1. H.P. Owen Bertrand Russell Martin Buber Peter Donovan William James
The basic form of Christian experience is the apprehension of God to which I have given the names of ‘intuition’ and ‘faith’. All forms of experience are modes of this one fundamental form; they are all expressions of this primary awareness.
Implication for Religion:
Religious truth is self-authenticating, as personal experience is the only reason you ever need for belief. Religious claims presumed to be generally reasonable.
Implication for Human Experience:
Intuitive knowledge would be widely accepted as legitimate in many situations. Philosophy and culture would be subjective.
Bertrand Russell
One of the most notable examples of intuition is the knowledge people believe themselves to possess of those with whom they are in love … Yet deception in such cases is constantly practised with success
Religion cannot derive any support from intuition or the analogy with inter-personal intuition, as this may be bogus. Real support needs hard evidence.
Society and culture would become more empirical and scientific in its outlook. Personal impressions would be given little value.
Martin Buber
The world is twofold for man in accordance with his twofold attitude … twofold in accordance with the two basic words he can speak. . One basic word is the pair I-You The other basic word is the pair I-It.
Religious believers would see the concept of God as personal presence and emphasise the connection / interaction with the divine.
Human relationships would be seen as mysterious and special as an object of knowledge; objectifying humans would be evil.
Peter Donovan
The philosophical difficulties of intuitions, encounters, mystical experiences, and other sources of that sense do not detract from its importance for religion.
Believers could neither rely upon nor ignore the role of experience in their faith; it would have to be seen as part of a wider picture for reasonable belief.
Intuition would have to be treated cautiously, not as a source of knowledge, but as an important aspect of human psychology.
William James
The true is only the expedient in our way of thinking
(pragmatic view of religious experience)
R.E. absolutely authoritative for the individual
The power of religion and religious experience would have to be interpreted in terms of the practical good it does in life.
Knowledge would be assessed in practical terms and we would not think of ‘absolute’ truths; we would practice tolerance.
Richard Swinburne
The classical theistic God would seek to interact with his creatures …
We should rely on the testimony of others unless there is a specific reason not to do so
Religious believers could appeal to personal experience and the testimony of others as a source of evidence in support of their beliefs.
We would have to accept testimony as a strong source of knowledge in various circumstances (not just religion).

2. H.P. Owen Bertrand Russell Martin Buber Peter Donovan William James
The classical theistic God would seek to interact with his creatures …
We should rely on the testimony of others unless there is a specific reason not to do so
Implication for Religion:
Believers could neither rely upon nor ignore the role of experience in their faith; it would have to be seen as part of a wider picture for reasonable belief.
Implication for Human Experience:
Intuition would have to be treated cautiously, not as a source of knowledge, but as an important aspect of human psychology.
Bertrand Russell
The true is only the expedient in our way of thinking
(pragmatic view of religious experience)
R.E. absolutely authoritative for the individual
Religious truth is self-authenticating, as personal experience is the only reason you ever need for belief. Religious claims presumed to be generally reasonable.
We would have to accept testimony as a strong source of knowledge in various circumstances (not just religion).
Martin Buber
One of the most notable examples of intuition is the knowledge people believe themselves to possess of those with whom they are in love … Yet deception in such cases is constantly practised with success.
The power of religion and religious experience would have to be interpreted in terms of the practical good it does in life.
Intuitive knowledge would be widely accepted as legitimate in many situations. Philosophy and culture would be subjective.
Peter Donovan
The world is twofold for man in accordance with his twofold attitude … twofold in accordance with the two basic words he can speak. . One basic word is the pair I-You The other basic word is the pair I-It.
Religious believers would see the concept of God as personal presence and emphasise the connection / interaction with the divine.
Society and culture would become more empirical and scientific in its outlook. Personal impressions would be given little value.
William James
The basic form of Christian experience is the apprehension of God to which I have given the names of ‘intuition’ and ‘faith’. All forms of experience are modes of this one fundamental form; they are all expressions of this primary awareness.
Religious believers could appeal to personal experience and the testimony of others as a source of evidence in support of their beliefs.
Human relationships would be seen as mysterious and special as an object of knowledge; objectifying humans would be evil.
Richard Swinburne
The philosophical difficulties of intuitions, encounters, mystical experiences, and other sources of that sense do not detract from its importance for religion.
Religion cannot derive any support from intuition or the analogy with inter-personal intuition, as this may be bogus. Real support needs hard evidence.
Knowledge would be assessed in practical terms and we would not think of ‘absolute’ truths; we would practice tolerance.