Firing Line1966

Mortimer J. Adler:
When one prays to God one believes in God as one does not believe if one affirms God's existence as a philosopher. So one has gone beyond philosophy. The leap of faith is not from less sure grounds for the affirmation of God's existence to more sure grounds, but it's from the affirmation of God's existence to belief in God as benevolent, caring, just, and merciful.

William F. Buckley:
Your discovery of God was in the nature of an epiphany rather than in the nature of philosophical deduction.

Mortimer J. Adler:
Absolutely.

William F. Buckley:
But having had that epiphany you then proceeded - I know from a knowledge of your books - to make certain deductions which in your judgment directed thought about God in a fruitful channel, but not necessarily led to His discovery.

Mortimer J. Adler:
No. The leap of faith involves going beyond argument to what cannot be proved, and the sign that one has made that leap is asking God for help.