Values as Predictors of Religious Experience in the Lives of Seminary Students of Philosophy and Students of Physics

The aim of this study was to show the preferences of terminal values of personal and social character and the level of religious experience: God’s presence and God’s absence, as well as to examine the relationship between the two variables in the groups of seminary students of philosophy and students of physics. The following methods were applied in the study: Rokeach Value Survey and Głaz’s Scale of Religious Experience. The study was conducted amongst university students in Kraków (Poland). The results of 100 correctly completed sets of questionnaires were analysed. The results analysis proves that seminary students of philosophy have a higher level of religious experience: God’s presence and God’s absence than students of physics. Seminary students of philosophy most preferred terminal values in personal and in social character. In the group of seminary students of philosophy, from amongst the four most preferred terminal values, two have a significant relation with the experience of God’s presence and God’s absence, whereas in the group of students of physics only one of them has a significant relation with the experience of God’s absence.