The Objectivity of the “Transcendent” Based on the Two Components of “Inner Need” and “External Experience” in the Thought of Norman L. Geisler

Abstract

One of the controversial issues in the religious experience is the reality of the "transcendent". The "transcendent" is one of the most important positive features of religious experience, which the constructivists consider it to be born in the mind or as a human subconscious. Norman L. Geisler, as an essentialist, claims that the object of a religious experience is something real. In his book Philosophy of Religion, in proving the reality of the transcendence, he has put forward an argument which, in his own interpretation, is based on the "empirical method". This method is based on the combination of the two components of "inner need" and "external experience". In this article we explain and analyze Geisler's argument and also explore his rational and empirical foundations including: empirical method, comprehensiveness principle, necessity of verification of the existence of the transcendent, preference of empirical credibility over the logical possibility of deception, the experience of supplying the human’s real needs, uncredibility of the denial of the reality of the transcendent, the generality and reality of the religious experience, the basicness of the need for the transcendent (sense of origination and dependence), the possibility of satisfying the need for the “transcendent”, and the existential need for the "transcendent". After evaluating the the presuppositions of the argument (i.e. common nature of human beings, the similarity between physical and mental needs, the problem of transcendence in atheism, being based on induction, the transmission from general to particular, relativism in addressing religion) we finally came to the conclusion that such a belief is justified for him, because this belief originates from an inner need. Moreover, for the subject of experience, this belief is also "true", because the objectivity of the transcendent is approved.

Keywords

• norman geisler
• religious experience
• empirical method
• transcendent
• objectivity