How to be a strong atheist in a rather straightforward way

[tackattack]

EvF I don't only attribute inner peace to the spirit, I was just stating that when I've felt the spirit it's accompanied by a sense of peace.

TW- I've felt an endorphine rush, I've felt fight-or-flight kick in. I've had the life scared out of me. I've felt the thrill of tempting death. I've had super-human strength and speed in life-or -death situations to save my child and my brother. None of these are even apples and oranges to the holy spirit.

[TruthWorthy]

The amazing thing is that the brain has a multitude of psychic chemicals. Ever wonder what emotions are? The holy spirit could be your brain flooding your system with a powerful mixture of these.

[Edwardo Piet]

@ Tackattack

How do you distinguish the 'feel' of the holy spirit from the feel of inner peace in general when you feel it?

EvF

[Rhizomorph13]

I can see the headlines now, "Christians Expire from Adrenal Disease: Missinterpreted Hot Flashes as Signs From the Holy Spirit."

[fr0d0]

LOL

Yes there is no rush quite like a Christian rush :S

...seriously tho' I can totally substantiate what Tacky says. What is this emotional rush we're predisposed to if it has no other outlet?

[tackattack]

I'll say I won't take Fr0d0's substantiation on this because he calls it an emotional rush amd he's bound to skew things more to comedy than to the point. Also the Holy Spirit is personal and doesn't require substantiation from any other source for those who've experienced it.

TW- I've been through depression to elation and nothing in the wide range of emotions I've been though in my life (possible including some unproven drug use) isn't even a 1/50th of the sum of the holy spirit. If it was closer it would seem more feasible to be just another strong emotional response, but it doesn't. I'm not saying it's not a physiological reation, just that its source isn't from self.

EvF- I can feel inner peace from finishing a good book, satisfying some inner desire, or helping a friend through a rough time in his life etc.. It's easily measurable, repeatable, susecptable to peer experience and doesn't affect my immediate ability to commmunicate or change my physiology (save for a mild pleasure). I feel calm and satisfied, patient and completely passive. This isn't the same as peace from God. The foolowing are perceptions from me only: That peace starts as a warm all over feeling with a heavy tingle, then for me it makes me almost giddy and happy with the world around me. I'm speechlesss and feel if I speak the air would just escape and never come back in. Time sort of slows. Thoughts, not in line with what I was thinking, suddenly pop to the front of my consciousness. Simply focusing on that thought instintaneously plans flash on how to accomplish it, the end result and post plan conversations. All warmth and tingle continues to steadily increase until I've gathered the plans and made a choice of action towards/away from that. Then it's instintaneously back to the how I was before, the only thing that remains are a few hairs on the neck standing up and a new plan and purpose in the forefront of my consciousness.

[Autumnlicious]

TW- I've been through depression to elation and nothing in the wide range of emotions I've been though in my life (possible including some unproven drug use) isn't even a 1/50th of the sum of the holy spirit. If it was closer it would seem more feasible to be just another strong emotional response, but it doesn't. I'm not saying it's not a physiological reation, just that its source isn't from self.

Your extraordinary claim requires extraordinary evidence. Else, it is no more suspect than the classes of chemical reactions in your brain the give depression and elation, or the drugs that artificially affect them. Also, what you wrote just there reminded me very much of what I've seen in other people - working themselves into a mania without the use of drugs, scares, or of the like. One doesn't need to external events to work oneself up - it is well documented in bipolar and schizophrenic patients. Bipolar disorder was, and sometimes still is, referred to as manic-depressive disorder.

