Why Christians believe in the resurrection is why other people believe in gurus

Recently I got an email from Gary Mason, a former evangelical Christian turned religious skeptic, who shared with me a marvelous approach to arguing against anyone who believes there is solid evidence for Jesus' resurrection.

The post is titled "Best Method to Defeat Evangelical Apologists: The Ghost Buster Counter-Apologetics Technique." 

Since I've never believed in the resurrection, though I dabbled with believing in the historical Jesus briefly during my college days when I got involved with a crazed Greek yoga teacher who blended West and East in his Christananda ashram (the 1960s were weird), at first I thought Mason's post didn't have much relevance for me.

But after reading it, I realized that the reason evangelical Christians believe in the resurrection -- because they feel the spirit of Jesus within them -- is the same reason members of the India-based organization I belonged to for 35 years, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, believe that their guru is guiding them from within.

They feel the guru's spirit. More accurately, they imagine that a sensation within their consciousness is evidence for a massive metaphysical and supernatural assumption: a divine being is communicating with them.

So it's interesting that while Christianity and Sant Mat, the umbrella term for the religious philosophy of Radha Soami Satsang Beas and similar groups -- Sant Mat means "path of the saints" -- have very different core teachings, the basis for believing in those core beliefs is quite similar.

Mason argues that there are two main pillars supporting a belief that Jesus was resurrected, which obviously is very important, if not absolutely essential, to being a traditional Christian: the historical record and an inner communication with the spirit of Jesus.

He points out that the historical record is very weak as regards the resurrection. 

Yet with all this evidence, Saul did not believe in the Resurrection. Really? Dozens if not hundreds  of dead saints were “raised to life” out of their graves on that first Easter Sunday, but Saul still doubted? Was he an idiot? It took a “heavenly vision” three years later to finally convince him.

What about the rest of Jerusalem’s Jews? Thousands greeted Jesus on Palm Sunday as the new King of Israel, but according to the Book of Acts, only 120 of them were still followers of “The  Way” on the morning of Pentecost. So even the Christian Scriptures provide evidence that the overwhelming majority of the people of Jerusalem were not impressed by the evidence for the Resurrection. Why? Were most first century Jews idiots?

Many Christian apologists say there is  another, more sinister, reason why most Jews did not believe. They quote Paul in Acts 28: Jews are a calloused, hard-hearted people who have closed their eyes and ears to the truth. That is why most of them did not, and still do not today, believe the Resurrection evidence. (They are evil.) God has therefore turned his back on the Jews and offered salvation to the Gentiles. Gentiles will believe the (strong) evidence.  

Ok… But what about the fact that the overwhelming majority of Muslims, Hindus, and other non Christian theists do not believe the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus? No public university history textbook on planet earth lists the resurrection of Jesus as an historical fact. Is everyone calloused and hard-hearted against Christianity’s “strong evidence”? Is that why all non Christians, Jews and Gentiles, do not believe in the historicity of the Resurrection? 

This leaves the feeling Christians have that Jesus lives on within them. 

This is why skeptics should not debate evangelical Christians regarding the historical evidence for the Resurrection. It is a waste of everyone’s time. The real issue everyone should focus on is the evangelical belief: “The Testimony of the Holy Spirit”. All Christians believe that the spirit of Jesus  (“the Holy Spirit”) dwells (lives) inside each true Christian. However, evangelicals take it a step  further. Evangelicals believe that they can perceive Jesus’ presence within them and that Jesus’s spirit, living within them, communicates with them in a non-audible voice, giving them life guidance on a daily basis. Evangelicals believe they can feel the presence of Jesus inside their bodies!

Well, that's exactly what many fundamentalist devotees believe is true of the guru who initiated them into Sant Mat: the guru, who is viewed as God in Human Form, guides them just like Jesus on a daily basis, and they can feel his inner presence. 

Mason sums up his position at the end of the post:

Conclusion: Evangelical apologists claim that the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus is very strong, as strong if not stronger than the evidence for any other major event in Antiquity. But no one who believes that Caesar crossed the Rubicon believes that the spirit of Caesar dwells within him, testifying to him of the historicity of the Rubicon crossing in a still, small voice!

For evangelicals to claim that they can objectively evaluate the historical evidence for Jesus’ alleged bodily  resurrection is ludicrous. They are hopelessly biased by the delusion that the ghost of the man in question lives within them.  

Belief that a spirit (ghost) lives inside you, dear Christian, is a delusion. It is nothing more than an ancient superstition. Superstitions are for children, not adults. 

