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Scientific Explanations of Mystical Experiences

II: The Challange of Theism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Evan Fales
Evan Fales
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242
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Extract

In Part I of this paper, I took up a challenge posed by Alston (1991), Wainwright (1981), Yandell (1993), and other theists who hold the rather natural view that mystical experiences provide perceptual contact with God, roughly on a par with the access sense experience affords to the natural world. These theists recognize, at the same time, that the plausibility of this view would be significantly compromised by the possibility of scientifically explaining mystical experiences – especially if a scientific explanation were incompatible with, ruled out, or made unlikely the supposition that God has anything special to do with the occurrences of these experiences.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , September 1996 , pp. 297 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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