The problem is that “quite a bit” is far, far too little. Though religious people often make claims of religious experience, these claims tend to be quite flimsy and better explained by myriad other mechanisms, including random chance, mental illness, and confirmation bias. Scientists have studied these claims, and thus far well-constructed studies have found them to be baseless.
There’s also quite a bit of evidence for, if you bother to listen to sincere believers. Which I do.
You may be forgetting here that a lot of people here (including myself) grew up in pretty religious circumstances. I’m familiar with all sorts of claims, ranging from teleological arguments, to ontological arguments, to claims of revelation, to claims of mass tradition, etc. etc. So what do you think is “quite a bit of evidence” in this sort of context? Is there anything remotely resembling the Old Testament miracles for example that happens now?
Yes. They don’t casually share them with every skeptic who asks, because miracles are personal, but there is an amazing number of modern miracle stories (among Mormons if not others.) And not just lucky coincidences with easy explanations—real miracles that leave people quite convinced that God is there.
And don’t be too hasty to dismiss millions of personal experiences as mental illness.
I suspect that you and JoshuaZ are unpacking the phrase “Old Testament miracles” differently. Specifically, I suspect they are thinking of events on the order of dividing the Red Sea to allow refugees to pass and then drowning their pursuers behind them.
Such events, when they occur, are not personal experiences that must be shared, but rather world-shaking events that by their nature are shared.
And don’t be too hasty to dismiss millions of personal experiences as mental illness.
First of all, Joshua didn’t bring up mental illness here. But since you do: how hasty is “too” hasty? To say that differently: in a community of a billion people, roughly how many hallucinations ought I expect that community to experience in a year?
Yes. They don’t casually share them with every skeptic who asks, because miracles are personal, but there is an amazing number of modern miracle stories (among Mormons if not others.) And not just lucky coincidences with easy explanations—real miracles that leave people quite convinced that God is there.
Curiously, nearly identical claims are made by other religions also. For example, you see similar statements in the chassidic branches of Judaism.
But it isn’t at all clear why in this sort of context miracles should be at all “personal” and even then, it doesn’t really work. The scale of claimed miracles is tiny compared to those of the Bible. One has things like the splitting of the Red Sea, the collapse of the walls of Jericho, the sun standing still for Joshua, the fires on Mount Carmel, etc. That’s the scale of classical miracles, and even the most extreme claims of personal miracles don’t match up to that.
And don’t be too hasty to dismiss millions of personal experiences as mental illness.
They aren’t all mental illness. Some of them are seeing coincidences as signs when they aren’t, and remembering things happening in a more extreme way than they have. Eye witnesses are extremely unreliable. And moreover, should I then take all the claims by devout members of other faiths also as evidence? If so, this seems like a deity that is oddly willing to confuse people. What’s the simplest explanation?
There’s quite a bit of evidence against. Absense of expected evidence is evidence of absence.
There’s also quite a bit of evidence for, if you bother to listen to sincere believers. Which I do.
The problem is that “quite a bit” is far, far too little. Though religious people often make claims of religious experience, these claims tend to be quite flimsy and better explained by myriad other mechanisms, including random chance, mental illness, and confirmation bias. Scientists have studied these claims, and thus far well-constructed studies have found them to be baseless.
You may be forgetting here that a lot of people here (including myself) grew up in pretty religious circumstances. I’m familiar with all sorts of claims, ranging from teleological arguments, to ontological arguments, to claims of revelation, to claims of mass tradition, etc. etc. So what do you think is “quite a bit of evidence” in this sort of context? Is there anything remotely resembling the Old Testament miracles for example that happens now?
Yes. They don’t casually share them with every skeptic who asks, because miracles are personal, but there is an amazing number of modern miracle stories (among Mormons if not others.) And not just lucky coincidences with easy explanations—real miracles that leave people quite convinced that God is there.
And don’t be too hasty to dismiss millions of personal experiences as mental illness.
I suspect that you and JoshuaZ are unpacking the phrase “Old Testament miracles” differently. Specifically, I suspect they are thinking of events on the order of dividing the Red Sea to allow refugees to pass and then drowning their pursuers behind them.
Such events, when they occur, are not personal experiences that must be shared, but rather world-shaking events that by their nature are shared.
First of all, Joshua didn’t bring up mental illness here. But since you do: how hasty is “too” hasty? To say that differently: in a community of a billion people, roughly how many hallucinations ought I expect that community to experience in a year?
Curiously, nearly identical claims are made by other religions also. For example, you see similar statements in the chassidic branches of Judaism.
But it isn’t at all clear why in this sort of context miracles should be at all “personal” and even then, it doesn’t really work. The scale of claimed miracles is tiny compared to those of the Bible. One has things like the splitting of the Red Sea, the collapse of the walls of Jericho, the sun standing still for Joshua, the fires on Mount Carmel, etc. That’s the scale of classical miracles, and even the most extreme claims of personal miracles don’t match up to that.
They aren’t all mental illness. Some of them are seeing coincidences as signs when they aren’t, and remembering things happening in a more extreme way than they have. Eye witnesses are extremely unreliable. And moreover, should I then take all the claims by devout members of other faiths also as evidence? If so, this seems like a deity that is oddly willing to confuse people. What’s the simplest explanation?