Evangelicals for the most part are good, kind-hearted people but their delusion of a ghost living  inside them, a ghost who gives them life guidance on every facet of life, including politics and social issues, is dangerous for our society and the world.

We must do all we can to help our evangelical friends and neighbors see that their invisible best friend, whom they believe lives inside them and communicates with them, is no more real than the imaginary friend of a lonely child. Jesus is dead, friends. Ghosts are not real. 

Dear Evangelical apologist:

1. You believe the ghost of the man whose resurrection is in question lives inside you, communicating with you in a still, small voice.

2. You appeal to consensus expert opinion only when it supports your worldview (e.g., the historicity of Jesus) and reject it when it doesn’t (e.g., Darwinian evolution).

How can you expect us to believe that you are capable of objectively evaluating the historical evidence for the Resurrection when the perceived ghost inside of you is given more credence than consensus expert opinion? Don’t these two facts strongly indicate that you are hopelessly biased?

I am trying to help you see the folly of your superstitions, my friend.  You are indoctrinating little children and gullible adults to believe in capricious ghouls who punish people for what they believe.  Thought crimes!  You threaten children with eternal torture simply for what they believe.  How horrific.

Yet, the “evidence” for your belief system is the perceived presence of an invisible, inaudible ghost living inside of you.  You have no objective evidence that the spirit (ghost) of Jesus lives inside of you.  None. A small child who has invented an imaginary friend reports the same subjective feelings of comfort and security. Please see the light of reason and rational thinking.

Amen to that, Brother Mason. Read his entire post for a fuller understanding of his arguments. 

Comments

[Jim Sutherland]

Here was my understanding of the Resurrection:
REINCARNATION Vs RESURRECTION: Skeptic, Pragmatist, Atheist, or Mystic?

None of us can ever know for certain if We will return here in a brand new incarnated material body, a latest Model of ourselves. Possibly even as the opposite gender we left in, or if our same old body will be resurrected to live again. Will the witnesses watch with surprise, as the remains of our rotting corpses in the grave crawls out of the Vault after upsetting the grave stone on top of the scraggy grass, or winter snows? Or will our ashes and remaining bone fragments that were cremated and poured into an copper urn magically take their original shape and features as if a Genie floating out of the top of a bottle? For if we are to return here to planet Earth materially and physically then our beliefs are unable to interfere with what will occur! This is a very controversial and convoluted subject to discuss. Be it openly among friends and family or let alone strangers, religious people, Agnostics, Atheists, Philosophers or with Mystics! And so may Fundamentalist Bible Believers Beware! Closed minds are unable to accept such discussions easily. Save yourself and exit now to read no further! Each to their own, is the easy way to avoid challenging belief systems or non-belief, whatever that might be, or be not! For myself, I want to at least set the record straight and to be fair to all. Instead of remaining the hypocrite I was for way too many years, saying one thing and yet secretly believing something else entirely! I mention on my blog and elsewhere, that I am a firm believer in the possibility of Reincarnation of Soul, and My own especially. Because mine is the only Soul I have any control over or interest in.

Other terminologies for the word Reincarnation from the past are: Pre-existence of the Soul (Origen), Metempsychosis (Plato), Nature of the Soul (Socrates), and Transmigration of the Soul (Eastern/Hindu Religion). I could choose to quote from the massive library stores of the many books available, as well as many past and present Celebrities and Philosophers, and from Theologians and Mystics who favor the ideal possibility of Reincarnation of Soul.

Of course there are also many and varied methodologies offered up about Reincarnation, such as "what" part of "us" does reincarnate, and IF it is, after all is said and done, even Real. The Rosicrucian teachings I studied for about 10 years do have a reasonably coherent teaching about what part of our Soul does reincarnate, along with the teachings of some Spiritualist groups.

Unbeknownst to most Homosexuals and Lesbians, I can say they were born that way after all. They didn’t suddenly "become" Gay overnight! The most likely case is a case of a slower transition from the opposite gender in their immediate past life, or even a hangover of other lives more distant. (This aspect could be another complete Article in itself worthy of future consideration on these pages.) So without quoting others here or plagiarizing any particular text past or present, the Author wishes to especially mention why Reincarnation makes the most common sense to me. Should there be any Life after Death, Eternal Life, or a continuance of our Human Consciousness once our present material bodies are pronounced dead by the Coroner, then it appears self-evident to me as the most critically important topic to engage with and not leave on the shelf to ignore or avoid. As for the resurrection of dead corpses or ash remains, of Mummies wrapped in rolls of cloth with their internal organs removed and stored in clay vessels, and more recently the Cryogenic human remains kept in tanks frozen of Nitrogen, well. Admitting that I can no longer accept that I will ever come back here, in the very same but repaired body with same features, I willing accept this labels me as a heretic Christian according to Fundamentalist Christian Dogmatists!.

