Religion? Your Thoughts? Open Thread.

[marylandblue]

30. I'm an agnostic.

There is only one type of evidence for the supernatural. People claim to have mystical experiences, to see supernatural phenomenon or to have particularly evocative dreams. Often they find these experiences emotionally compelling but difficult to describe. When they can describe it, it is usually in terms that are consistent with their culture that includes stories of others who have had similar experiences.

In other cases, people find emotional satisfaction in engaging in religious traditions or studying texts. Here too there is an experience they find difficult to describe.

Most likely these experiences are mental states produced by our own brains. But I don't dismiss the possibility that there is something more to it. Whatever they are, they are experiences of God or the supernatural. I use "God," "supernatural" and similar terms phenomenologically without judging whether they are objectively true or not, but simply observing that the experiences exist and the people experiencing them use those terms.