Does anyone every have one of those profound spiritual experiences that many theists claim as the basis for their belief, and not believe?
by 
MrJosh
ANSWERS: 7
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Yes. I've since learned how external influences can trigger a seeming epiphany.
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Back when i was a believer, i took the most mundane of things and turned it into some "powerful act of God". Truth be told, even then it kind of dawned on me that sometimes the penny just lands on it's edge. Doesn't mean God created a miracle.
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God has answered many of my prayers wishes, and dreams. Many would consider it as a coincidence, but I have had dead friends, relatives visit me in my dreams to let me know they are fine. These types of things are my basis belief for god, a higher power.
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I have had many profound spiritual experiences. For a while, I did think they were some sort of contact with God. But, they continued after I stopped thinking that. As the years went by, and I continued to challenge all the explanations and theories that I cooked up for myself, I think I eventually just wore them all out... at some point it just became obvious to me that what I had been calling "spiritual experiences" was just experiencing life as it really is, without a heavy layer of internal dialog and preconceptions. Life is all of a whole. Reality is all one thing, and then we come along and chop it up into bits with our ideas and our clinging and our fearful cowering in the corner of our own lives. To let go of all that is to just be, and to just be is to be alive and part of that whole... dynamic, interconnected, indescribable. It's ok if somebody wants to call that God -- but as Philip K. Dick said, "Reality is that which doesn't go away when you stop believing in it". The wholeness of life does not go away. As far as I can tell, God does.
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My two bits: a) anyone who bases their beliefs off of miracles is tempting God and it's a miracle alone they haven't been zapped off the planet. XD lol! But yeah. A lot of people haven't had very many profound spiritual experiences and are still very, very firm believers. b) You can see a TON of examples of these people who have seen miracles and dont' believe. They're all over almost any religious book you pick up. In the Torah, look at the People of Isreal: miracle after miracle after miracle, and they still keep straying off the path. In the Bible, look at how many profound spiritual experiences Christ's gives the people. Now look and see how many people still totally dissed him as a fraud. In teh Book of Mormon, check out Laman and Lemuel...a fricken angel comes down and says "Dude, guys, you're screwing up, what you're doing is wrong, so stop it," and they still don't believe. Check out the Greek myths, too, plenty of examples. THe list goes on and on and on...
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You mean like me standing on a freeway and a semi heading straight toward me at 90 mph then drive right through me without so much as a scratch on me or the truck? Like dreaming that a light was coming to carry me away? Like being dead on 3 occasions and having to get my heart jump started and seeing the ultra peace and the lights?? <getting all excited here..> Not once.. It finally dawned on me that doctors in emergency rooms actually know what they're doing, I was hallucinating while awake for 4 days hitch hiking and i have wild dreams.. other than that...not even one eensy weensy, itsy bitsy bit.. It's all bullshit and the spiritual crap is just that. If some really hot chick gets a tattoo of Chinese characters on her ass it only means the tattoo artist should have gotten paid. She's not spiritual any more than the stop sign on the street is.
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I think you will find that the people who don't believe don't generally describe these experiences as "spiritual." They are more likely to recognize them as something inside their own head, or as a coincidence. Those that use these experiences as the reason for their belief most likely were already leaning toward belief and experienced the event through the lens of belief.
Jim in a Nautilus COAT RELATED QUESTIONS
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