Faith and Philosophy

Volume 4, Issue 1, January 1987

Experience of God and the Principle of Credulity
A Reply to Rowe

The Principle of Credulity---i.e. that if I have an experience apparently of X then in the absence of good reasons to think the experience non-veridical I have evidence that X exists---is an essential premise in many formulations of the argument from religious experience. I defend this use of the principle against objections offered by William Rowe. I argue that experiences of God are checkable. and in ways (epistemically) significantly similar to the ways sensory experiences are checkable. and that treating sensory experiences as Rowe suggests we treat experiences of God demands wholesale scepticism with regard to the senses.