EvF- I can feel inner peace from finishing a good book, satisfying some inner desire, or helping a friend through a rough time in his life etc.. It's easily measurable, repeatable, susecptable to peer experience and doesn't affect my immediate ability to commmunicate or change my physiology (save for a mild pleasure). I feel calm and satisfied, patient and completely passive. This isn't the same as peace from God. The foolowing are perceptions from me only: That peace starts as a warm all over feeling with a heavy tingle, then for me it makes me almost giddy and happy with the world around me. I'm speechlesss and feel if I speak the air would just escape and never come back in. Time sort of slows. Thoughts, not in line with what I was thinking, suddenly pop to the front of my consciousness. Simply focusing on that thought instintaneously plans flash on how to accomplish it, the end result and post plan conversations. All warmth and tingle continues to steadily increase until I've gathered the plans and made a choice of action towards/away from that. Then it's instintaneously back to the how I was before, the only thing that remains are a few hairs on the neck standing up and a new plan and purpose in the forefront of my consciousness.

This is reminiscent of an opiate high. Then again, the endogenous opioids include all endorphins, dynorphins and opiates. So, you got 'high' on life. It happens - that doesn't prove there is a Holy Spirit, only that you have assigned the term 'Holy Spirit' to the chemical over/under stimulation of your brain in a manner that may be provoked multiple times, a psychosomatic disorder if you will.

[tackattack]

My extrodinary claim has provide extraordinary evidence to me. Your definition of evidence is required. I have seen a psychologist for depression. I was not diagnosed with any bipoar, schizophrenic or manic disroders. My chemicals were all in balance. You don't "work up to" the holy spirit, it's there when you don't expect it and I've stated several places instintaneous, which, by definition, is the opposite of worked up/in to. Calling the holy spirit psychosemantic would mean that ( assuming from a state of normalcy) conscious or unconscious thought was seeking an affect from a cause. If it is not solicited and separate from any subconscious plans or it references some unknown fact then it's not based in self therefore not psychosematic.

[downbeatplumb]

My extrodinary claim has provide extraordinary evidence to me. Your definition of evidence is required. I have seen a psychologist for depression. I was not diagnosed with any bipoar, schizophrenic or manic disroders. My chemicals were all in balance. You don't "work up to" the holy spirit, it's there when you don't expect it and I've stated several places instintaneous, which, by definition, is the opposite of worked up/in to. Calling the holy spirit psychosemantic would mean that ( assuming from a state of normalcy) conscious or unconscious thought was seeking an affect from a cause. If it is not solicited and separate from any subconscious plans or it references some unknown fact then it's not based in self therefore not psychosematic.

So what were you diagnosed with?

I'm sure they didn't hear everything you said and told you 'no thats perfectly normal' coz it isn't.

[Autumnlicious]

My extrodinary claim has provide extraordinary evidence to me. Your definition of evidence is required. I have seen a psychologist for depression. I was not diagnosed with any bipoar, schizophrenic or manic disroders. My chemicals were all in balance. You don't "work up to" the holy spirit, it's there when you don't expect it and I've stated several places instintaneous, which, by definition, is the opposite of worked up/in to. Calling the holy spirit psychosemantic would mean that ( assuming from a state of normalcy) conscious or unconscious thought was seeking an affect from a cause. If it is not solicited and separate from any subconscious plans or it references some unknown fact then it's not based in self therefore not psychosematic.

Redefining evidence to mean "Whatever I feel like" is no way to prove anything, except remind us of the point that we can't get inside your head, for good or evil.

First off, it is psychosomatic, not semantic. Psychosomatic occurrences are everywhere - every action you take, every thought you have, does have an effect on your body. The synaptic and chemical messengers of your body provide feedback to your brain, which in turn provides feedback to the body. It is an endless loop. You do not "solicit" a psychosomatic disorder - the levels of consciousness in the body are merely arbitrary separations from a vast amount of chemical interactions, of which minor differences for incredibly short periods of time affect the undercurrent of the entire mind or a small segment of it.

Since this is all your perception, it is quite plausible that the action of "working up" or setting up the environment for "Holy Ghost" time is not obvious to you as it may spring from subtle, unnoticed cues or events that you have grown to ignore.

Please, next time use more spacing, commas and consider a spell checker.