Atheism, Theism, Science & Philosophy
April 19, 2013 at 2:15 pm
(This post was last modified: April 19, 2013 at 2:41 pm by Love.)
Hello,
This is the new thread (from HERE). I will go ahead and answer all of the questions that were asked of me.
Cheers.
Very good questions. When I was an atheist, I attributed the totality of mystical experience (for everybody) to the dopamine system in the brain. There is scientific evidence in the field of cognitive neuroscience that suggests mystical experience has correlates in this particular part of the brain (as part of the monoamine system). I am still very keen on the sciences such as physics, chemistry and biology (and all of the subdisciplines), but I now have a different view about mystical experience. Although I do not disagree with the neural correlations associated with mystical experience, I think extreme reductionism of this nature actually undermines the mystical experience itself. I now view this from the perspective of Aristotle: "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” That is, the experience is vastly more important than the biological mechanism from which it derives. We postulate that mystical experience does have a material cause, but this does not explain why the experience exists in the first place, hence my reason for attributing it to an external agency.
As for applying my experiences to the God of Christ. I would like to make it clear that I did not experience a momentary sacred vision in an instant, it was a gradual process and I found myself feeling beckoned by the history of Christianity and the impact Jesus has had on history and culture; I cannot explain why I felt those desires to read about Christianity and Jesus. There is also something deep inside my consciousness about Christianity that feels "right" and "true" at the same time, which is significant to me. In essence, it was a gradual process after that horrific experience on December 24th 2012.
Cheers.
This is the new thread (from HERE). I will go ahead and answer all of the questions that were asked of me.
Cheers.
(April 19, 2013 at 9:09 am)RosaRubicondior Wrote: As an Atheist, how did you know which god to ascribe causality to and how did you eliminate all possible natural explanations for your 'experiences', please?
What specific piece of evidence convinced you a priori that your chosen god actually existed so you could justify including it in the explanation, please?
Very good questions. When I was an atheist, I attributed the totality of mystical experience (for everybody) to the dopamine system in the brain. There is scientific evidence in the field of cognitive neuroscience that suggests mystical experience has correlates in this particular part of the brain (as part of the monoamine system). I am still very keen on the sciences such as physics, chemistry and biology (and all of the subdisciplines), but I now have a different view about mystical experience. Although I do not disagree with the neural correlations associated with mystical experience, I think extreme reductionism of this nature actually undermines the mystical experience itself. I now view this from the perspective of Aristotle: "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” That is, the experience is vastly more important than the biological mechanism from which it derives. We postulate that mystical experience does have a material cause, but this does not explain why the experience exists in the first place, hence my reason for attributing it to an external agency.
As for applying my experiences to the God of Christ. I would like to make it clear that I did not experience a momentary sacred vision in an instant, it was a gradual process and I found myself feeling beckoned by the history of Christianity and the impact Jesus has had on history and culture; I cannot explain why I felt those desires to read about Christianity and Jesus. There is also something deep inside my consciousness about Christianity that feels "right" and "true" at the same time, which is significant to me. In essence, it was a gradual process after that horrific experience on December 24th 2012.
Cheers.
