Keywords
existence of God, reason, experience, divine communication
Abstract
Both reason and experience are essential to religious life, which should be neither completely irrational nor entirely cerebral. But surely, of the two, the experience of direct and convincing revelation would and should trump academic debate, and most obviously so for its recipient. The Interpreter Foundation was established in the conviction that reasoned discussion and analysis necessarily have a place in faithful discipleship, but also in the confidence that divine revelation has genuinely occurred. The role of reason, accordingly, is a helpful one. It serves an important ancillary function. However, it does not supplant experience with God and the divine and must never imagine that it can. Academic scholarship can refine and clarify ideas, correct assumptions, defend truth claims, generate insights, and deepen understanding, but, while human inquiry sometimes creates openings for revelation, it will never replace direct divine communication. Interpreter knows its place.
Recommended Citation
Peterson, Daniel C.
(2014)
"Reason, Experience, and the Existence of God,"
Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: Vol. 12, Article 3.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/interpreter/vol12/iss1/3
