Prayer is considerable in proving the existence of God, not only due to the feeling of numinosity, but more importantly because of the prayers’ being apparently answered.
Conversion, on the other hand, is a radical alteration in life, and usually springs form the search of meaning for life. William James defined it as a radical re-arrangement of psychic energy around a new centre of interest arising from unease about the previous centre.
The 2 main types of conversion are volitional conversion (where conversion is brought about by one’s own will through gradual change, slow development of new moral and spiritual habits). An individual who usually undergoes this is one discomforted by the ‘wrongness’ in their life, and desires to make this positive change
This was exemplified by Leo Tolstoy’s conversion which followed depression and search for the meaning of life.
The other type of conversion is self-surrender conversion, where the individual does not seek it. Such a conversion is seen in St. Paul (Saul of Tarsus).
Conversion experiences can be used to prove God’s existence as they spring from a realization of the bigger truth behind life that is so deep-rooted in one’s mind, one dismisses the possibility of this truth not existing. So its foundation is a mental one, just like prayer.
The third type of religious experience is mysticism, which occurs completely in the mind (unlike conversion which is a radical alteration to life). Mystical experiences can be extrovertive (outward looking, where the plurality of the world becomes a single entity), or introvertive (inward looking, where a person loses all identity and labels and merges into the Divine).
William James provided 4 characterizations of mysticism: ineffability (indescribably using normal language), a noetic quality (they are states of knowledge not just emotion), transience (can’t be sustained for long), and passivity (can’t be controlled by the mystic).
Mystical experiences usually have various stages, the first of which being the purgative state where the mystic is prepared and purified through meditation. The 2nd stage is the illuminative stage, where the mystic is enlightened both cognitively and emotionally. The last stage is the unitive stage, where the mystic gains a continuing union with the Divine, which is the same as spiritual marriage in prayer.
Therefore, in essence, mystical experiences are primarily total submission of the self to the Divine.
Thus, religious experiences that confirm or bring about knowledge of the Deity, and are argued impossible without the existence of the Deity, as there seems to be no specific organ of sensory that perceives them, thus denying their existence on biological grounds, imposing a greater level of existence.
b- Evaluate the view that this argument supports the probability of the existence of God.
Although religious experience is said to bring about knowledge of the Deity, there are philosophical and theological difficulties.
Philosophically, religious experience must be proven genuine not illusory, especially that they are subjective not objective, making a certain experience significant to some and not to others. Also, people usually interpret them in terms of a specific religion, making it impossible to distinguish the one ‘right’ religion, thus, religious experience could only ever be evidence of the existence of God, not a particular religion. There is also n means of verifying a genuine experience from an illusory one, and its being so overwhelming as to preclude any doubt of it does not necessarily prove it true (as a dessert traveler could be sure he sees an oasis whereas it is actually a mirage).
Non religious explanations must also be considered. Physiological explanations could include certain conditions that lead to hallucinations. However, no link has ever been made between such conditions and mystics.
Psychological explanations are much more significant. For example, prayers being answered could result from the person’s positive attitude about it as s/he expects an answer, but this does not explain prayers being externally answered (unexpectedly, or through other people).
Religious experience could be invasions of the subconscious mind to the consciousness, but this does not mean that God could work through the sub-conscious mind.
Some religious experiences, such as conversion, can be psychologically bases solutions to emotional crisis. However, this is not always applicable to self-surrender conversion.
Other philosophical difficulties are presented as God’s nature is infinite, while the universe is finite, so how He be experienced? However, God is not experiences, but rather inferred, and the experience is not actually a manifestation, but a sign. Thus, the finite mind is not experiencing infinity, only experiencing its presence, which can’t be inferred without Good’s existence.
There is also a difficulty with prayer, as it is said to be pointless if God is omniscient. Blaise Pascal however explained that “God instituted prayer to lend His creatures the dignity of causality.” This is justifiable as if omniscience whiles the need for prayer, than it can also be applied t omnipotence, denying the need for any human to do anything because God’s will be happen anyway.
On the other hand, it is theologically unjust that religious experience is not universal, and only some people experience it. C. D. Broad answered this as some people are tone deaf and cannot appreciate music, others might not have the capacity for religious experience.
Swinburne presented the principle of credulity to support religious experience as means of attaining knowledge of God. This principle explains that religious experience is like any other experience, thus should be accepted unless there is strong evidence against it, given there is reasonable probability that God exists. This probability is proven high through other arguments; however, religious experience itself provides knowledge of God (although it only provides the individual with that knowledge and not everyone).
Thus, religious experience strongly supports God’s existence, but not that of a specific religion or specific worldview.
