>
> Couldn't this simply be a religious position? There _is_
> evidence of a higher realm for some people -- the experiences
> of some mathematicians, for example. It is the best way
> they have of explaining their experiences to themselves, in
> spite of the fact that there is no physical evidence for it.
A friend explains one of her experiences (repeated suicide attempts) as caused by one of her multiple-personalities, the particular one urging that one of the other ones should be destroyed. I don't argue with her, and in fact I have no doubt that, at least for the present, this is the best way for her to explain her experience to herself.
Nevertheless I have no doubt that the "multiple-personality" phenomenon is quite false -- it is in fact what I believe they call an iatrogenic illness, one created by the physician. (She suffers from bipolar affective disorder -- which some on this list also consider iatrogenic, while I see it as a brain disorder.) I have other friends who explain this or that experience in terms of religion. I don't doubt the subjective reality of the experience and the belief in its religious explanation. But I also have no doubt but what that religious explanation is false. I am an atheist by birthright rather than merit, and for nearly 60 years have not considered supernatural propositions even as arguments to be refuted. They simply don't enter my mental world.
Carrol