So me, of all people, had a religious experience

by sabastious 363 Replies latest jw friends

  • sabastious
    sabastious
    Mysteries are for investigating and resolving not celebrating.

    I am excited at the prospect of it being something more than chance. Does that constitute celebration to you?

    -Sab

  • cofty
    cofty

    Being an eye witness is just not enough in some cases.

    There was a series of TV documentaries last year on this very topic. It used hidden cameras to test people's ability to recall what they had actually seen and heard in real life situations and staged scenarios.

    It was frightening how sincerely but totally wrong most people are. If I ever serve on a jury would not be comfortable convicting anybody on even the most compelling eyewitness testimony.

  • Nickolas
    Nickolas

    A mystery is exactly what we have here.

    Nope, wrong again. A mystery is something that is not explainable, and Sab's experience does not qualify, since it can be rationalised using statistical mathematics. That said, it strikes me as remarkable that some people of faith seem consistently to get their knickers in a knot when people disagree with them, as if they consider themselves infallible. Protesting that you just know something to be true without substantiation is an empty assertion and generally without merit in any discourse. Try it in a court of law.

    And, to the subject of eye witness testimony, I offer the following short video.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4

  • SixofNine
    SixofNine
    I am excited at the prospect of it being something more than chance. Does that constitute celebration to you?

    It constitutes a high probability that you'll assign meaning to what are just random events.

  • tec
    tec

    Nick that was soooo funny! I totally didn't see the moonwalking bear. Of course I was fully concentrating on counting the passes, and focused my eyes only on all things white.

    :)

    My husband would have seen the bear. He sees everything like that.

    Tammy

  • Nickolas
    Nickolas

    The lesson, Tammy, is we often see what we expect to see and fail to see what we are not tuned in to seeing. Another, related, example is change blindness:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38XO7ac9eSs

  • unshackled
    unshackled

    Sab - since some are accusing the skeptics of mocking you or being a troll...for the record, I've expressed my opinion of being skeptical but hope nothing I wrote you construed as mockery.

    I noticed you only quoted my "found the exact page in the book" reference. That really wasn't the point of my post, though threw that in because it was ironic considering all the coincidence talk. Thought was just kinda funny because the odds were pretty simple on that one.

    I've always enjoyed your posts and thoughts on here. I don't agree what you experienced was anything supernatural, but respect your personal experience and reaction to it. Good luck resolving it within yourself...after all, our lives are our own to make.

  • sabastious
    sabastious
    Nope, wrong again. A mystery is something that is not explainable, and Sab's experience does not qualify, since it can be rationalised using statistical mathematics.

    ^ Since this was my emotional experience it is biologically impossible for you to make such a statement about it. This is a mystery to me therfore it is a mystery; a simple truth that you are choosing to ignore in the anove quote.

    -Sab

  • sabastious
    sabastious
    It constitutes a high probability that you'll assign meaning to what are just random events.

    Oh does it now? Sounds like you are refering to an an Excel spreadsheet that contains a list of all my "low probability events" that I have witnessed and how many times I assigned meaning to them. Where is this spreadsheet? I would like to see it.

    The reason why this experience is so special for me is because it is the first time I have even considered assigned meaning (outside of "the demons") to what I perceived as an unexplained phenomenon. It's uncharted territory for me and I am a little giddy.

    -Sab

  • yourmomma
    yourmomma

    I am looking forward to you posting the math, I love this kind of stuff. If you did get K small 9 staight times in a row, on top of the ace of spades being on the board almost every time, that is some crazy stuff.

    With that said, I personally cant comment on if that means God was involved. Thats between you and him , and its a personal matter for you.

    But I do love marveling at odds.

    I was delt pocket AA 3 straight hands once, that was pretty crazy, and I also one time was knocked out of a tournament by running quads. Getting busted on running quads may happen only a few times in your life.

    I prefer live poker also, but dont get a chance to play much. I mostly play online.

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