This is fine because that disputed Label I have worn for many years now as it is. In fact, I have worn the label since back in 1984 when I finished my Doctoral Thesis (Th.D.) at the Christian Seminary! To earn a Doctoral Degree in any subject, one is introduced to literature and information that the normal Christian layman would never get to look at. This is because of past conditioning of the history by Fundamental Christianity since the Fifth General Council was convened by Justinian in 553 C.E.
Origin's "Pre-existence of the Soul" was stricken from the ‘sacred’ records at this event and the new compilations of the Holy Bibles were declared Canon Law by the Bishops. But the doctrine of reincarnation , regardless who had believed in the possibly and taught such to others including Jesus of Nazareth himself, was no longer to be taught in the Christian Church under pain of excommunication and possibly death. As a genuine Mystic, converted from close minded Fundamentalism, I now consider myself a Gnostic Christian Spiritist! That’s a label I can wear with some humility these days along with a willing acceptance. In other words, I freely recognize my "Master Within", the "Christ in me", and the "Hope of Glory" rather than what, as a misguided fundamentalist Christian, I used to believe in. Most born-again fundamentalist Christians believed somehow magically they had a material body of the Lord Jesus made up of real flesh, blood and bone in their hearts, inside their own bodies! Was it magic, imaginary or only hopefully?

I think the material, physical remains of the human part of the human person of Jesus of Nazareth, would be spread real thin had he still existed in every Christian walking around today. Let alone all those millions who were born, lived and died since he was crucified on the cross 2000 odd years ago! We really need to think rationally about what we can believe versus that which we parrot by rote. That is a belief in those old sayings of religious people who tend to leave their god given reason outside the doors of the Church when they enter into it each Sabbath day.
For me at least, it is much more intelligent and wise to understand that our Master Within is the VERY same Master SPIRIT, which the material man Jesus had in his own body too. The CHRIST or LOGOS when he walked the Earth! Now, there is a bunch of Theology I can back that up with, but I choose not to because my purpose is not to try and convince anyone to believe as I do.

I AM not the Savior of anyone else's Soul, other than my own, because it is for each Soul's Free Will to either believe or disbelieve whatever brings one to Inner Peace and Tranquility! As I heard an old Priest recently say: "In all my years as a Priest, I have learned two things only: (1) There is a God and (2) I am not Him!"

The word "Salvation" is another misnomer of Theological dogma having many variables which I will leave to the paid Clergy who earn their living by recruiting another sheep to the flock as a loyal Tither. Been there, done that too! I much prefer being truthful about what I feel and believe these days rather than preach dogmas like tithing which I no longer, if ever, truly believed myself. This allows me to sleep much more peacefully when I close my eyes to find myself alone with my Inner Master. As sensible people, with any human understanding at all, educated or not, everyone at some point in their lives attempts to sort out where they came from, who or what sent them, what they are supposed to do with their lives, and if there a God. And if so, does this God have anything to do with them anyway, and if so, why does he always hide in silence and allow all the evil to continue in the world. This is basic human questioning, that almost all of us have done or are still doing. Yes, we all have our ups and downs, joys, sadness, sickness, health, success and failures. But most humans go through life, from the womb to the tomb, day to day, only in survival mode, until suddenly without warning the angel or messenger of death knocks on the material door and pulls Soul back out of the body to deposit it where? Again, belief systems are challenged. But since I consider myself a type of Christian, i.e. a Dualist Gnostic Spiritist, I would properly identify my current understanding of just who I AM with Reincarnation and Karma the only sensible methodology of how any merciful Creator Deity Lord God could continue to allow such evil to continue in our world and yet never seem to force it to cease. In other words, "What goes around comes around", "Every action causes an equal reaction" or "The wages of sin is spiritual death", or for the irreligious unbelievers, "Life's a bitch, and then you die!" But, are we all created equal, and from the start in our earthly lives? No, for certain we are not. Just look around you, for proof of this. It is ridiculous to believe each human being on earth is born in equal bodies with equal possibilities, in equal families, environments and countries and so on. Sure each individual spirit or Soul was created equal yet each spirit once incarnated in its very first material body became "a living human soul as God breathed the breath of life into him."

