SolitaryWalker
Tenured roisterer
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2007
- Messages
- 3,504
- MBTI Type
- INTP
- Enneagram
- 5w6
- Instinctual Variant
- so/sx
But this is not about belief, it is about direct experience. The atheist in my example experiences something being there, without being able to explain it through reason. The belief, or faith, essentially goes down to having trust in this "presence", that it will continue to be there, as it has been in the past; to rely on it, even if there's no way to prove that it will continue to manifest itself. .
I do not see why the emotions you have experienced at that moment cannot be analyzed. The bottom line is you're experiencing something that you do not understand. No need to mythologize about it. Just leave it at that.
No, I didn't mean it would support Christianity either, I'm trying to get down to the essence of religion. .
I have defined religion earlier in this thread.
The essence is a set of dictates that one ought not to question under no circumstances. These dictates instruct the individual on metaphysics, eschatology and ethics very comprehensively.
You wouldn't have a problem with such an experience, then? Wouldn't it collide a little with your atheism or your rational worldview? What is spirituality to you, if I may ask?.
Where is the conflict between the two?
Do you mean that Dostoyevsky's allegiance with Christianity is itself a superstition? ?.
Yes, and more so how devout he was and the specific aspects of his creed, both religious and political that were very superstitious.
They usually put the highest emphasis on personal experience though, and this is where I give them the most credit. I have heard far more than enough accounts of people being miraculously healed, having their prayers answered over and over again, literally having their lives saved by some great spiritual experience (where they saw Jesus), to be sure that at least some of them must be true (not to talk about such things as near-death-/out-of-the-body-experiences, past-life-regression, ghosts etc). Of course it's also cultural, a muslim would not see Jesus for example, but still... my point is that there are lots of religious people who are T, NT even, who find obvious proof for their faith. Not to mention how many those must have been in the past.?.
Personal experience can be analyzed logically. In most cases they experience powerful sentiments that they mistake for real life occurences. As I said earlier, it would have been better to just leave things be that they cant explain clearly.
You think there's a great difference between spirituality and religion, is that right? Religion as a kind of distortion of spirituality? It is a distinction I have made myself, even if I haven't been so careful with it lately.
Correct.