Hey, nice to meet you bro. Thanks for the welcome. I'll read your experience and tell you what I think..as far as my experience goes, it was definitely not a hallucination. I've hallucinated before, on cough medicine or from a fever..(i dont normally hallucinate but i have hallucinated)..and it was nothing like that. And it wasn't an isolated incident..I have had many such experiences, far too many and too powerful to dismiss.
Hope springs eternal
Skepticism isn't the answer, it isn't even a worldview..but it is used by people who claim to be skeptics to justify their worldview, of which of course they are not skeptical of. If you're a true skeptic, you are skeptical of everything, not just religious claims. To be skeptical is to try to be as objective as possible, because all claims to knowledge are equally suspect, for or against. Most people don't seem to realize that empiricism is a philosophical discipline.
It's not just that the alternative to hope is unpalatable, it is unnatural. People will accuse believers of embracing hope because of fear, and maybe that is true for some, but I think it is far more true that we embrace hope because it is the natural state of affairs. Specifically, because of the love of God. It's that love that gives us hope, because it is larger than life and tells us there is something more.
Hope springs eternal
Skepticism isn't the answer, it isn't even a worldview..but it is used by people who claim to be skeptics to justify their worldview, of which of course they are not skeptical of. If you're a true skeptic, you are skeptical of everything, not just religious claims. To be skeptical is to try to be as objective as possible, because all claims to knowledge are equally suspect, for or against. Most people don't seem to realize that empiricism is a philosophical discipline. It's not just that the alternative to hope is unpalatable, it is unnatural. People will accuse believers of embracing hope because of fear, and maybe that is true for some, but I think it is far more true that we embrace hope because it is the natural state of affairs. Specifically, because of the love of God. It's that love that gives us hope, because it is larger than life and tells us there is something more.
(September 18, 2011 at 2:39 pm)CoxRox Wrote: Lucent, thanks for sharing these personal experiences with us.
I understand to some extent where you are coming from. I shared an experience I had, which is on this thread:
http://atheistforums.org/thread-8077.html
I must admit, that since sharing my 'experience', I have become far more skeptical about it. The guys here, for all their 'sharp' words at times, did make me re-evaluate what I thought I had experienced. I'm open to it having been 'in the mind', although I'm still not sure.
When I read about your 'landscape' experience, I'm straightaway thinking that you did have some kind of hallucination, due to you admitting you have had them before. I would be very interested in hearing the rest of your story. Please pm me if you have the time. I'm a reluctant Christian at best, but some days I'm veering to atheism- but not quite. The one thing I don't seem to ever lose, is hope - hope that there is more to this life, that love (in us) does live on. Glad you've joined the forum and thanks again for sharing this very interesting personal experience.
