ABSTRACT
A signifi cant number of people claim to have had a religious experience of some kind. Studies conducted in the English-speaking world have put that number between one-and two-thirds of respondents, depending on the methods of questioning used. (Broadly speaking, the more lengthy and confi dential the setting, the higher the positive result (Hay 1982; Hood 1995). Many people refer to a spiritual experience of some kind as their grounds for believing in God or in their religion. Religious experience is often put forward as a source of knowledge of God or of religious truths; and many schools of philosophy as well as branches of science take experience as the foundation of knowledge. On that basis it would seem sensible to take religious experience as a source of religious knowledge. However, atheists and skeptics claim that there is good reason to doubt the validity of such experiences; and extensive research has been done in the social sciences, especially psychology, to fi nd alternative explanations for their cause.
