Are Theists Psychics by Default?

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PsychoticEpisode

It is very dry in here today
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Do claims to know, see, hear, feel, and maybe smell or taste God place the theist in the category of psychic. To take scripture and interpret it in a way that God's message is understood mean theists are psychic by default?

Personally I have trouble categorizing a believer as psychic. However when god believers cross the boundary to claim knowledge of their deity then I think they are also claiming some sort of psychic ability.
 
No they are not, but at first they pretend to be, then they might become, if they try hard enough, but very few actually have any real psychic abilities, because religion as such is extremely faulty. :D It would be like claiming to have a conversation with Winnie the Pooh.
 
hey not any psychics, we're the
psychonauts_2.jpg


you know, who can discover psychics, but other psychics?:bugeye:
 
PsychoticEpisode said:
Do claims to know, see, hear, feel, and maybe smell or taste God place the theist in the category of psychic. To take scripture and interpret it in a way that God's message is understood mean theists are psychic by default?

Personally I have trouble categorizing a believer as psychic. However when god believers cross the boundary to claim knowledge of their deity then I think they are also claiming some sort of psychic ability.
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Christians have knowledge of God by virtue of being "in Christ"...in other words, they are no longer alienated/separated from Him as is the rest of humanity. This communion with Him has nothing to do with being 'psychic'.
 
Unpsychic people can discover psychic people through advertisement, chance or determined search.
 
PsychoticEpisode said:
Do claims to know, see, hear, feel, and maybe smell or taste God place the theist in the category of psychic.
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Depends whether one is , at the onset, categorizing the phenomena of god as a mere mental construct or something
To take scripture and interpret it in a way that God's message is understood mean theists are psychic by default?
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not really.

I mean if my message to you is to go jump in the river, comprehension doesn't render you psychic
Personally I have trouble categorizing a believer as psychic. However when god believers cross the boundary to claim knowledge of their deity then I think they are also claiming some sort of psychic ability.
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It simply means they have a means to apply their senses differently than yourself. For instance, if one is convinced that a given is a fiction at the onset, their epistemological advancement is curbed
 
Photizo said:
Christians have knowledge of God by virtue of being "in Christ"...in other words, they are no longer alienated/separated from Him as is the rest of humanity. This communion with Him has nothing to do with being 'psychic'.
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M*W: I was a christian once, a devout one who wanted to experience this feeling of "being in Christ." I told myself I was "in Christ." I tried to convince myself I was "in Christ." I wanted others to believe I really was "in Christ," but I never felt like I was "in Christ." I didn't actually know what it would feel like to be "in Christ." Yet every Sunday there I was, sitting in a church, hoping and praying to find this sensation, this spiritual connection, like everyone else around me had, of truly being "in Christ." I pretended to experience it, but I never did. I'm always skeptical of those who say they have experienced god in this way. They can't be sincere, they're just pretending, like the emperor with his new clothes. And those who say they've experienced the sensations of a god are delusional. These things can't be experienced, because there is no god. At least we can experience the sensations of the sun, but those who feel they have communed with some god are just wishfully thinking. They are kidding no one but themselves.
 
PsychoticEpisode said:
Do claims to know, see, hear, feel, and maybe smell or taste God place the theist in the category of psychic.
Personally I have trouble categorizing a believer as psychic. However when god believers cross the boundary to claim knowledge of their deity then I think they are also claiming some sort of psychic ability.
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(I took out the portion on scripture, not because I disagree, but it seems like a slightly different issue.)

I think this is a fair assessment. I would say if a theist claims to have experienced God it would generally be in the same category as a psychic experience. Unless they are thinking that on specific occasions a transcendent deity enters the earthly realm and could have been seen (or otherwise sensed) by others if they had been present.

Some Christians base their belief on faith which is a very fuzzy concept. In their cases it might not be a claim to psychic ability, since they are not claiming to have experienced anything, oddly enough. The faith issue could be lumped with the 'how do they know the scripture is correct?' issue you raised.

I would make them common members of a larger category, rather than saying theists are psychics. But that's me being fussy.
 
