Where do you stand on the existence of God?

[robvalue]

The problem with personal experiences (this is a general comment and not aimed at CL in particular) is the wild scope for interpretation.

I'm not saying any particular experience wasn't what the person says it was. I can't possibly know exactly what happened if I have no evidence to examine. What I do know about though is the fallibility of the human brain, our psychology, and the unreliability of our own memories.

Something nuts and paranormal happens. I've heard many such stories, and some of them don't even have any specific leanings towards even an intelligence, let alone a particular one. Just some flash of light or something. Now, if you've been soaked in a certain mythology since birth, and now you've had this "unexplainable experience" you can finally take it as proof. But what the hell did that thing have to do with your religion?

Let's say it's more specific. Let's say a figure actually appears and talks to you. Unless it actually says, "I am the God of the bible" or something, how are you identifying it? It "looks like" what you imagine the God of the bible looks like? Of course you're going to interpret it as being your own personal favourite God, especially if you already believe it is real. You "just know" it is your God.

Other times, all I hear is a coincidence. "Such and such happened, and it couldn't be a coincidence. Therefor God, and not just God but the God of my religion, and not just my religion but the particular sect of my religion that I was raised in." See the problem there?

And if your mind does glitch, or misinterpret what is actually happening, which is an incredibly common thing, then of course it's going to draw on what is already in your head. Your brain uses what you know and think about to gap-fill, or to even provide semi-hallucinatory experiences. So again, you're going to experience the mythology that has been jammed into your head since birth. It's no surprise then that people are highly likely to just accept the local religion, regardless of what it is. At some point, all that latent mythology that our brains have been soaking up is going to "manifest" in some form, to a lesser or greater degree, because our brains aren't reliable. Dreams are another popular one, and an easy way for this stuff to leak into your "reality".

I've had "weird experiences" which involve the biblical style of mythology. Things I could very easily take as "proof", if that's what I wanted them to be. But I recognise them as what they are: my brain responding to its surroundings. Even as a lifelong atheist, I've been soaked in the mythology of Christianity. It's everywhere.