Religious Experience and Perceiving God; A CriticalEvaluation of Alston’s Theory

In his magnum opus Perceiving God, William Alston has tried to showthat one can be justified in believing some religious beliefs on thegrounds of some religious experiences. According to his theory, thosereligious experiences which have -phenomenologically- perceptualcharacters are entitled to play the role of ground for some other beliefs.This paper examines some of the main criticisms of this view, as wellas Alston's replies to them. Evaluating the arguments of two sides ofthe debate, the author puts forward his comments and criticism. It hasbeen finally concluded that as far as Alston's arguments are concernedhis main claim remains under question.