The argument for God from religious experience seems ludicrous to the popular atheist or agnostic. The argument lends itself all too easily to ridicule and mockery. “How can somebody claim to know something simply because they feel it to be true?” asks the skeptic. “Truthiness” is the word which Stephen Colbert used to describe it. The believers typical response does not help their case much either, “It’s not just a feeling. It was something more, something in my gut/heart which I can’t really describe.” In this post I will argue that a religious experience is indeed something more than just a mere feeling. I will also argue, however, that this fact does nothing to support the argument from religious experience for God’s existence. Indeed, I will conclude that by taking such religious experiences seriously, by not degrading them, the skeptic has a powerful argument against such an argument for God. (more…)
