Experiencing God: Revelation and Miracles
How Do Believers Think God Is Revealed?
Many religious believers do not arrive at their faith primarily through philosophical arguments. Instead, they claim direct or indirect experience of God. The idea that God makes himself known to human beings is called revelation. Christian theology traditionally distinguishes two kinds: general revelation (available to everyone, through creation and conscience) and special revelation (specific acts of God, such as scripture or the incarnation of Jesus Christ).
The opening of John’s Gospel (John 1:14) expresses the Christian conviction that God’s ultimate act of self-revelation was becoming human: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” This is the doctrine of the incarnation — that Jesus Christ is the Word of God made visible in human form. For Christians, knowing Jesus is the most direct way of knowing God.
Other means through which believers say God is revealed include: meeting inspirational people whose lives seem to embody divine goodness; encountering scripture; the voice of conscience; and God’s apparent action in history. In Islam, revelation came through the angel Jibril to the Prophet Muhammad, producing the Qur’an as the final and perfect word of Allah. Jewish believers point to the Torah as the revealed law given to Moses at Sinai.
Revelation takes many forms: through scripture (the Bible, Qur’an, Torah), through the person of Jesus Christ (“The Word became flesh” — John 1:14), through conscience, through creation, through miracles, and through personal religious experience. Together these constitute the “sources of wisdom and authority” that believers draw on.
Miracles
Miracles are events that seem to go beyond what natural causes can produce, and which believers attribute to divine action. The Gospels record many miracles attributed to Jesus: healing the sick, walking on water, feeding five thousand people, and most significantly, the resurrection. For Christians, miracles are signs that God is active in the world and that the natural order is not closed to divine intervention.
The philosopher David Hume argued that belief in miracles is almost never justified. He defined a miracle as a violation of a law of nature, and argued that the evidence in favour of the natural law will always be stronger than the testimony of those who claim to have witnessed a miracle. People are prone to exaggeration and superstition. However, believers respond that Hume’s argument presupposes naturalism — the view that only natural causes exist — and so begs the very question at issue. If God exists, miracles are entirely possible.
Believers argue that miracles, especially the resurrection of Jesus, are strong evidence for God’s existence and power. If the resurrection happened, it demonstrates a God who can act in history and who validated Jesus’s claims. Many point to unexplained healings at places of pilgrimage such as Lourdes as continuing evidence of miraculous divine action.
Non-believers argue that what appear to be miracles are more likely to be coincidences, natural events not yet understood by science, or wishful thinking by people in emotionally heightened states. Humanists reject miracles entirely — they see the natural universe as self-contained and believe that religious reports of miracles reflect deeply held cultural and psychological needs rather than actual supernatural events. For the 15-mark “Discuss” format, presenting both views fairly and then evaluating which is more compelling is essential.
Forms of Religious Experience
Many people claim to have had direct experience of God or the divine. Philosophers and theologians have identified several types of religious experience.
Conversion involves a dramatic change of belief or life direction in response to what the person perceives as a divine encounter. The most famous example in the Christian tradition is the conversion of Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1–6). Saul was a persecutor of early Christians when he reported being struck down by a blinding light and hearing the voice of Jesus. He was left blind for three days and emerged as Paul, one of the most influential figures in early Christianity. His conversion was sudden, unexpected and transformative — the hallmarks many see as confirming its divine origin.
Saul’s conversion (Acts 9:1–6) is the specification’s named example of a conversion experience. He heard the voice of Jesus saying, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” You may be asked to describe this event and evaluate whether it constitutes evidence for God’s existence.
Mystical experience is a profound sense of union with God or ultimate reality. It is typically described as indescribable, overwhelming, and accompanied by deep peace or insight. The philosopher William James identified four features common to mystical experiences: they are noetic (they convey knowledge), they are transient (short-lived), they are passive (the person feels acted upon, not acting), and they are ineffable (impossible to fully put into words). Many Christian mystics — such as Teresa of Avila and Julian of Norwich — described such experiences.
Charismatic and ecstatic experience is associated with the gifts of the Holy Spirit described in the New Testament. In charismatic worship, believers may speak in tongues (glossolalia), prophesy, or experience intense emotion as they feel the Holy Spirit moving among them. This form of experience is common in Pentecostal churches and Charismatic Catholic movements.
Visions and the Sacraments
Visions are supernatural perceptions in which a person claims to see or hear God, Jesus, Mary or another spiritual figure. They may be experienced with the physical eyes or as vivid images in the mind. Biblical examples include Isaiah’s vision of God’s throne (Isaiah 6) and John’s Revelation. In the modern era, many Catholics report appearances of the Virgin Mary at sites such as Fatima and Lourdes.
For many Christians, God is also encountered through worship and the sacraments. The Mass or Holy Communion is considered by Catholics and many other Christians to be a moment of genuine encounter with the risen Christ. During the Eucharist, the ordinary — bread and wine — becomes a vehicle for the extraordinary: the presence of God. This sacramental understanding means that for millions of believers, religious experience is not reserved for dramatic visions or conversions; it is available in the regular acts of corporate worship.
Believers argue that the widespread, cross-cultural nature of religious experience — reported across all traditions, in all times and places — is strong evidence that it points to a genuine spiritual reality. They apply the “principle of credulity” (Richard Swinburne): if an experience seems real, we should take it at face value unless there is specific reason not to. The sheer number and consistency of reports makes it implausible that all are wishful thinking or delusion.
Non-believers argue that religious experiences can be explained psychologically (wish-fulfilment, grief, suggestion) or neurologically (temporal lobe activity, oxygen deprivation). Sigmund Freud argued that belief in God is a form of collective wish-fulfilment — humanity’s desire for a cosmic parent figure. The fact that people’s religious experiences are shaped by their own culture (a Christian sees Jesus; a Muslim encounters Allah; a Buddhist experiences nibbana) suggests the experiences reflect prior belief rather than objective reality.