A Believer's Thoughts on Faith

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

It kinda stretches the accepted standards of ‘evidence’ all out of shape, doesn’t it?

If a religious experience isn’t replicable, it isn’t evidence. If Jesus comes to me in a dream, how is that any more evidentiary than if Zlorg, the Slug Empress of Altair VI does the same thing? One common definition of evidence is that it is the available body of facts that are useful in determining whether or not a particular proposition is true (or at least valid). I don’t see how a spiritual or religious experience, unique to one individual, can be viewed as a fact - or even as information - to support the proposition ‘God exists’.

The most the can be said for such an experience is that it supports the claim, ‘I believe that God exists.’

Boru

There's no universal standard for evidence.

As for your dream example, in scripture a dream isn't evidence, but a dream that predicts future events with 100% accuracy is. So if Jesus appeared to you in a dream and told you everything that would happen to you in the next week, and it happens, would you not consider that as evidence?

No, I would not consider that as evidence. Here’s why:

If Logar The Lord of Feces came to you in a dream and told you everything that would happen to you next week, and it happens, which is more likely - that Logar exists and you should worship his holy bowels, or that it was all an amazing coincidence?

Boru

Edit: If a Christian were to have the Jesus dream you described, I would be likely to chalk up the subsequent events as a self-fulfilling prophecy (which would make it not a ‘prophecy’ at all).