is personal experience good enough?

[Terrywoodenpic]

As you go through life Many of the things you were taught and many of you own preconceptions, Reveal them selves as either false or not exactly true.

Depending on your perspective you can see this as either loss of faith or strengthening of faith.

I would prefer to see it as the honing of ones faith...seeing more clearly the essentials and the falling aside of those things that confuse and weaken a faith.

 

[Papersock]

is this subjective, personal experience a good enough basis for faith?

It's good enough for some people.

 

[McBell]

my religion is based on my personal experiences of the supernatural, or at least what i perceive to be supernatural. i have images and visions in which i communicate with deity figures, i physically feel a spiritual connection with what i perceive to be dis-incarnate entities.... is this subjective, personal experience a good enough basis for faith?

I do not understand what it is you are asking.
What do you have that is not based upon personal experience, either directly of indirectly?

 

[Guitar's Cry]

is this subjective, personal experience a good enough basis for faith?

I personally believe that anything we perceive as reality is based on faith; a faith in our senses and our brains to interpret information correctly. Religious faith is a bit different, as it often does not involve direct personal experience.

However, your experiences provide you with a relationship with your deities. Even if your deities are merely illusory (but what isn't?), or more imagination than anything, they still have a significant impact on your vision of reality.

So, yes, it is the perfect basis for faith! Just be sure to be careful when dealing with experiences of this sort. I recently had a student where I work end up in a mental institution due to some dramatic experiences with the Divine. (Of course, his were drug-induced.)

 

[roli]

my religion is based on my personal experiences of the supernatural, or at least what i perceive to be supernatural. i have images and visions in which i communicate with deity figures, i physically feel a spiritual connection with what i perceive to be dis-incarnate entities.... is this subjective, personal experience a good enough basis for faith?

I guess the question would be,allthough they are personal experiences, are the images and visions that you have, which allow you to communicate with particular diety figures authentic or counterfeit.
By authentic,I mean are they of God ,Jesus or are they of a dark nature.
The bible speaks of the devil.2Cr 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
1Jo 4:1Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
I mean there are many entities out their that appear as God or divine.but in reality they are counterfeit
The bible also says about our struggles in this life.
Eph 6:12For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.

 

[Draka]

my religion is based on my personal experiences of the supernatural, or at least what i perceive to be supernatural. i have images and visions in which i communicate with deity figures, i physically feel a spiritual connection with what i perceive to be dis-incarnate entities.... is this subjective, personal experience a good enough basis for faith?

It is the best basis for your faith. Why would you base your faith on something which contradicts what you see, feel, and experience, in any way, for yourself? If what you can personally attest to brings to your mind and heart things beyond the physical human scope of understanding, then I say go with it. You are tapping into that which is beyond this realm and it is the best way to aid your understanding of spiritual matters. In all, you are having faith in yourself to understand what you experience and faith that what you experience is real. That's what it is all about.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

I guess the question would be,allthough they are personal experiences, are the images and visions that you have, which allow you to communicate with particular diety figures authentic or counterfeit.
By authentic,I mean are they of God ,Jesus or are they of a dark nature.

Since they are personal experiences, and everyone's symbolic inner world provides different reactions to such things, if Mike182 felt they were of a positive nature--even though another may see the same thing as negative--would they be authentic to him?

In other words, what is "of God or Jesus" in relation to an individual?

 

[PureX]

I don't think it's a basis for faith at all. Faith is a reaction to our lack of knowledge and experience. It's not a product of our knowledge and experience.

What you're talking about isn't a practice of faith so much as it's a practice of spiritualism.

the spiritualism i am talking about require a belief in or acceptance of Deities, so how are the two different in this respect?

You are describing a spiritual experience based on belief rather then on faith. These are not the same things. Beliefs are based on evidence and reason, regardless of how logical (or illogical) or accurately (or inaccurately) interpreted these might be. Faith, on the other hand, is a reaction to a lack or evidence, or experience, or knowledge, that we can use as a guide, and is a course of action founded on hope, instead.

