Spiritual Encounters In Your Head?

[Bikewer]

Don't recall seeing this on the forum; NPR is running a 5-part series on the relationship between brain chemistry and dysfunction and "spirituality".

Today's segment:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104291534&ft=1&f=1012

Discusses temporal-lobe epilepsy and the accompanying hallucinations, as well as the fact that these can be manipulated by physical means in the laboratory.
They point out that Paul's story of his encounter on the road to Damascus fits very well with such things...

 

[Beerina]

Occam's Razor fail.

The simplest explanation is that Paul, a curious leading addition to Christianity after Christ died and the Apostles went to work, was just another power-hound dog who saw a good way to line his pockets when he saw it, so seized control of the spreading early church and made up flat out lies about his "seeing the light".



I have friends who accuse me of believing in the honesty of other people in arguments way, way too much. That people are dealing with me as they appear on the surface. These scientists are falling into this trap, as many skeptics do, by presuming there's no charlatanism going on, but, hey! Here's this obtuse explanation that might demonstrate how a thing like that might have occurred, should Paul have actually had, or believed he had had, such an experience.


It's like astronomers suggesting the Star of Bethlehem, something not observed anywhere else on the Earth, could have been certain planets and/or stars lining up in such and such a way.

Indeed, just a few weeks ago, we had another round of such idiocy when some astronomers pointed out Christmas could n't really be in December, since the only applicable astrological phenomenon that might qualify was in June.

This is doubly idiotic since December 25 is not Jesus' birth according to Christianity. It is merely a deliberately chosen "birth anniversary", which functioned like a modern birthday, and was rather common back when nobody knew the exact day of the year they were born, as few outside the intellectual elite even tracked (or had!) calendars.


So according to "your very own religion", it would be wrong to think of December 25th as Jesus' birthday.

 

[Autolite]

Christ died and the Apostles went to work, was just another power-hound dog who saw a good way to line his pockets when he saw it, so seized control of the spreading early church and made up flat out lies about his "seeing the light".

I've never "seen the light" but I recall seeing plenty of stars after getting punched in the head during a bar fight. The only spirits I had encountered was rye whiskey. Does that count???