Hello, everyone. I'm Stephen West. This is Philosophies This.

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So when Charles Taylor writes a book in 2002 called The Varieties of Religion Today,

it's a reference to a book written 100 years before that by the philosopher William James

called The Varieties of Religious Experience.

Now, this book by James

has become world famous for a few big things that he does in it, one of which is going to be him

laying out a famous description right near the beginning of the book of what a religious experience

even is. William James says essentially, look, if we're talking about religion, go into church on

Sunday and getting a sermon delivered to you by a pastor, that's wonderful in all.

But that's not the core of what it is to have a religious experience.

That's not what religion really is.

Religion, he says, is something that goes on in the heart of an individual.

It's a personal experience when an individual feels a connection to whatever it is they call the divine.

And when they feel this transcendent moment connected to something that's beyond this world,

he's saying that's where a religious experience really goes on.

It's certainly not in some building down the street where a bunch of people meet up and like to sing songs together.

In fact, most religions start in the same way, James says.

There's some religious genius that comes along, you know,

some individual that gains some really powerful spiritual insight.

And as they do their thing, they start to attract attention.

...