The Principle of Credulity and Religious Experience
Michael Martin
Religious Studies March 1, 1986 DOI: 10.1017/s0034412500018059 (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 is essential to Swinburne's case for theism: without the argument from religious experience, the teleological, cosmological, and miracle arguments together do not render theism very probable, but combined with it, theism is said to be more probable than its rivals. |
Abstract
In The Existence of God Richard Swinburne argues that certain religious experiences support the hypothesis that God exists. Indeed, the argument from religious experience is of crucial importance in Swinburne's philosophical theology. For, according to Swinburne, without the argument from religious experience the combined weight of the other arguments he considers, e.g. the teleological, the cosmological, or the argument from miracles, does not render the theistic hypothesis very probable. However, the argument from religious experience combined with these other arguments makes theism more probable than its rivals.
Citations in the library
Cited by 4
- Is the Critical Trust Approach to Religious Experience Incompatible with Religious Particularism? Faith and Philosophy 2003
- Panentheistic Cosmopsychism Swami Vivekananda's Vedāntic Cosmopolitanism February 17, 2022
- Vivekananda’s Justification of Panentheistic Cosmopsychism Swami Vivekananda's Vedāntic Cosmopolitanism April 19, 2022
- Religious experience and the probability of theism: comments on Swinburne Religious Studies September 1, 2017