Quote Originally Posted by Tallmo View Post
I think it's strange to say that people cannot know God. There are people who have had strong inner revelations and callings. If you have an experience of an inner ultimate spiritual authority that will change the course of your life, then who are we to say that this wasn't God?
...Who are we to say that it was God? I think saying that it was in fact God, and saying that you believe in God are two different things.

Quote Originally Posted by Tallmo View Post
Of course some will always say that it was just imagination. But if this "imagination" had that strong impact on you, labelling it like that is not gonna change the basic fact of the experience.
The strength of a conviction does not necessarily make it more true.

Quote Originally Posted by timber View Post
This was nicely explored in the movie "Contact", where the protagonist, a firm atheist, went on a Journey into outer space, yet when she returned home could not prove she went anywhere. Her rationality broke down and it was shown that it didn't matter or not if she had in fact went anywhere, it was that she was given such a powerful personal experience of her own revelation, that proving it scientifically was now beyond necessity anymore.
Kind of funny how a moment ago were saying that we should rely on "data", now you're saying that we should rely on "experience".

I wouldn't say her "rationality broke down", that's actually kind of a disturbing way to put it. It was more that she had a strong belief or a faith in aliens existing, but she couldn't "prove" it. And it's this faith that drives her.

I think that's kind of the point of emotions. It doesn't really have any kind of rationale for it existing, but it exists for the sole purpose of driving you into an action.