is that:
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12Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.2
Fill the gap: the main objection to Alston is that ordinary perception can be ______ by others, but a private religious experience cannot.
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13Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.3
Hick's elephant image is meant to show that:
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14Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.3
Religious pluralism is the view that:
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15Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.3
The problem of 'religion in a multicultural world' is that:
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16Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.3
What does a top-band Section B answer on this claim actually do?
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17Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.3
True or false? On pluralism, the deep disagreements between religions mean only one of them can be a genuine path.
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18Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.2
True or false? Alston argues that experiencing God is like ordinary perception — you may trust it without outside proof.
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19Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.3
John Hick's idea of 'the Real' is that:
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20Choose1 mark
2025Aimnova original Paper 1 practice — 5.3.1
To call a religious experience 'transcendent' is to say it involves:
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