I wasn't charismatic / pentecostal but my first wife had a flirtation with such notions and dragged me to a Charles and Frances Hunter crusade sometime back in the late 1980s I guess. At the end they were calling people up front to get a "touch from god". What was SUPPOSED to happen is people go line up near the podium and one or both of the Hunters would move down the row, touching one person after another on the forehead, and they would be "slain in the spirit" (fall backwards in a swoon, into the arms of a helpful "catcher" ). This is just a typical charismatic fake "miracle" that should impress no one, but it's based on people being both suggestible and socially influenceable. I would guess that often, the first few people are sometimes even "plants" who just are there to get the ball rolling.

At any rate, my bullshit meter was going off and on an impulse I decided to go up there myself. I was maybe the twentieth person in line and when Frances got to me she pressed on my forehead and nothing happened. She looked confused and pressed much harder, and nothing happened. Then she shrugged and moved on.

Three minutes later I was the only one standing. I shrugged too.

I guess this probably is an indication of how many skeptics attend such events.

A story I tell to christians that I like

My ex is Jewish and we visited Israel together quite a few years ago. As we were on a tour bus heading down the Jericho road on the way to the dead sea. The tour guide said " On your right you can see the inn mentioned in the story of the good Samaritan " . My ex gave me a look of complete ignorance and said " Whats she talking about? " I then proceeded to tell her the parable from what I could remember back in sunday school. Its a good story and she liked it saying " Oh that`s where the suicide prevention guys The Samaritans comes from then? " The reason I tell this to likable christians is that I got to tell the tale to someone who never heard it before, on the road where it is set.

Hallucinations, nothing more. When the brain is starved of oxygen this is quite probable for some to experience it. My grandfather was dead before and later revived later after surgery. I asked him so what was it like? Nothing, I saw nothing, just like a deep sleep, he replied. He had been a Christian all his life, by the way, and this really made him question his faith for the first. Better late than never, I guess.

In such circumstances, I listen and thank them for sharing their experience. Unless they ask for my thoughts or try to convert me, I keep my opinions to myself.

Fascinated. I like to hear all about it. I invariably come up with my own explanations, which I keep to myself. I'm interested in how people interpret such experiences, what meaning they derive from them, how--if at all--they impact their lives or outlooks going forward. I inspect their responses for clues to their personality and motivations.

I don't taken them especially seriously unless they come up with something seriously schizoid. I liken it to anything else a believer might come up with in terms of meaning-making--sweet, kind of cute, and mostly harmless nonsense that makes them feel good.

I dated a guy who was convinced that his dead father had visited him when he was a boy, and he goes through life with an implacable belief in angels that gives him comfort and strength. I never dreamed of having a disrespectful attitude, even privately, toward that part of his life. I thought it was a little kooky, but he didn't give off any other worrisome outward signs, so I let it ride.

It's all I can do to keep from bursting into laughter. The older I get, the harder it is to take these delusional people seriously.

It makes me feel sad for them because they're delusional and sad for me because there's one more person I fundamentally cannot relate to.

I have never told people I work with that I'm an atheist. One of our outside salesmen walked in and sat down in my office one day, and out of the blue says "do you ever wonder what happened to unicorns?". After I did a double take, I informed him that unicorns are a mythical creature, and they never existed. "They're in the Bible" he says. There are lots of things in the Bible I told him. He couldn't believe that I didn't take everything in the Bible seriously.

I had a friend (best man in my wedding) that did several sacrifices of animals to the devil... the devil never showed up but he kept the nickname "Taboo".