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Originally Posted by innerSpaceman
But is the faith I have in spiritual energy any more grounded in truth if it's based on my personal experience rather than being based on an idea I drew out of a hat?
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From my point of view, no it's not. But from your point of view yes it is, since you probably wouldn't have your faith if you hadn't had what you personally found to be evidence providing experience. Even if it is evidence that, by definition, can not be shared in any way.
But as I've said, as long as people's believes don't intrude on the experienced world then I really don't care what people believe. The only reason I started this tangent is because of Kevy's comment that we should open ourselves up to faith and I'm really curious how one does that without letting in every faith-based idea that exists. It seems the answer is to first decide what you want you're going to believe and then open yourself up to believing that.
For things that stay out of the real world and are inherently untestable ("I believe that there is an afterlife," "I believe that there was a creator who created the big bang and then let it all go from there according to plan," "I believe in reincarnation," "I believe that phantasms from an alternate dimension have created a wormhole that is locked to my brainwaves and they observe everything I do") then I am open to people believing whatever they want unmolested by my debating. Though from my perspective I don't see why what you've chosen to believe about the spiritually connected nature of nature is any less unlikely than what the Scientologists have chosen to believe about the origins of spiritual man.
It is just when the religious "beliefs" intrude into the real world that I start to get my back up. If you belief in the evocative power of prayer, that is a testable hypothesis. Same as if you believe that drawing certain images on the floor and then saying certain words in order will cause fireballs to shoot from your fingertips. If you believe that ancient spirits are telling you truths about the future. And so on. Then I start to wonder if "faith" in the face of evidence isn't just self-delusion. Whereas I tend to think of faith in the absence of any evidence is just wishful thinking.