So from that very first incarnation the wheel of karma started turning for that individual spirit became knotted with a soul, both aspects essentially imprisoned in a material body to work out its own "Salvation with fear and trembling" as the Apostle Paul spoke of an taught! Interestingly most Christians today who "confess Jesus as Savior by his shed blood on the cross" are following a far more ancient dogma from many other Sects used long before the man Jesus of Nazareth was ever on earth! In fact, it is so easy to overlook the fact Jesus Christ was NOT EVER a Christian himself! (Warning Heresy Alert!!!!)

Much evidence now exists that Jesus was in fact a Judaic Essene which included the dreadlocked hair Nazarene or Nasserite evangelist order of which he was also a member of. Jesus had Jewish Nazarite parents and siblings plus he preached his teachings and philosophy to the local Jews. Jesus never told uncountable missionaries to go out and preach the Gospel to all nations. He only told "the eleven" ( Mark 16:14, 15, 16.). Jesus never told anybody that he was God, nor that he was his own Son! Yet he probably did say while on the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

After the death of Jesus, his brother James the Just, as he was called, led the Ebionite Church which was actually called the Nazorene Jerusalem Church. By reading the New Testament Epistle of James one will find a much different Gospel taught by James than by the Saint Paul of Tarsus. James taught that faith without works is dead, whereas Paul taught that we are only saved by Grace through Faith and not by works alone. The Nazorenes were a Sect who claimed to have acquired their mystical teachings from James the Just.

The Apostle Peter, who denied Jesus three times before and during his crucifixion, was not the apostle who led the followers of the Inner Group of Ebionites that Jesus had initiated. This secret Initiation which Jesus shared with his inner group of disciples is still the sought after true Initiation that many still seek today in various, usually esoteric teaching sects, that is not taught by any of the Christian churches or denominations. It was instead his brother James the Just, who led the early genuine Jesus of Nazareth Church!
James led this new Ebionite (aka Nazorean, Nasarite, Nazarene, and essential Gnostic Essene) Church of the followers of Jesus from his crucifixion until 62A.D. when James was captured, persecuted and then killed by the Jewish Sanhedrin by stoning. The Apostle Peter was the one who was lifted into place as the deemed first leader of the later established Roman Catholic church. This was not done until the 4th century by Emperor Constantine who was basically the first Catholic Pope. Therefore the Popes to this day claim direct descent from the Apostle Peter and insist he was anointed by Jesus himself to lead the early ‘church’. Thus the Bible says it is so. So, who is correct then is it Saint Paul, James the Just, or the Apostle Peter? Better still if you do consider yourself a Christian, and saved by Grace, and not by works, who do YOU actually follow or align yourself to here as being the key establisher of Jesus’ church and teachings after he departed the scene? For beginners who actually was Saint Paul? Well Paul was not even one of the original Apostles that who walked with and were taught directly by Jesus. Paul never saw Jesus in the flesh either. Paul was a Roman citizen born in Tarsus, in present day Turkey to Roman parents who had converted to Judaism. (or was that Jewish parents who had converted to be ‘pagan’ Romans – I am unsure)

Christians should already know "the story" of Saint Paul persecuting Christians by reading Acts in the Bible. Yet the fact is that at the time THERE WERE NO CHRISTIANS in existence! Paul was actually persecuting these Ebionite followers of James the Just, the brother of Jesus who was then leading the followers of Jesus as well as openly challenging the teachings and leadership of the Apostle Peter.

Paul instead essentially created his own teachings about Jesus Christ, after his major Spiritist type of epiphany which came out of his ‘road to Damascus experience’. Saint Paul’s teachings are therefore those which certainly show a closer resemblance to what most of the so-called Christian denominations preach today. The present Christian Churches follow a system of dogma taught by the converted Roman Citizen born of converted Hebrews who had nothing to do with Jesus, were actually

Roman citizens living in Turkey not Palestine who never met him, when Paul was blinded on the road to Damascus by a light and a voice claiming (Paul believed) to be Jesus Christ!
Another interesting little known fact is that Qumran, where there was a large Essene community of followers communed, was called Damascus by many during that time. So more likely than not Paul was not looking for people to persecute on his way through Syria as most may assume was the case. Most Gnostics, esoterics, and spiritists also claim to see light inside, to hear inner voices and sound, and lay claim to Christ as their Hope of Glory, much as Saint Paul did all those years ago. Also, most Gnostics of the early A.D. centuries did not accept the Old Testament Jehovah as being God the Father nor the Father whom Jesus is said to have spoken about. So these various pieces of history may raise all kinds of questions for a seeker after truth, such as, are so called Christians today Christians, Jews, Ebionites, or Gnostics? Well the truth is that each of us has to decide for ourselves, or alternatively stick to that which has been chosen for us by our parents or our preacher.

