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Arguing God from Religious Experience?

So you've experienced God! How nice. Untold millions have also experienced their version of a god and accounts of those gods cannot all be correct as they are often contradictory. Religious experiences would fill encyclopedias and prove nothing other than we are psychologically prone to have religious experiences. The brain appears to be hardwired for but not of necessity monotheistic beliefs or experiences but for spiritual experiences in general, including polytheistic ones. And further, these multi-thousands of religious or spiritual experiences haven't advanced our understanding of reality - other than our understanding of neurological / psychological reality.

Of course tens-of-thousands of others have claimed to have experienced alien abductions - do you believe them? Millions have experienced ghosts - do you believe them? Lots of people claim to have experienced telepathy or been able to engage in telekinesis. Do you claim to be able to bend spoons with your mind? Numerous people claim to have been reincarnated. Many people believe in astrological experiences based on astrology columns in their daily newspaper or on 'professional' horoscope forecasts. Maybe you've experienced Bigfoot too and had out-of-the-body experiences. If so, why should we believe you? Claims are a dime a dozen. Personal experiences count for absolutely nothing unless you can back up your claims with solid evidence. And extraordinary claims (like experiencing God) require extraordinary evidence. To date, on any sort of credibility scale, religious visionaries and experiences rank as close to zero as makes no odds.

johnprytz 7 Jan 17
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4 comments

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When some one says this to me, I smile delighted as say
"You've met Zeus too? Big aint he?"

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Very good argument. I recall once seeing a therapist on TV with a client who had strange experiences. The interviewer backed the man into a corner to where he admitted he had to agree with his client in order to have any rapport with her. So much for people who claim to have been kidnapped by Bigfoot.

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The last bastion of an argument for religious belief is ultimately the claim of a religious experience; all other arguments can be handily dispensed with. f someone claims to have had a religious experience--talked to God, taken up to heaven, and so on---there is no way one can dispute the claim. The only valid response is that you have not had such an experience. There is no way for the person claiming the experience to support his/her claim and no legitimate way for someone else to refute it.

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I'm definitely going to use some of those examples (alien abduction, ghosts, etc) when someone tells me they have experienced or had visions of their god.

God is somewhat like my grandfather.

@DenoPenno Ummm...ok

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