sidelined writes:
why is it required for belief to occur before the effect if the effect is real?
Because we are dealing with a spiritual reality. The effect is real whether or not we acknowledge it.
Science requires empirical evidence and not mind games. This is the way in which science avoids fooling itelf through pre-concieved ideas seperate from the reality of the material world.
I am not sure if the supernatural will ever be captured scientifically. Not because it is a wishful fraud, however. Because of the very nature of the conflict behind it.
It is quite easy to see that human desires for comfort go a long way to explaining the supposed "reality" of the experience of the holy spirit effect that it is claimed by people to occur to them.Fear of death and imagined futilty of existence lead people to drop their critical mind and accept things on an emotional basis rather than subject the process to questioning.
I can't argue with your logic here. Many of us do feel secure in the belief of a Creator who is on our side. Imagine if He were out to get us! We would have already of been "Got!"
™ Version 4.2
