GOD: IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK

ABSTRACT

The sacred writings of a wide variety of religious traditions and the reports of saints and mystics of those same traditions present the spiritual domain in a paradoxical and mysterious manner, often incomprehensible. Those writings contrast starkly with the philosophical and theological discourse on those matters, which sought to describe clearly and precisely what is said ambiguously, metaphorically and indirectly in them. This paper advances an argument originally put forth by William James, according to which religious beliefs are grounded not on philosophical and theological theories, but on religious experiences. We argue that an epistemology of religion based on those experiences cannot merely imitate an epistemology of ordinary objects (e.g., physical objects), but has to incorporate intuitions and feelings as sources of knowledge alongside more traditional sources.

Keywords
Religious experience; Epistemology of religion; Intuition; Feeling