There are no answers in Genesis

[Belacqua]

For you, I can only speculate. I don't think I've ever seen you talk about signs, but you do talk about 'inspired' a lot. 

One issue here is that (I'm frequently told) I'm only supposed to talk about the anthropomorphic Sky-Daddy God which modern American Christians on TV seem to believe in. This is of no interest to me. 

For the God of Classical Theism, which is entirely different from the Santa Claus God, inspiration works very differently. And this sort of thing, whether we conclude in the end that it's supernatural or not, is wise and beautiful. 

So the Official God of the Atheist Forum is an active force who will give you a sign by reaching down and putting a picture of Jesus on your toast. Wisely, no one here accepts such a thing. 

Dante's experience with Beatrice is the most famous example of the non-Santa-God type of inspiration. 

For Dante (as for all Christians coming from a Neoplatonic tradition) all good in the world originates in God and, if we love it, inspires us to return our love to God. Because of his particular character and dispositions, Dante was particularly struck by Beatrice's goodness and was inspired by her. He could experience something of the goodness of God through her example. The point here is that she was not a saint like Catherine of Siena or a local celebrity like Simonetta Vespucci. She was not particularly noticeable except to Dante. 

In cases of inspiration like this, there is no active input from God, who is (for Dante) impassible and ideal. The way inspiration works is that some aspect of his goodness happens to grab us and cause us to see the world differently than we did before. It opens our doors of perception and shows us that things could be different and better, and that material objects in this world point to something ideal. 

This type of inspiration is frequently cited in the mystical tradition. It also takes on an important role in the aesthetic thought of the German Idealists, who are less explicitly Christian about it, but nonetheless give great weight to the experience of inspiration. And I take this type of inspiration very seriously. Obviously I won't talk about personal experiences on this forum where mockery is the norm, but I do believe there is something real going on there.