Re:Visiting Chelsea Manning in prison
by lisper on Thursday May 26, 2016 @05:23PM
(#11781750)
> People absolutely can be wrong about their own subjective experiences: that's a big component to why religion exists.
No, they can be wrong in their explanations of the cause of their subjective experiences, but they cannot be wrong about the experience. People who feel the presence of the Holy Spirit really do feel something. It's just that what they feel is most likely not caused by the Holy Spirit.
> we do people a disservice by agreeing with their self-deception.
And we do ourselves a disservice by dismissing spiritual experiences as mere delusion. See:
No, they can be wrong in their explanations of the cause of their subjective experiences, but they cannot be wrong about the experience. People who feel the presence of the Holy Spirit really do feel something. It's just that what they feel is most likely not caused by the Holy Spirit.
> we do people a disservice by agreeing with their self-deception.
And we do ourselves a disservice by dismissing spiritual experiences as mere delusion. See:
http://lesswrong.com/lw/n9y/is_spirituality_irrational/
particularly the resulting discussion.