“One person’s experience cannot prove God’s existence” Discuss.

God existence can hardly be examined objectively because God is invisible. Religious experience claimed by believers, however, is seen as “evidence” of God’s existence. In Christian tradition, some Christian may believe that through the experience of miracles they feel God and therefore God exists.

Pentecostal Protestant is famous of religious ecstasy. They argues that people can do miracles if and only if they are fulfilled by God the Holy Spirit who provides them enormeous power and grace. The mircales include speaking Angelic tongues, falling down, and even healing. While healing is also seen in Catholic and Anglican tradition, ecstasy is not that popular. However seeing vision is an important religious experience in Catholicism. Fatima, a small city in Portugal, is famous of the witness of the presence of Blessed Virgin Mary by three children and now becomes an important place for pilgrimage.

While the Church of England preserves the liturgy of healing, religious experience is not limited to the “fancy” experience. During worship, the prayers, the sermons, the hymns and even the reading may inspire the congregation. Some Christian hears anwers from God for their prayers. In Taizé meditation, through repeating short chants Christian experience the presence of God in quite and peace.

However, the accuracy of religious experience is doubtful as they are very subjective. One may pretend to speak in Angelic tongues but actually just speaking Hakkanese or Hokkien. Mental illness or psychological effects may also create illusory religious experience. People think they have felt God but actually they may not. There is no scientific evidence for miracles yet.

In my opinion one person’s experience cannot prove God’s existence, but it does not mean that I am questiong or rejecting the validity of all religious experience. It is a misunderstanding of the aims of religious experience. Religious experience is simply a passion or an inwardness by nature, which does not aim to prove anything. Religious experience as merely a feeling must be true to that person who feels. It does not signify God objectively and by definition having religious experience cannot be recognised as proving God’s existence. In Bible St Paul also criticises Jewish only looks for God’s micrales but not God himself. Beliving in God is different from believing in the validity of religious experience, and belief in God does not need any proof.

To sum up I don’t think one person’s experience can prove God’s existence but this conclusion does not reject the validity of religious experience or deny the value of belief in God