Back to the original question, I think this is an issue on which atheists hold a poor position.
To dismiss people's most important personal experiences, as delusions or hallucinations is counter-productive. The theist feels vindicated, as to them its certainly not an hallucination; the atheist seems arrogant, and unwilling to consider subjective accounts of 'religious experience'.
Obviously some accounts are nonsense, but broadly speaking there's a body of subjective religious experience which show similar experiences amongst different faiths - sense of calm, one-ness, feelings of love for others etc...
The fact that meditation and prayer can elicit these responses again and again, suggest that there is a level of consciousness we can achieve outside of normal everyday experience by adopting certain known practices. This does not confer any type of supernatural status to the experiences, and does not require belief in a deity, church attendance, acceptance of miracles etc.
That this state of consciousness has been hijacked by the religious (i.e. "I felt the presence of Jesus/Allah/Zeus"), does not invalidate the experience itself. By the same token, a personal experience of joy or serenity lends no credence to believing that Jesus is the son of god (insert god/prophet of choice).
There is clearly a genuine experience, which no doubt will be scientifically explainable at some point, and this experience could well be shown to be beneficial to our health, mental states, ability to empathise. The point is that this experience is undoubtedly available to all, at any time, with no acceptance of either a deity or religious dogma required.
To dismiss people's most important personal experiences, as delusions or hallucinations is counter-productive. The theist feels vindicated, as to them its certainly not an hallucination; the atheist seems arrogant, and unwilling to consider subjective accounts of 'religious experience'.
Obviously some accounts are nonsense, but broadly speaking there's a body of subjective religious experience which show similar experiences amongst different faiths - sense of calm, one-ness, feelings of love for others etc...
The fact that meditation and prayer can elicit these responses again and again, suggest that there is a level of consciousness we can achieve outside of normal everyday experience by adopting certain known practices. This does not confer any type of supernatural status to the experiences, and does not require belief in a deity, church attendance, acceptance of miracles etc.
That this state of consciousness has been hijacked by the religious (i.e. "I felt the presence of Jesus/Allah/Zeus"), does not invalidate the experience itself. By the same token, a personal experience of joy or serenity lends no credence to believing that Jesus is the son of god (insert god/prophet of choice).
There is clearly a genuine experience, which no doubt will be scientifically explainable at some point, and this experience could well be shown to be beneficial to our health, mental states, ability to empathise. The point is that this experience is undoubtedly available to all, at any time, with no acceptance of either a deity or religious dogma required.
