Overview
The argument from religious experience contends that personal encounters with the divine provide evidence for God's existence. Unlike other theistic arguments, this approach emphasizes subjective, experiential knowledge rather than abstract reasoning.
Basic Structure
- People have genuine religious experiences
- These experiences are best explained by encounter with the divine
- Therefore, God (or the divine) exists
Distinctive Features
- Experiential basis: Grounded in personal encounters rather than abstract arguments
- Widespread occurrence: Found across cultures and historical periods
- Phenomenological approach: Focuses on the structure and content of experiences
- First-person authority: Emphasizes the authority of the experiencer
Historical Context
While religious experiences have always been important in religious traditions, their systematic philosophical examination began in earnest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly with William James's influential work.
Types of Religious Experience
Religious experiences encompass a wide variety of phenomena reported across different religious traditions.
Mystical Experiences
- Union experiences: Sense of merging with ultimate reality
- Ineffability: Cannot be adequately described in words
- Noetic quality: Convey authoritative knowledge or insight
- Transience: Brief duration but lasting impact
- Passivity: Sense of being grasped by superior power
Numinous Experiences
Encounters with the "wholly other" characterized by awe, fascination, and a sense of the uncanny. The experience combines attraction and repulsion, wonder and terror.
Other Categories
- Visions and apparitions: Visual encounters with divine beings
- Auditory experiences: Hearing divine voices or messages
- Conversion experiences: Sudden religious transformation
- Healing experiences: Miraculous physical or emotional restoration
- Prayer experiences: Sense of divine presence during worship
Cross-Cultural Similarities
Despite occurring in different religious contexts, many religious experiences share common phenomenological features, suggesting either universal human capacity for divine encounter or similar psychological mechanisms.
William James's Analysis
William James (1842-1910) provided the foundational modern analysis of religious experience in his influential work "The Varieties of Religious Experience."
James's Four Characteristics
1. Ineffability: Cannot be adequately expressed in words
2. Noetic quality: Seem to be states of knowledge or insight
3. Transience: Cannot be sustained for long periods
4. Passivity: The mystic feels grasped by a superior power
James's Conclusions
- Religious experiences are psychologically real and significant
- They often produce lasting positive changes in personality
- They provide evidence for a "more" beyond ordinary consciousness
- They deserve serious philosophical consideration
The "Over-belief"
James's Cautious Realism
While James found religious experiences compelling, he remained cautious about their metaphysical implications. He argued they provide evidence for "something more" but left open exactly what that might be—God, a wider self, or cosmic consciousness.
Swinburne's Argument
Richard Swinburne has developed the most systematic contemporary philosophical argument from religious experience.
The Principle of Credulity
"In the absence of special considerations, if it seems (epistemically) to a subject that x is present, then probably x is present; what one seems to perceive is probably so."
The Argument Structure
- Religious experiences seem to their subjects to be experiences of God
- We should accept experiential claims unless we have good reason not to
- There are no sufficient reasons to reject religious experiences generally
- Therefore, religious experiences provide evidence for God's existence
Addressing Counter-Evidence
Swinburne acknowledges that religious experiences can be challenged by:
- General considerations: Arguments against God's existence
- Particular considerations: Reasons to doubt specific experiences
- Alternative explanations: Natural causes for the experiences
The Cumulative Case
Swinburne argues that while individual religious experiences might be explained away, the cumulative weight of millions of such experiences across history provides significant evidence for theism.
Major Criticisms
The argument from religious experience faces several significant philosophical challenges.
The Problem of Conflicting Claims
- Different religions report incompatible experiences
- Christians experience Jesus, Hindus experience Brahman, etc.
- These experiences support contradictory theological claims
- If all are genuine, what do they really establish?
Natural Explanations
If religious experiences can be fully explained by psychological, neurological, or sociological factors, then appealing to God as an explanation becomes unnecessary.
The Problem of Description
- If experiences are truly ineffable, how can we evaluate their content?
- Descriptions may be shaped by prior religious beliefs
- Cultural and linguistic frameworks influence interpretation
Epistemic Problems
- No independent verification: Unlike sensory experience, no public checking
- Circular reasoning: Using religious experience to prove what the experience assumes
- Selectivity problem: Why trust religious experiences but not delusions?
The Argument from Religious Diversity
Critics argue that the diversity of religious experiences undermines their evidential value. If God were truly revealing himself, we might expect more consistent experiences rather than the conflicting reports we find.
Psychological and Scientific Explanations
Modern psychology and neuroscience offer various explanations for religious experiences that don't require divine intervention.
Neurological Explanations
- Temporal lobe epilepsy: Can produce profound religious experiences
- Neural correlates: Brain imaging shows specific patterns during mystical states
- Neurotransmitters: Changes in serotonin, dopamine affect religious experience
- Default mode network: Altered brain connectivity in mystical states
Psychological Factors
- Suggestibility: Cultural and social influences on experience
- Expectancy effects: Prior beliefs shape interpretation
- Cognitive biases: Pattern-seeking and agency detection
- Mental health: Connections to various psychological conditions
The Response from Believers
Even if religious experiences have natural causes, this doesn't necessarily disprove their religious significance. God could work through natural mechanisms to produce genuine encounters.
The Causal vs. Evidential Question
Defenders argue that explaining the natural causes of religious experiences doesn't automatically eliminate their evidential value, just as explaining the physics of perception doesn't undermine the reliability of sensory experience.
Assessment
The argument from religious experience remains contested, with reasonable philosophers disagreeing about its evidential value.
Strengths of the Argument
- Accounts for widespread, cross-cultural phenomena
- Experiences often produce positive life changes
- Provides personal, intimate evidence rather than abstract reasoning
- Cumulative weight of millions of reported experiences
Persistent Challenges
- Conflicting experiences across religious traditions
- Availability of natural explanations
- Lack of independent verification methods
- Cultural shaping of experience and interpretation
Contemporary Developments
New Directions
Recent work focuses on the epistemology of religious experience, exploring whether experiences can provide justification even if they don't constitute proof, and examining how religious experiences function within broader webs of religious belief and practice.
Whether religious experiences constitute evidence for God's existence may depend partly on one's broader philosophical commitments about the nature of experience, evidence, and reality. They remain significant phenomena worthy of serious philosophical attention regardless of their ultimate evidential status.