preview

Philosophy Of Religion : The Existence Of The Almighty Being God

Good Essays

There is an ordinary drive to be curious and skeptical about almost everything. The very dubious minds will always find themselves asking why. One of the greatest unknown wonders reputes the existence of the almighty being, God. There have been millions of reports by people claiming they have had religious experiences with God. The question is whether this reckons as sufficient evidence to interactions with God, and whether it should be justifiably accepted as knowledge. Philosopher, William P. Alston, recorded his findings and beliefs regarding this matter in his publication, Perceiving God, in 1991. Conversely, philosopher, William L. Rowe, refuted Alston’s findings in his book, Philosophy of Religion: An Introduction, in 2007. Rowe …show more content…

It is bigoted to assume that all experiences must be perceived through the obvious senses. Accordingly, God is a spiritual being and therefore must be explored through a spiritual light. A mystical experience is form of perception. This raises the question of what example perception is.
Alston elucidates that perception is termed by presentation, appearance and givenness. However, perception is all-together “independent of conceptualization, belief, or judgment” (Alston, 1991, p. 187). When perceiving, one can either see or think. Through the action of seeing one is strictly perceiving, however when thinking, one is applying concepts, beliefs or judgments to sway the end perception. A perception must be a constant, it must appear one way. With such beliefs, a skeptical thinker will argue that one’s conceptualization, belief or judgment will still sway how something is perceived. Alston rebuts by illuminating the point that although humans have their own conceptual beliefs and judgments altering how something is understood, it does not interfere with the perception of what is. In order to form a perception of, for example X, there are conditions necessary for it’s appearance. X must exist, X must have a significant casual contribution to a current experience, and the perception of X results in beliefs about X (Alston, 1991, p. 188).
Alston moves on to state that he will argue that mystical experiences are right

Get Access