Religious Experience and Faith versus Reason

The arguments examined so far treat God's existence as a conclusion to be proved. But many believers say their faith rests not on proofs at all but on experience of the divine, or on a trust that does not wait for proof. This final lesson examines arguments from religious experience and the wider debate about the relationship between faith and reason.

The varieties and character of religious experience

William James, in The Varieties of Religious Experience, approached the subject as a psychologist and pragmatist. Rather than judging religion by its origins, he judged it by its fruits: does the experience transform lives for the better? James identified features of mystical experience: it is ineffable (beyond words), noetic (it seems to convey genuine knowledge), transient (brief), and mar