Logic tells me God doesn't exist but my heart says otherwise.

[bennyboy]

While I sympathize and agree with your assessment to some extent, I also think you're not giving "science and atheism" (really? What's atheism have to do with science or understanding the evolutionary or practical role of emotion?)

I think atheism is mostly founded on principles of logic-- ideas about gods are discarded because they are inconsistent and lacking evidence. But it seems to me-- and maybe I'm wrong-- that some kinds of powerful emotions and experiences also get discarded as meaningless or even deleterious. We don't necessarily want to throw the baby out with the bath water, I think.

Why would religious feelings have any special role other than their obvious effects that religious followers regularly report: a sense of unity with the world, peace, security, freedom, etc. These are important emotions but do they depend on any specific creed about the metaphysics of the Universe as it relates to other-worlds? Of course not.

That's right. And yet if you ask people who found their world views on science or on the logical disregard of metaphysics if they meditate, or have an interest in lucid dreaming, OBEs, or experience a "communion with God" or any kind of metaphysical experience, you are much more likely to receive scorn than approval.

I've had some experiences that, while I don't want to attribute them to ghosts or gods, were certainly of that category that people usually call religious-- and whatever the true source of those experiences, they are an important part of my life and I feel I learned a lot from them. I think exploring the limits of what the mind can experience should be encouraged, but it's been my experienced that those who place logic at the center of their world view neither have the inclination to seek such experiences themselves, nor tolerance for those who do, nor even a fundamental understanding of what those experiences are like. Due to the limitations of their world view, they have missed out on experiences I have had myself, and cannot really understand what it is that they've missed, and refuse even to believe that they could have missed anything of value. They are wrong.

It's one thing to refuse to make or accept factual assertions about what experiences really mean. But deliberately avoiding entire categories of experience is akin to an ostrich sticking its head in sand.