Then I still say that the "evidence" is based again on relative truth, since belief is primarily based in people's relative circumstances and experiences. And yes, in saying this, I am also speaking from my personal experience and understanding of faith and how it works within my life, and the lives of those I know. So I cannot claim absolute certainty in this point, I am just giving you my perception of the situation. Namaste!
Namaste! I agree that evidence is relative, and that personal perceptions must be the outer limit in many situations; but then everything in the sphere of belief is relative. The only things that can be proved by means of compelling, formal logic and empirical methods, like an algebraic proof, and the valency of oxygen, are ultimately of no use (even if they are of use!). Ultimately, each person must be, and
is, the sole arbiter of what is true for him or her.
To someone who has never experienced a particularly special, enhanced sensation, like tasting best Darjeeling tea, or sipping vintage port, or riding a GP motorbike, or taking cocaine- all rather exclusive, if not expensive experiences, I believe- an attempt to explain them is liable to be unsatisfactory. Even describing fully the taste of affordable potatoes or eggs would stretch the skills of the finest writer. If the experience of the 'indwelling of the Holy Spirit' is likewise available only to those who permit that indwelling, one can hardly ask for evidence of it in order to believe in it. The person in whom the Spirit is claimed to dwell may be
legitimately convinced; or he or she may be deceiving themselves (or attempting to deceive others). The problem then arises of discovering which of these applies.
What one
can do is expect what are claimed as the o
bservable results of that indwelling. Those are known as the
fruits of the Spirit, behavioural responses that are generally supposed to be beneficial to society, at the personal, family, local and wider level. Patience, kindness, honesty, willingness to forgive, humility, cheerfulness, reliability, generosity, peacableness, all these leading to a quiet and content spirit that would tend to lead to concord in the home, workplace and elsewhere, are the signs of the Spirit, as claimed. If one who claims to possess the Spirit is impatient, dishonest, unforgiving, grumpy, unreliable, mean, quarrelsome, with a noisy, noisome effect on others, one can reasonably suppose that this person's claim is unjustified. If one who claims to possess the Spirit also possesses the Spirit's fruits, one can then take that as evidence that the claim is in this case justified.
