(March 15, 2013 at 10:05 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: I have not seen God, but I do know first hand what a genuine spiritual experience is. Usually, its best not to trot it out in front of people you know will mock you. And yet, you shouldn't keep your light under a basket, right? Maybe if more people were open about their mystical experiences it would...I don't know...I just don't know...
Pearls before swine?
When I was a believer, I can recall people relating experiences (usually second or third hand) where someone was touched by the supernatural in some way. Others who were of the same faith would become awestruck by the stories and eagerly pass them along.
If, however, they heard of similar tales from people not of their faith, they would mock them. Either they'd presume that the person in question was mad, or hallucinating, or that they were in thrall to demonic forces. It never seemed to bother them just how insulting the latter inference was. And others would return the favor, of course. Because the spiritual is real... so long as it happens under circumstances that support your worldview.
I suppose an atheist will simply assume that a person who purports to experience something mystical was not entirely in his or her right mind at the time. But hey, at least we don't accuse you of being in league with the Devil. That's got to count for something, right?
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
