Asking for a logical reason for atheist/mythicist fear of spiritual revelation

[youkrst]

I remember once when I was feeling in a particularly messianic mood and tried walking on water but it didn't work and I sank.

classic

oh the memories!

This allegorical approach is in fact quite a productive way to read spiritual writings.

yes, that has definitely been my experience.

[youkrst]

i started looking around at videos regarding "spiritual experiences" to see what other people might be saying

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfC75GI-Bbg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYvaYajFgfs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86OiKLHRmsk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_o6bDixWKA

it goes on forever, plenty of interesting thoughts.

i suppose each of us interprets our experience according to various factors peculiar to our experience and then there are commonalities as well.

i have often thought that if you "saw a being of light" and grew up in a christian culture you would think you saw jesus but if you "saw a being of light" and grew up in a hindu culture you would think you saw krishna or again in a different culture the buddha or in an ancient culture perhaps osiris or something. as an atheist you might think "oh i'm having a delusion" or "my mind is playing tricks on me" or something far more elaborate if you were a neuroscientist or a brain specialist or perhaps differently again if you were a psychologist.

i suppose they are all just better or not so better ways of interpreting experience. i find many of them interesting. the more interesting perspectives the better i suppose. though it potentially gets tricky when the perspectives disagree or if one identifies too heavily with a particular perspective, or if a perspective is unreasonable.

[Chris OConnor]

Celestial Torah Christianity proves that the human idea of the Humanitarian, the Man Face of Aquarius who has the Urn or urns or bucket of Living Waters to pour as consecration for the good human being who righteously follows the good God, EL ELyon, Saturn.

Word Salad. It is literally meaningless.

The "Man face of Aquarius?"

"who has the Urn or urns?"

LOL

[sonoman]

Celestial Torah Christianity proves that the human idea of the Humanitarian, the Man Face of Aquarius who has the Urn or urns or bucket of Living Waters to pour as consecration for the good human being who righteously follows the good God, EL ELyon, Saturn.

Word Salad. It is literally meaningless.

The "Man face of Aquarius?"

"who has the Urn or urns?"

LOL

Chris, are you for real? You can actually post such stupidity on this forum? Oh yeah, you own it. But look at this image of Aquarius, Chris, and then see what you wrote and do some rethinking. Or you could ban me again for pointing out more irrationality in atheist run forums discussing religion.

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[Chris OConnor]

Is it any wonder you keep getting banned every forum you visit? It isn't the content of your message. It is the arrogant and condescending delivery. You're being banned because you come across as an asshole. Be happy that I'm allowing you a second chance and don't taunt me.

[johnson1010]

"The vessel is the face of god, shot through with the veins of holy ambrosia! FIE! Anong Un Ramma, blessed be thy stony fist of judgment, unlock the eternal mystery of the great pitcher above! I bang the kettle drum of fate. Hear the rumbling of heaven's eternal tide. Amok! AMOK!"

Revelation.

Contributing to sensible discussion since... never.

[johnson1010]

Sagan's confidence in there being life outside of what's found on earth is pretty well founded.

The relevant facts are: Everything about this planet, our solar system, the existence of other stars, and the seemingly endless stretches of time invovled.

Why should we think there's life elsewhere? Because life is here. Because life isn't magical. Because life is nothing but the result of electrons doing what electrons love to do. Because the environment that allows electrons to do THESE kinds of things has certain parameters. These parameters are not special, but rather just a couple of notches on a slider of possibility. Because the universe is ludicrously huge, and the number of places out there which will fall on this slider of possibility practically necessitates that a very large number of them will land on "hospitable". Because the amount of time involved so far is insane, and what's to follow after can only be described with hyperbole.

Couple the fact of life's possibility as demonstrated here, with the uncountable places where the opportunity will exist, with the tractless eons in which these things can act and the possibility of life becomes the inevitability of life.

The only reasonable way to doubt the existence of life elsewhere is if there were some reason, any reason, to imagine life on earth was special.

[geo]

Chris, are you for real? You can actually post such stupidity on this forum? Oh yeah, you own it. But look at this image of Aquarius, Chris, and then see what you wrote and do some rethinking. Or you could ban me again for pointing out more irrationality in atheist run forums discussing religion.

[/center]

Here's what Aquarius actually looks like in the night sky.

[Interbane]

That picture some guy drew is what dictates his reality. Stephen, if johnson were to draft you up a different image connecting the dots of other stars and creating a different story, would you jump on his bandwagon? Or is your set of stars special because they created the story a long time ago? I'm pretty sure there are other good fantastical stories from the past with other random collections of stars. Check them out, you may find some arbitrary connection and be able to imagine a connective narrative.

[johnson1010]

That's always possible.

And you don't need the endless numbers of stars to get the job done.

I changed a connect-the-dot bunny into a cowboy one day while waiting for pizza.

You can find whatever you look for in the stars, and in clouds, and in burnt cheese sandwiches.

You are a pattern seeker. In most cases that's good. But sometimes it leads to false positives.