(November 16, 2015 at 9:49 am)robvalue Wrote: We have thousands of years of people saying things about spirituality. That doesn't mean any of it is true. I've talked to hundreds of people about it and not one has been able to define it without using meaningless metaphors.
Until I have a way of distinguishing whatever it is from nothing, then for all practical purposes it is nothing to me.
I'd like to know how anyone knows anything about it, if there can be no evidence for it. This reduces everything to personal experience only, and I'm not going to believe anything someone says they have experienced without evidence. Anything that can't be independently verified is entirely unreliable. People say all kinds of nonsense all the time. Even my wife believes in ghosts. Sorry babe. I don't even believe her.
You've hit the essence of the argument. In reality everything does come down to personal experience, if one has not had a direct personal experience than for sure they would not and should not believe.
So the question comes down to, if I told you can have a personal experience if you read a few books about saints would you then do it. If you say yes great, if you say no great, its just how do you perceive what I am saying. I'm not telling you about a personal experience, I'm saying how yourself can get a personal experience. Now if you say I've tried everything and i cant feel anything then fine, you either can stop or keep trying its really up to you.
So the question one should ask is HOW can I get a personal experience, not make me believe that people have had personal experiences. The purpose of my essay is not to convince anyone anything, its just to break down the dogmatic views of atheists so they can even try and be open about sincerely exploring the question about HOW can i get a personal experience.
If any one is interested in a few books i can for sure recommend it to you. We can try a spiritual experiment and see what the outcome is if any one is open.
