A Review of J.L Mackie’s Criticisms against Religious Experience and Their Answers from Richard Swinburne’s View

Abstract

Religious experience is an event in which observer confronts with ultimate reality or metaphysical world. J.L. Mackie believes that religious experiences are delusions, fantasies and functions of the observer’s unconscious mind, thus as proofs for God’s existence, are invalid. On the contrary, based on “the principle of credulity” which holds that “things are in fact as they appear unless approved otherwise” and “the principle of testimony” which holds that “we should accept observers’ sayings about intended experience if they are not deluded or deceived”, Richard Swinburne negates Mackie’s criticisms and believes that religious experiences are inductive valid proofs to prove God’s experience.