If the goal is to arrive at the truth no matter one’s background or extenuating circumstances, I don’t think this list quite does the trick. You want a list of steps such that, if a Muslim generated a list using the same cognitive algorithm, it would lead them to the same conclusion your list will lead you to.
From this perspective, #2 is extremely problematic; it assumes the thing you’re trying to establish from the spiritual experience (the veracity of Christianity). If a muslim wrote this step, it’d look totally different, as it would for any religion. (You do hint at this, props for that.) This step will only get you to the truth if you start out already having the truth.
#7 is problematic from a different perspective; well-being and truth-knowledge are not connected on a fundamental level, most noticeably when people around you don’t know the same things you know. For reference, see Gallileo.
Also, my own thought: if we both agree that your brain can generate surprisingly coherent stuff while dreaming, then it seems reasonable to suppose the brain has machinery capable of the process. So my own null hypothesis is that that machinery can get triggered in ways which produce the content of spiritual experiences.
If the goal is to arrive at the truth no matter one’s background or extenuating circumstances, I don’t think this list quite does the trick. You want a list of steps such that, if a Muslim generated a list using the same cognitive algorithm, it would lead them to the same conclusion your list will lead you to.
From this perspective, #2 is extremely problematic; it assumes the thing you’re trying to establish from the spiritual experience (the veracity of Christianity). If a muslim wrote this step, it’d look totally different, as it would for any religion. (You do hint at this, props for that.) This step will only get you to the truth if you start out already having the truth.
#7 is problematic from a different perspective; well-being and truth-knowledge are not connected on a fundamental level, most noticeably when people around you don’t know the same things you know. For reference, see Gallileo.
Also, my own thought: if we both agree that your brain can generate surprisingly coherent stuff while dreaming, then it seems reasonable to suppose the brain has machinery capable of the process. So my own null hypothesis is that that machinery can get triggered in ways which produce the content of spiritual experiences.