 

[roli]

I don't think it's a basis for faith at all. Faith is a reaction to our lack of knowledge and experience. It's not a product of our knowledge and experience.

Faith is absolutely a product of knowledge and experience,indirectly,it may not be a present knowledge or experience,but it certainly is based on passed knowledge and expereince, otherwise, how would we ,deposit money in the bank,eat at a restaurant, parachute, drive a car etc. if it were not based on a past expereince and past knowledge.
Mind you ,we assume a whole lot in most, if not all instances throughout a given day, without actually having the immediate knowledge to support the facts that our money is safe or our food at our favorite diner is not toxic.
However people want to look at it,we do operate in faith for our very existence.
The question is ,why is it so difficult for many to comprehend that God would ask us to have faith in Him, I mean,if we operate in faith on a daily basis,it's no wonder he says, without faith in God it's impossible to please him.
So ,we all have the ability to have faith in him because we have faith in pretty much every facet of our lives.
So faith really is a assumption,guess,having confidence,trusting in what our past expereince was.
If my breaks failed one day,I think I would be more conscious of checking them more often,even though they failed ,I still won't check them every time I drive ,that would be an inconvience,so I walk out faith again,and again,and again.

 

[McBell]

my religion is based on my personal experiences of the supernatural, or at least what i perceive to be supernatural. i have images and visions in which i communicate with deity figures, i physically feel a spiritual connection with what i perceive to be dis-incarnate entities.... is this subjective, personal experience a good enough basis for faith?

I do not understand what it is you are asking.
What do you have that is not based upon personal experience, either directly of indirectly?

 

[PureX]

Faith is absolutely a product of knowledge and experience,indirectly,it may not be a present knowledge or experience,but it certainly is based on passed knowledge and experience, otherwise, how would we ,deposit money in the bank,eat at a restaurant, parachute, drive a car etc. if it were not based on a past experience and past knowledge.
Mind you ,we assume a whole lot in most, if not all instances throughout a given day, without actually having the immediate knowledge to support the facts that our money is safe or our food at our favorite diner is not toxic.
However people want to look at it,we do operate in faith for our very existence.
The question is ,why is it so difficult for many to comprehend that God would ask us to have faith in Him, I mean,if we operate in faith on a daily basis,it's no wonder he says, without faith in God it's impossible to please him.
So ,we all have the ability to have faith in him because we have faith in pretty much every facet of our lives.
So faith really is a assumption,guess,having confidence,trusting in what our past experience was.
If my breaks failed one day,I think I would be more conscious of checking them more often,even though they failed ,I still won't check them every time I drive ,that would be an inconvenience,so I walk out faith again,and again,and again.

When I say that faith is not the product of knowledge or experience, I mean that with knowledge and experience we can formulate reasonable and reliable probabilities. And as we obtain more and more reliable probability, we need less and less faith to make our choices as we move forward in life. Conversely, as our ability to formulate reliable probabilities decreases, due to a lack of knowledge and/or experience, then we find ourselves having to rely more on faith as an alternative to that reasonable probability.

And by faith I mean our hope for an outcome that we do not otherwise have reason to expect, AND our actions based on that hope. Faith is the decision to act according to a hoped-for outcome, in response to not having a reasonable experience-based probability for that outcome.

I agree that we act on faith much of the time, and every day. And I agree that acting on the conveyed knowledge and experience of others is to some degree an act of faith. But what I wanted to point out is not that we must live by knowledge OR faith, but that to the degree one is missing, the other must fill in.

 

[lilithu]

my religion is based on my personal experiences of the supernatural, or at least what i perceive to be supernatural. i have images and visions in which i communicate with deity figures, i physically feel a spiritual connection with what i perceive to be dis-incarnate entities.... is this subjective, personal experience a good enough basis for faith?

As a Unitarian Universalist, I believe that personal experience is the most authentic basis for faith.