My own personal belief is the Hope is the Christ in me, the Hope of Glory, of whatever is animating this present body is to survive transition to another place (when the biblical "Silver Cord" is severed from the body which Spiritists refer to as the "Perispirit" i.e. the Astral link that is joining spirit to the body and holds it there until death) releases my spirit to join Christ, where "I" will be judged and given my next assignment.

That next assignment will either be right back here on Earth in a new Model of a material body or on some other planet or spiritual plane that will have totally different bodies to be afforded by the Creator as containers of the spirit/soul. I have no desire to be resurrected back into this exact same body that has been holding my spirit/soul prisoner here, witnessing that body getting older, more withered and wrinkled, fatter or thinner, looser and more dilapidated and slowly worn out beyond the useful Vehicle of Progression of the Soul that it once was. Cut Me loose Lord, I say! But, not quite yet please! I still have a few more messages left I would love to share with my fellow souls. Until now Grace from the Christ Spirit has treated me enduringly well. Yet I do know that karma has had a profound positive effect on my progression in life up to now. There was plenty of works, and plenty of faith, and best of all, much GRACE has made it possible for me to continue on using my own stamina and resourcefulness. As it has been said by many about Life: ‘Each to thine own heart be true!’. I am content to be at this stage in life where I now find myself in the centre point of this great wheel of karma. For alas dear friend it is true that "My Karma has completely run over and destroyed My Dogma"!

All I can do now is to remain steadfastly open for any further gifts of Grace our Creator is willing to shower upon me, along with any new assignments of Eternal Life Adventures in the near or distant future, whenever, where ever, and whomever, they may Become. Until we meet again, I remain,
Jim Sutherland

[Appreciative Reader]

My compliments to your correspondent, Brian. Enjoyed reading about how he rebuts those insane resurrection beliefs.

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Isn’t it monstrous, though, that in this day and age, something so completely, blatantly nonsensical as the whole Jesus nonsense, and particularly the Resurrection, should even need to be rebutted and debunked like this?!

I mean, back 2000 years ago, that some people may have fallen for such superstitious ideas, fine, okay, sure. (Although even back then, there were plenty of very smart people, in Greece, and in India, and in China; but okay, back then, such superstitions, understandable.)

For that matter, up till around Bacon’s time approximately, until the scientific method was properly codified, fine. Maybe another 100 years, for science to have gotten properly established, and for that understanding to have percolated down to your everyman, fine.

But after that?

Well okay, even today, in the poorest African countries, where people lead a hand-to-mouth existence, often malnourished, not much education: for them, understood. Also for the poorer folks in, say, India, where existence is very difficult, and education scant: again, understood. Likewise the Islamic hellholes, where again a sane rational education is not available to most: fine, understood.

But in the US of all places, and in this day and age? That people should actually believe in such complete utter claptrap, such completely obvious nonsense as the whole Jesus Resurrection superstition?

That’s a damning indictment of the education system in the country, that has zero excuse to be so utterly pathetically wanting in imparting basic critical thinking skills.

It is monstrous, utterly inexcusable, that even today the richest country in the world, with education available to all, is nevertheless overrun with hordes of Jesus-worshiping nut jobs, so many of whom literally believe in the infantile Resurrection nonsense.

[Ron E.]

With science, belief is necessary to facilitate investigation and experiment; the difference between the scientist belief and spiritual belief is that with science, where the investigation may yield evidence that the assertions are real or that they are incorrect. If the hypotheses prove wrong then the quest is dropped or re-channelled; the spiritual believer has no such option being stuck in the merry-go-round of thought constructed desires, wishes, fears and insecurities – generally a host of mind (thought) created and induced concepts.

When it comes to beliefs in the supernatural, my question has to be: “Why do people believe?” Belief being ideas or thoughts that one accepts as being true or real – beliefs buffer one from reality. And to me, that is where the fallacy of belief lies; whether the basis of the belief comes from a study of the literature, listening to talks from believers or the feeling that one harbours some spiritual entity. Such beliefs have no place in the real world, in the naturally appearing world but only in the imaginary world of mentally constructed and conditioned ideas, thoughts and beliefs.