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Medicine*Woman said:
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M*W: I was a christian once, a devout one who wanted to experience this feeling of "being in Christ." I told myself I was "in Christ." I tried to convince myself I was "in Christ." I wanted others to believe I really was "in Christ," but I never felt like I was "in Christ." I didn't actually know what it would feel like to be "in Christ." Yet every Sunday there I was, sitting in a church, hoping and praying to find this sensation, this spiritual connection, like everyone else around me had, of truly being "in Christ." I pretended to experience it, but I never did. I'm always skeptical of those who say they have experienced god in this way. They can't be sincere, they're just pretending, like the emperor with his new clothes. And those who say they've experienced the sensations of a god are delusional. These things can't be experienced, because there is no god. At least we can experience the sensations of the sun, but those who feel they have communed with some god are just wishfully thinking. They are kidding no one but themselves.
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So if someone is pretending to have an experience they are not having, we know that others are pretending also when they claim to have this experience.

I don't think that is logical.
 
If an atheist experiences God and just shrugs it off as a minor mental aberration then is that person psychic?
 
PsychoticEpisode said:
If an atheist experiences God and just shrugs it off as a minor mental aberration then is that person psychic?
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Well, that depends on whether there is a God and this atheist mistakenly dismissed an actual experience or not. The mental aberration might be, then, the dismissal. So, really there are a number of possibilities. The atheist is correct to dismiss the experience because there is no God. But perhaps the atheist is, actually psychic. So we cannot determine from this instance, even knowing if there is a God or not, whether he or she is psychic. Or there is a God, but, in fact, the atheist was not experiencing God, but was in a hypnagogic state where a voice - actually very much like his father's - only seemed to be God but was not. One can of course hallucinate things that are real but not present in that instance - the classic oasis in the desert.

So I'll just say, it depends.
 
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Are you saying that the actual god event is a psychic experience and psychic ability is being able to recognize it as such?
 
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I think she is saying that there is no real way of telling, because of the numerous options available.

Could there be a method to determine which ones should go?
 
PsychoticEpisode said:
Are you saying that the actual god event is a psychic experience and psychic ability is being able to recognize it as such?
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Actually I was viewing it from an agnostic vantage. The agnostic does not know whether there is a God or not. And if the agnostic is agnostic about psychic abilities, this also is up in the air. So if the agnostic hears a report from an atheist as you described, I think they cannot make a determination.
 
PsychoticEpisode said:
Do claims to know, see, hear, feel, and maybe smell or taste God place the theist in the category of psychic. To take scripture and interpret it in a way that God's message is understood mean theists are psychic by default?


Personally I have trouble categorizing a believer as psychic. However when god believers cross the boundary to claim knowledge of their deity then I think they are also claiming some sort of psychic ability.
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A psychic will claim that the ability to do what they do comes from them, As in they are psychic it's their talent, it comes from them.

A Christian knows the ability comes from God it is an outside force acting through them. It is never theirs. What ever they see, what ever they say, whatever they do it comes from God through them. Not from them.

So know we are not psychic even if it may seem we are similar to a psychic.

That’s why many people talk about "faith healers" as if it is their gift, as if the ability or power comes from them. That they can use it when ever to whomsoever they desire. But no, healing only comes when the Holy Spirit working through a believer wills for the sick one to be healed.


All Praise The Ancient Of Days
 
PsychoticEpisode said:
Do claims to know, see, hear, feel, and maybe smell or taste God place the theist in the category of psychic.
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Sure, but I wouldn't limit that to just believers in deity or those who communicate with the gods. I'd say that just about anyone can practise psychism.
 
Medicine*Woman said:
They are kidding no one but themselves.
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No, they are kidding everyone, including the god they profess to believe in.

I played the same game you did when I was a Christian, except a step further into teaching the Bible and leading worship. At times I thought I truly felt God, but it was only the music and the euphoric joy of altruism. No one talks enough about the value of altrusim that exists coupled with religion.

Take away the music, the lights, and the wine and 3/4s of churches would be empty, you can take that to the bank.
 
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