07-27-2017, 02:22 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-27-2017, 02:24 AM by egoldstein.)
Bah, I wanted to edit my above to add this, but it timed out on me.
On the topic of one's experiences being evidence of factual events, do keep in mind that our brains trick us frequently. I've had many deep, meaningful, spiritual experiences that felt entirely real to me at the time, but logically I know they were not real physical events. That doesn't make them any less important to the individual experiencing them and it doesn't make them meaningless, quite the contrary, it says a lot about the state of mind of the person experiencing such events.
Doubt your mind tricks you? Explain optical illusions, take a look at common logical fallacies, listen to some good stereo, quadraphonic, or surround sound. It's easy to confuse the brain, especially when the events going on have to be filtered through our state of mind at the time.
I am not an especially religious person these days, I still have moments of spirituality, times when I can be overtaken by the grandeur of the Universe around us, but these days I'm far more inclined to turn to science for testable, verifiable, questions about this universe. Those questions for which I can't test or verify with science, I tend to use philosophy (including many religious philosophies) to explore and evaluate until I get to a testable question. I've not persoanlly found any singular philosophy which adequately explains all the things I have contemplated.
