Ever since Schleiermacher exalted feeling when addressing religion's “cultured despisers,” apologists have periodically exploited religious experience. With all the more traditional avenues of theism's defense generally in disrepute, modern theologians and religious philosophers have repeatedly sought to justify religious belief rationally by reference to the individual's experience. Charles Darwin in 1876 remarked on the prevalence of this strategy. “At the present day the most usual argument for the existence of an intelligent God is drawn from the deep inward conviction and feelings which are experienced by most persons.” This argument left Darwin rightfully unpersuaded. Experience has recently once again, however, become the focus of those aiming to vindicate the rationality of religious belief. This time the apologists hail from the ranks of analytic philosophy. Increasingly, we find philosophers defending the justification of theistic beliefs based on extraordinary experiences (so-called “perceptions of God”).