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Does An Experience of God Prove The Existence Of God?
- Thread starter Sunstone
- Start date
it depends on how you interpret such an experience. At most it can act as personal proof(it proves to YOURSELF that God exists) but it does not give objective proof or even objective evidence. Though multiple "experiences of God" from many different people and many different cultures is at least evidence if not proof of SOMETHING it's not necesarilly God especially since these experiences differ greatly from person to person. However I also do not think they should simply be dismissed out of hand or regarded as mere delussions or insanity especially when there is no evidence to support such claims and the opposite is just as likely to be true if not more so considering the vast number of people who have them.
Nanda
Polyanna
To the person experiencing it, I would imagine. To the rest of us? Not so much.
~Amin~
God is the King
I believe the question answers it self, if you have a relationship
and experience with God then obviously it proves His existence.
And say, praise is due to God.
He will show you His signs, and
you will recognise them.Qur'an 27,93.
Nanda
Polyanna
Yes, but only to you. Which is the most important thing, obviously, but you can't expect it to be proof to anyone else.
TurkeyOnRye
Well-Known Member
Absolutely not. It's not even evidence for god. Using this logic, we could presume that it's also evidence for the flying spaghetti monster, angels, aliens, demons, dead loved ones and thousands of other mythical entities created in the span of human history. There's evidence to the contrary scientific explanation, which makes simple and obvious sense; the "touch of god" is explained away by the brain shooting itself up with dopamine and serotonine. The same thing happens when hugging or kissing a loved one, for example. The only prerequisite is that one must believe it to be true first, then the brain will dish out the chemicals. So, obviously those who "experience god" are going to claim it to be god; it's a form of self-hypnosis (we all accept hypnosis as fact, right?). To think that one's feelings are of the touch of a god, let alone a specific figure in organized religion, is flat-out ridiculous.
~Amin~
God is the King
Thats very true.
Storm
ThrUU the Looking Glass
Exactly.
Storm
ThrUU the Looking Glass
Not true. I didn't believe in God when my theophany struck.
Only for one that has Divine acceptance and that has receptivity. This is not likely to be someone who has not had the experience for many reasons. One reason is that it is too easy to block one's self with such meaning dismissals as judgment that the all such experiences are being misinterpreted by the experiencing individuals.
TurkeyOnRye
Well-Known Member
But you were open to suggestion. A powerful hypnotic device, the mind will perpetuate any suggestion given to it. If you have the desire for god, you will get god. At will, I can self-hypnotize myself to keep my eyes from opening by imagining--and to some extent, believing--that my eye lids are sewn or glued together. In order to open them, all I have to do is come to a simple, rational conclusion; it's not real.
We have to remember that just because we believe something to be true, that doesn't make it true. Unbiased reason is our only reliable tool in our search for truth.
Don't think that I'm not an empathetic person. I believe we should fully enjoy the spectrum of emotions that being human has to offer. Emotion is art. It should be used for passion and inspiration, not reason.
Storm
ThrUU the Looking Glass
I had no desire for God, and no, I really wasn't open to suggestion. You should not make such assumptions.
Very true, and it applies to atheism as readily as belief.
logician
Well-Known Member
What is the justification for believing the experience took place with a god?
TurkeyOnRye
Well-Known Member
A good question!
There's a common misconception that atheists believe there is no god. This is untrue, in most cases. Atheism is simply a lack of theism. This can be frustrating because there is no word, to my knowledge, that means a positive disbelief in god, so the two groups are just lumped together. I am an atheist in that I don't have a positive belief in god. I am a skeptic more than anything.
In any case, I am interested to hear about your theophany, if you don't mind telling the story, even if only for the sake of simply telling it.
Storm
ThrUU the Looking Glass
I'm aware of that. My apologies for the conflation.
Heh. Check out my title, hon. "Theism" suffers from much the same problem as "atheism," only with people assuming that all God-belief is theistic in nature.
Fair warning: it's not a pleasant story. I'm not comfortable posting it on this forum, due to some very disturbing elements, but I'll send you a PM shortly.
(And for $25,000 and the new car...) What is "a god"? No one can answer your question until you answer that.
logician
Well-Known Member
Same question I've been asking, to no avail.