There are plenty of skeptics who have had religious experiences and changed their conception of the world as a result. Examples are commonplace and easy to find.
It is irrational, and biased, to invoke the lack of communication from God as evidence against his existence, when in fact many people do experience communication with God. Religious experiences are less common an experience than snowfall, for example, but far more common than volcanoes. Many of us see snow every year. Yet others can go a whole lifetime without seeing any snow. At the other end of the spectrum we are all aware that volcanoes are real, but most humans probably won’t see a volcano directly in the course of their lives. My exploration of the topic leads me to suspect that religious experiences are less common than snow showers but far more common than witnessing a volcano. And an experience that is as commonplace as religious experiences are, should be taken seriously. To pretend they don’t exist is irrational.
I can understand the point of view that does not assign credibility to religious experiences—because I used to think that way myself. For some reason I had the impression that not many people have had truly compelling religious experiences and that those who have are not credible. I have come to realise that was my own bias that was colouring my perception of reality. Because I was committed to a world where “miraculous” things don’t happen, and because I’ve not had any striking “religious experiences” myself, I just assumed they were not terribly common and not compelling.
A bit of humility is in order here. Exploring the topic further, I found that religious experiences are much more common than I assumed, and that they occur to all sorts of people, including skeptics, and some who would not have invited them at all. I’ve also come to realise that the world is a much more mysterious and poorly understood place than I appreciated. Who am I, with my limited time on earth, my very little experience, and very little knowledge, to declare what is possible or impossible? And who am I to tell other people who are very definite about what they have seen, heard, and experienced, that they must be mistaken because I don’t happen to have shared that experience?
For me the question “if God exists then why doesn’t he communicate with us” betrays either a lack of knowledge or lack of care about the actual evidence on this subject. Because the fact is that religious experiences are commonplace in this world, and if you are just going to dismiss the direct experience of such a large section of humanity as not reliable, then you are shaping your perception of the world to match your preconceptions rather than following the evidence.
I have also become increasingly convinced, on other grounds, that a materialist conception of the world is inadequate and internally inconsistent. This, among other things, forces me to conclusion that there is a deeper mystery to world than the currently dominant materialist worldview allows. This being the case, I’m less inclined to rule anything out when it comes to understanding the nature of reality.
