lisper comments on Is Spirituality Irrational? - Less Wrong

5 Post author: lisper 09 February 2016 01:42AM

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Comment author: lisper 15 February 2016 10:21:21PM 1 point [-]

What convinced me of what? That my spiritual experience was a neurobiological phenomenon and not evidence of a deity?

Comment author: polymathwannabe 15 February 2016 11:06:45PM 0 points [-]

What convinced you that your spiritual experience is more than purely neurobiological?

Comment author: lisper 16 February 2016 02:10:54AM 2 points [-]

You mean, at the time? When I was twelve? I have no idea. That was a long time ago. I can't reconstruct all the details of my thought processes back then. I suspect I just didn't think it through.

Comment author: polymathwannabe 16 February 2016 02:46:15PM -1 points [-]

If that isn't a mammoth-sized red flag for the solidity of your case, you and I inhabit separate conceptual universes.

Comment author: gjm 16 February 2016 05:05:37PM 0 points [-]

You do understand that lisper is not now claiming that spiritual experiences are genuine encounters with a non-natural reality, right?

Comment author: polymathwannabe 16 February 2016 06:06:03PM 0 points [-]

Lisper's words:

What I want to say is rather that certain kinds of spiritual experiences might be more than mere fantasies made up out of whole cloth.

Comment author: lisper 16 February 2016 08:03:16PM 2 points [-]

I really don't understand the problem here. In between "fantasies made up out of whole cloth" and "genuine communication with a deity" there is a broad range of possibilities, and I think the truth lies in that range rather than at either extreme. Spiritual experiences are real experiences, and they can feel like a genuine encounter with a deity without actually being a genuine encounter with a deity.

Comment author: gjm 16 February 2016 11:06:11PM 1 point [-]

Yes, but "more than mere fantasies made up" is not the same as "genuine encounters with a non-natural reality".