No Evidence For God, Why Still Believe?

Didn’t you notice the ‘nic’ and its meaning?

The point is many of those with the highest degree of experiencing the force of God [at present] happened to be have mental issues, e.g. temporal epilepsy, schizophrenia and others.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIiIsDIkDtg[/youtube]

or have a serious brain damage, note Jill Bolte a neuroscientist,

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU[/youtube]

There are tons of research on this point. They made one wonder those who claimed to be prophet or messenger of a God thousands of years ago [no psychiatry to vet them] suffered similar mental problems.

Know what a “Galileo” is?

Odd that you would post the video with Jill Taylor as that supports what I’ve been saying. Silhouette can learn from it. Also, ever hear of Eban Alexander? Why not mention the countless NDE’s, some of which are confirmed as having seen things that they could not have possibly seen from their position? What you describe, Prismatic, is exactly what one should expect if the brain acts like a biological receiver amplifier.

NDE’s are often used to support life thereafter [sham anyway] and not to directly support the existence of a God.

This is too far fetched. I will not bother until there is sound empirical evidence of the transmitter.

Yours is a problem of Confirmation Bias. You merely assumed God exists [compelled psychologically] and from there try to find and justify whatever evidences you think is likely to be related to the existence of a God.

There are countless claims by various individuals who experienced the force of a ‘God’.
The fact is such experiences are traceable to various root causes, i.e. brain damage, mental problems, drugs, stress, chemical, hallucinogens, etc.
Whilst no one would wish to repeat the experiences based on certain mental illness or brain damage, the experiences of God can be repeated by drugs, hallucinogens, & meditation techniques.

If God exists and is all powerful, why do God only wait for the above [other than meditation] very dangerous elements to transmit his force on those ‘victims’? There are those who experienced God who ordered them to kill people.

The fact that the ‘experiences of God’ can be repeated by drugs, hallucinogens, meditation and other empirically based methods [brain stimulation], indicate the idea of God is more likely to be psychological rather than a God really exists as real within an empirical-rational reality or whatever reality theists are claiming.

Note God Helmet;
The term God Helmet refers to a controversial experimental apparatus in neurotheology. The apparatus, placed on the head of an experimental subject, stimulates the brain with magnetic fields. Persinger reports that at least 80 percent of his participants experience a presence beside them in the room, which they variously say feels like God or someone they knew who had died.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YPOTaUyvA0[/youtube]

The presence of God experienced is not the product of some mechanical device. It is a bathing in a warm glow of Presence wherein all that is self and other knows belonging. Ideas divide people; the God experience unites them.

The truth is the ‘presence of God experienced’ can be tested and repeated reasonably with a mechanical device.
Therefore if many people are experiencing ‘God’ when stimulated [by human experimenters] in certain parts of their brain, then the experience of ‘God’ is man made and not initiated by any real God.

The ‘presence of God experienced’ can also be induced by drugs & hallucinogens, repeatedly, thus this ‘presence of God experienced’ is human made.

In the case of the above video, the boy suffered from temporal epilepsy and feel he is God but such experience disappeared after he was treated. Many patients prefer to take medicine to make their God-experience disappear.

I have personally experienced ‘God consciousness’ while doing meditations in the past as being a panentheist. I still experience such intermittently but now I know, it was and is only a psychological and neural effect.

There is no convincing proofs God exists as real.

So it is most likely the idealized idea of God in humans are due to psychological reasons. It is just that for the majority of theists, the psychological reasons are milder.

Note the video re Jill Bolte who had such an experience due to a very serious stroke.
What is so interesting with Jill Bolte is she is a neuroscientist and thus [she is objective on such an experience] knew what was really going on [the neural processes and damage] in her mind while she experienced the so-called presence of ‘God’. [she did not identify with God but something like Nirvana]

Haha :laughing:
Gyahd, what a character. :icon-rolleyes:

Yes, :laughing: :laughing: I have to laugh at my previous beliefs that I had experienced ‘god-consciousness’.
I am now wiser when others claimed they had experiences of God which are actually effects of certain brain and neural processes that can be reasonably repeated with drugs, hallucinogens, meditations, and the likes.

But your :laughing: above is due to ignorance due to a lack of width and depth in philosophical and related knowledge relevant to this OP.

I’d estimate Prismatic has to be about 200 years old to have all the expertise, experience and years of study he claims to have behind him.

Well, duh. I certainly hope so.

It is humanly possible.

I started with Advaita Vedanta in my teens;

Advaita Vedanta is basically monotheism [broadest sense] and pantheistic, I’d gradually progressed to panentheism then to non-theism. I had been doing meditation for >30 years changing from Hindu-based to one adapted from Buddhism.

In the last 3 years I spent full time on Islam, previous 3 years full time on Kant, previous 2 years full time on Buddhism, prior to that covered the philosophies all the popular Western philosophers. Amidst the above I had been voraciously vacuuming all knowledge from other relevant fields.

You really shouldn’t have opened that door. :icon-rolleyes:
[-(

You should not cracked open this door with your silly laughter that led to other doors.

LOL! All that and he didn’t learn a dang thing except, perhaps, to boast about how “wise” he is.

Well, narcissism has become pretty common in these days of Secular self worship.

You are very ignorant of what is going on in the philosophical community or the academic community. In these communities it is very common to list down one’s coverage of knowledge and skills in a CV or other reports. You’re condemning them as boasting?

Note;
biography.com/people/groups … ilosophers

In addition, I am showing you don’t try to fool me with what you know of panentheism as I have gone through that phase.

If you were to reveal I would like to read your coverage and CV in relation to Philosophy. I will not accuse you as boasting.

That would depend on the individual, Ierrellus ~~~ not on you.
Would you take away free will? Well, at the very least, there is free choice.

Is your God so limited that being all of the above is an impossibility?
Are we so limited that experiencing all of the above is an impossibility?

“Foolishness to the Greeks.”–God is more than an idea.

I DID say experiencing all of the above.

If you had simply said before that God is not ONLY an idea to be accepted…

But you did correct yourself this time by saying that God is MORE than an idea.

Arc,
You get hit in the face by a snowball. I ask you how that felt. What a foolish question! If I get hit by a snowball, I might understand something of what you felt. Intersubjecyive communication is as close as we can get to describing an experience. This is also how we can come to know God exists and what God is like. for believers.
I’ve just had an eye operation. Can’t read the posts

Silhouette,
I can do no better at explaining the God experience than Christian apologists have done throughout the centuries. I do know that the experience entails personal qualia, which may be described if that which is felt finds synonymous expression in others. In other words those who would not give the time of day for reading Tillich, Lewis, et. al, would certainly not care what I have to say on the matter. If you can share your awe at a beautiful sunrise with one other person who feels the same awe, you are communicating a spiritual experience. If you are into the concept of isolate qualia, you will not be able to tell others how you felt. Those who seek something more objective miss the experience of shared feelings. And yes, the God experience has to do with feelings.