Argument from religious experience
The argument from religious experience is an argument for the existence of God.
Outline
In essence, the argument's structure is as follows:
There are compelling reasons for believing that claims of religious experience point to and validate spiritual realities that exist in a way that transcends material manifestation;
According to materialism, nothing exists in a way that transcends material manifestation;
According to classical theism, God endows human beings with the ability to perceive – although imperfectly – religious, spiritual and/or transcendent realities through religious, spiritual and/or transcendent experience.
In the Old and New Testaments of Christianity, for instance, Adam "talks with" God while Saint Paul refers to "spiritual gifts" and "seeing through a glass darkly".
To the extent that premise 1. is accepted, therefore, theism is more plausible than materialism.
This argument is formally valid. As statements 2 to 4 are generally treated as uncontroversial, discussion has tended to focus on the status of the first.