The Argument from Religious Experience
Religious Studies September 1, 1975 DOI: 10.1017/s0034412500008477 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that religious experience can serve as a basis for inferring God's existence, using the analogy of normal perception: just as seeing a tree implies the tree exists when the perception is non-delusive, experiencing God implies God exists if the experience is genuinely of an independently existing being. |
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to make yet another attempt to defend and restate as convincingly as possible the argument for God's existence based on religious experience. In its simplest form the argument is an inference from the fact that men experience God to the conclusion that God exists. Experience is always experience of something, it is alleged, and if that something is of the kind to have independent, objective existence and if a given experience is really of that thing, then that thing must exist. The clearest sort of case, where this type of existential argument from experience is used, is that of normal perception: a man sees a tree, therefore the tree exists. The deduction works because the man's seeing is non-delusive. He sees the tree because it is there to be seen.