Navigator,
I think that all the atheists and agnostics in this thread accept that one can have strong emotional experiences that if you are primed in the appropriate way will seem to be mystical.
We are saying that these are evidence of nothing more than the fact that the mind is prone to such experiences. Many situations can increase the chances of such experiences. For example, being in a group of people who are searching for spiritual experiences, meditation, lack of sleep, drugs, some medical conditions.
Humans are good at spotting patterns, and the evolutionary pressure has been to maximise sensitivity, even at the expense of getting false positives. It's better to mistake a log for a snake than the other way round.
Such spiritual experiences can be powerful but they have perfectly rational non-supernatural explanations and no reason to invoke anything more to explain them.
You asked me to respond.
First - Navigator and I are two different people. He seems to be a tolerant agnostic.
I have spent a lot of time trying to find natural explanations for what seem to me to be supernatural events. While I cannot rule out the fact that every one of them may have had some natural explanation, there are a lot that do not fit any of the categories.
People can try to do so, but to me it is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. To do so, they shave and distort the facts.
The most common dismissal I read of is the one stating that my experiences are nothing unusual, and give a personal counter-example. I know of such examples, and they are not equivalent. There is an assumption that all people are the same, and that delusions and hallucinations can happen anywhere at any time.
What I find strange is that, although members claim delusions and hallucinations are commonplace, I am not subject to them with regard to anything that was not connected to spirit in some way. {{I suppose I will get told that that is only because of confirmation bias - that I forget the "ordinary" events - to which I reply "tish-tosh", you do not know me}}
The majority of my events were when I was wide awake, thinking normally, and not in strange circumstances. No drugs, no meditation, no lack of sleep, and I am very healthy. My mental functioning used to be way above average, and while now lower, still is.
Spotting patterns in random sounds or sights is something I am not good at. I do not "see" shapes in clouds, or trees, or even in pictures that are hiding some subliminal image. I am good at analyzing problems to find solutions, but that is logic.
You want me to have your lunch for you!
