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zaceno t1_j2p6fom wrote

Reply to comment by CovenOfLovin in On the Fruits of God and Religion (legendary philosopher William James' pragmatic argument in favor of God) by NewPackage3269

You said “… that doesn’t mean it truly happened”. I’m saying if someone has an experience they had an experience. They may not interpret the event according to objective truth but objective truth is elusive anyway.

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CovenOfLovin t1_j2pdb2b wrote

You are misunderstanding me, somehow. if someone hallucinates something, they experienced it, but it didn't happen. Something happened, but not the thing they perceived.

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zaceno t1_j2petzl wrote

I understand that’s what you meant but that is a reductive way of filtering what you consider “true” events.

Say you and me both are sitting in a couch. Suddenly you have a full on vision of Krishna radiant with power and love. You break down crying. Your life is transformed. All the suffering you’ve endured suddenly has meaning. You have regained your will to carry on. You feel a new purpose to help the less fortunate around you.

… and I’m like: “nah, didn’t happen because I couldn’t see it”

For you it was obviously a very real experience. That doesn’t mean you literally had a visit from Krishna, or that Krishna is even real or any othe God for that matter. There are all sorts of interpretations of what happened. Neither of us will ever know objectively what exactly went down. But it doesn’t matter because something real happened to you.

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