Editing Religious experience (section)

===Richard Swinburne===
In his book ''Faith and Reason'', the philosopher [[Richard Swinburne]] formulated five categories into which all religious experiences fall:
* '''Public'''&nbsp;– a believer 'sees God's hand at work', whereas other explanations are possible e.g. looking at a beautiful sunset
* '''Public'''&nbsp;– an unusual event that breaches natural law e.g. walking on water
* '''Private'''&nbsp;– describable using normal language e.g. Jacob's [[Vision (spirituality)|vision]] of a ladder
* '''Private'''&nbsp;– indescribable using normal language, usually a mystical experience e.g. "white did not cease to be white, nor black cease to be black, but black became white and white became black."
* '''Private'''&nbsp;– a non-specific, general feeling of God working in one's life.
Swinburne also suggested two principles for the assessment of religious experiences:
* '''Principle of Credulity'''&nbsp;– with the absence of any reason to disbelieve it, one should accept what appears to be true e.g. if one sees someone walking on water, one should believe that it is occurring.
* '''Principle of Testimony'''&nbsp;– with the absence of any reason to disbelieve them, one should accept that eyewitnesses or believers are telling the truth when they testify about religious experiences.