Religious Experience; The Argument

'If there is a God there are likely to be experiences of him. There are religious experiences, therefore there is a God'
1. These two sentences are not logically linked
William James
1. Took a pyschological approach; religious experiences indicated the probability of God
2. Interested in the effects of religious experience on people's lives
  1. The validity of a religious experience rests upon the effects it produces
    1. Are lives changed?
    2. Does it work opposed to is it true?
3. The phenomena of religious experiences point to a higher order of reality
Richard SWINBURNE
1. Defence for Religious Experience
  1. Principle of Credulity
    1. We must accept what appears to be the case unless we have clear evidence to the contrary
    2. Might mean that you have good reason to doubt the person, you prove that God does not exist
      1. Or you show that the experience was not caused by God
  2. Principle of Testimony
    1. Unless we have positive evidence that they are misremembering or are untrustworthy, we should believe the testimony of the experience
      1. 'Other things being equal, we usually think that what others tell us that they perceived probably happened'

Resource summary

	Created by joe_lamy over 11 years ago