(August 9, 2013 at 6:51 pm)fr0d0 Wrote:(August 9, 2013 at 6:22 pm)Chas Wrote: No, you can agree that you think you experienced something similar, but you can't compare those experiences in any objective manner since they are entirely internal.
A person tells me what they've experienced and I can confirm that it it's also true for me. There's no guess work there. Nothing vague, but a definite, solid experience. We are sharing subjective experience with another person... and can agree when both experiences converge.
The only way it isn't objective, is if you take someone who doesn't accept the logic, will not understand the reference.
So in a test study where 50 people are Christians and 50 people are not, 50 people could confirm God acting in their lives, where 50 would see no link. If 100% of your sample group were Christians, you would surmise that experiencing God was objective, and vice versa.
The only objective fact is that the Christians agree that they have similar internal experiences. There is no way to compare those experiences other than their subjective descriptions. They are comparing explanations; the explanations are filtered through pre-existing suppositions and group reinforcement - social interactions.
I agree that there is something there, but not what you say it is.
There is something there that calls for explanation. However, evolutionary biology and neuroscience have begun to have explanations. These are hypotheses. They are testable.
Skepticism is not a position; it is an approach to claims.
Science is not a subject, but a method.
Science is not a subject, but a method.
