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Experience with God

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    #32
    RealEstateKing
    Closed Accounts Posts: 432 ✭✭RealEstateKing


    And where do you propose we should do our research?

    Well there wouldnt be many places left now, I wouldnt imagine. The upper amazon might be one place. New Guinea/Borneo might have spots alright.

    Thanks for the recommendation on the Don Richards book will have a look.
    However, I suspect that you will find that hard to believe since it will conflict with your presuppositions.

    And that it might. It would take quite some book to overturn reason, science and evidence alright.


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    #33
    BJC
    Registered Users Posts: 731 ✭✭✭BJC


    Galmay wrote: »
    Ive a science background i can understand all arguments against Gods existence. they make perfect sense to me, christianity doesnt, but all i ever have to do is remember those two experiences and I know that God exists.

    You can belive in God outside the trappings of religion.


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    #34
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    PDN wrote: »
    Richardson discovered that stone-age tribes with no previous contact with outside civilisation had indeed received visions of Jesus.
    Strange -- to the best of my knowledge, the unprompted arrival of one culture's religious stories within another is completely unattested in the sociological and anthropological literature.

    If Richardson's 30-year old assertions are right, then he made a remarkable and major discovery and I'm surprised that he chose to report it in a mass-market book, rather than the scientific literature where such a revolutionary discovery would completely demolish some of anthropology's most basic principles.

    Could you be more specific about exactly what he reported?


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    #35
    Eschatologist
    Closed Accounts Posts: 76 ✭✭Eschatologist


    PoleStar wrote: »
    Anyhows, I have had episodes of conscious mind (not asleep) where as you say, maybe I feel very calm, and almost feel like I have just nearly glimpsed a truth beyond my normal day to day experiences.

    Personally I feel these are states of coscious mind, similar to those acheivedd by experienced meditators, but just happened by chance in myself. I believe they are moments of conscious clarity and represent nothing of the supernatural whatsover. That is my interpretation as an atheist.

    I feel the religious individual is having the same experience that I have but jsut because they have "faith", they think it was God who produced this and not their own mind.

    Would anyone agree? Or would people here maybe just think God is trying to tempt me back to the Church!

    I too have had a couple of similar experiences where I've felt an overwhelming sense of calm and peace - I must add though that these seem to come after moments of letting my mind wander, especially after reading something scientifically 'deep' like 10-dimensional spacetime. Something just seems to click in my understanding or perception (even though I can't grasp what it is :p), or feeling a great sense of comfort with my place in the universe. Seems a bit esoterical even for my tastes!

    A scientific experience rather than a religious one!? I certainly wouldn't chalk it up to God and I agree with others that it has a lot to do with brain chemistry.

    That or my microwave was broken :)


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    #36
    Galvasean
    Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    PDN wrote: »
    BTW, there is a book called "Eternity in their Hearts" by Don Richardson, a missionary to New Guinea. Richardson discovered that stone-age tribes with no previous contact with outside civilisation had indeed received visions of Jesus. However, I suspect that you will find that hard to believe since it will conflict with your presuppositions.

    Stone aged? This intrigues me quite a bit. Is there anywhere online I can read about this?


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    #37
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Galvasean wrote: »
    Stone aged? This intrigues me quite a bit. Is there anywhere online I can read about this?
    I googled for this weeks ago (see this post) above, but AFAIR, all that I could find was very vague claims by Richardson that tribespeople believed there was a spiritual world of some kind and that mankind was imperfect in some way, but nothing that wasn't reasonably standard animist beliefs. Certainly, I couldn't find anything specific about Jesus or any part of normal christian dogma which is why PDN's initial claim is quite surprising, though the later silence is perhaps less so :)


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    #38
    PDN
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,686 ✭✭✭✭PDN


    Galvasean wrote: »
    Stone aged? This intrigues me quite a bit. Is there anywhere online I can read about this?

    About stone age tribes? Try some of these links:

    http://www.harald-melcher.de/haupt_eng/irian_eng.htm

    http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prehistoric/reviews/04_05_hampton.htm

    http://www.janeresture.com/irian_jaya/index.htm


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    #39
    PDN
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,686 ✭✭✭✭PDN


    robindch wrote: »
    I googled for this weeks ago (see this post) above, but AFAIR, all that I could find was very vague claims by Richardson that tribespeople believed there was a spiritual world of some kind and that mankind was imperfect in some way, but nothing that wasn't reasonably standard animist beliefs. Certainly, I couldn't find anything specific about Jesus or any part of normal christian dogma which is why PDN's initial claim is quite surprising, though the later silence is perhaps less so :)

    It's a long time since I read the book (before I knew how to google). If I remember correctly it spoke about different cultures that had various traditions and beliefs which paved the way for different tribes accepting Christianity, and also some pretty specific visions that tribal peoples had received prior to any contact with missionaries.


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    #40
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    PDN wrote: »
    If I remember correctly it spoke about different cultures that had various traditions and beliefs which paved the way for different tribes accepting Christianity,
    In terms of beliefs, christianity is quite a conventional religion which contains a few animist-derived ideas. So it's quite possible that somebody who's not familiar with these derivations or the anthropological literature would incorrectly assume that they're prefigurations. "Paving the way" is too non-specific to be able to draw any useful conclusions unfortunately.
    PDN wrote: »
    and also some pretty specific visions that tribal peoples had received prior to any contact with missionaries.
    That's the bit that I would like to hear more about. As above, the unprompted arrival of one religious belief within another is unattested, as far as I'm aware, in the literature.

    More info would be appreciated.


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    #41
    marco_polo
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 10,076 Mod ✭✭✭✭marco_polo


    PDN wrote: »
    It's a long time since I read the book (before I knew how to google). If I remember correctly it spoke about different cultures that had various traditions and beliefs which paved the way for different tribes accepting Christianity, and also some pretty specific visions that tribal peoples had received prior to any contact with missionaries.


    I see his other hobbies include a bit of Islam bashing.

    http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Koran-Don-Richardson/dp/0830731237


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    #42
    all the stars
    Registered Users Posts: 1,058 ✭✭✭all the stars


    I have had quite a few spiritual experiences -

    i've had all the calmness and peace as described by meditation, or when doing Reiki on myself or others.

    I've had the seeing of "visions" however in my case they were family who passed & other people i knew.

    I dont necessarily think they are religious - i think the more open you are to the spiritual elements around, the more you can tap into them.


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