Hello and welcome to episode 13 of the panpsychast. This episode we're looking at religious

experience, the best argument for the existence of God. Just kidding. The argument from

religious experience is the argument from experiences of God's existence of God. In its strong form,

this argument asserts that it is only possible to experience

that which exists and so that the phenomenon of religious experience demonstrates the existence

of God. People experience God, therefore there must be a God, case closed. In its weaker form,

the argument asserts only that religious experience constitute evidence of God's existence.

Born in 1842 before he passed away in 1910, the New Yorker William James was one of the first people, was the first person,

to offer a psychology course in the United States. Today we're going to be focusing on his Gifford lectures,

which have been published in the book,

The Varieties of Religious Experience.

These were given between 1901 and 1902 in Edinburgh.

James' work was massively influential, influencing intellectuals to come such as Bertrand

Russell Ludwig, Wittgenstein, Hillary Putnam and Richard Rorty.

He even influenced presidents such as Jimmy Carter.

So today we're looking at the questions.

What is religious experience?

Are religious experiences a load of poppycock or should religious experience convert us?

In part one, we're looking at mystical experience.

In part two, conversion experience. In part three, we're looking at mystical experience. In part two, conversion experience.

In part three, different ways individual religious experiences can be understood.

And in part four, we're looking at analyses and discussion.

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