We perhaps need to get away from the persistent idea that what we think/believe is real and to acknowledge that thinking is merely an extension of the survival armoury enabling, planning, problem solving etc., all attributes that other organisms also display; though with us it has become the mis-guided source that appears to explain our identities, the who or what we have come to believe of as ‘me’, the illusionary ‘I – and such fragile identities have to be maintained through belief.

To drop all such mind-made beliefs and ideas would mean facing life/reality as it is; facing uncertainty with its pain and fear and inevitable death. But it would also mean seeing the wonder and aliveness of life/reality as it is, seeing with no belief induced overlay – and perhaps, the insight to see how the whole cavalcade of life/reality is totally sufficient as it is without the need to superimpose it with imaginary beliefs. And yes, there is always room to improve one’s lot in a practical and real-world way.

[um]

@ Ron

These problems do arise in a society where theory and practice do not go hand in hand.
If a person experiences something and it is labeled at the same time these problems do not arise, that is how we learn language.

if one FIRST is confronted with an abstract concept without experiencing that concept, at the same time it will easily become a problem.

In older days, young women expected their first child, would only communicate with elder women that had gone through the process and no women or men were allowed to see the birth of a child and for a good reason.
These days there is so much information around that young women that are to give birth to their first child have their heads filled with information ...what causes many to tremble from fear entering the process it self.

If you take a cup of tea and have a look out of the window, you will soon find that much this theorizing has taken hold of our western societies.

For years and years our young people go to school, learn all and everything about live while wit out experiencing what they learn and prove for themselves what was correct and what not of what had been told.

An if that is not enough we are day in day out confront with information related to experience which we cannot take part of.. Seeing a village been burn down to the ground, is not just a thing to look at it is processed by the body and mind according its survival mechanism. Those that think that they can stuff their mind as they deem fit are as wrong as those that think that they can feed themselves on junk food and stay healthy

The most weird thing is people mourning publicly for people they do not know and have no relation with ...it is ALIENATION of ower own natural reality and being

[Kranvir]

Gurinder singh Dhillon, the donkey Dhillon will be crucified for his punishment, his payback, his sickly karma for ultimately lying to millions without remorse and being service to his own ego. He has lived a life as a god, with fraudulent billions yet the poor homeless around him did not receive a penny , are starving and suffering. He has nothing but raped people of their minds, their body and tried to take their soul. But your time has come and karma will be served to you and all those arrogant sangat that have abused their power and manipulated the masses for self gain. Gurinder you should have served the people yet you served only your greedy , selfish self , go back to kaal, jotti niranjan- GAME OVER.

[sant64]

Many problems with his argument, the biggest of which is that the evangelicals aren't hurting anyone. Rather, the sum sociological impact of religion (even Islam) is a net positive for humanity.

There's something a bit hypocritical of critics, be they of Sant Mat or whatever religion, who are endlessly upset that some people find meaning in these faiths, and argue that these religions should be demolished, while they are still partaking of their own religious philosophies and practices. "But mine's material, and I don't believe in a God in the Sky." A distinction without a difference if you ask me. You're just pissing on the other guy's parade while reserving your own right to march to the metaphysical drummer of your choosing.

Uh yeah, the evangelicals and the Sant Matters feel things and make metaphysical assumptions. So do you, so do we all. Ubi nocere?

Even the critic Hobbes realized that religion is necessary for human order. How is human order these days for our young? Mental illness for these young people is the highest in our history. "But yay, this generation has seen the light we've shown them -- that there is no God and religion is bunk!" Congratuations to the vocal skeptics, their rationality has won the day. Never mind the drug abuse and suicides.

Strange though, the kids who accept religion (yeah, rammed down their throats by stupid boomer parents, probably Evangelicals!) tend to have far better mental health than their atheist peers.

And the kids who find themselves lost from drugs and the totally aimless material ethos, this nonsense about Jesus very often turns their dismal lives around. And find meaning. A thing the atheists don't have, and the thing they're most resentful about really.

Meaning. It's why Trump still leads the polls vs. babytalk border tzar. I.e. more Americans value meaning, value a life of meaning and positive values, than they are attracted to oracles spouting "you'll get emptiness and like it."

[Todd]

I find the testimonies of Masters such as Sawan Singh and Ramana Maharshi to be very compelling.