The connection between a spiritual experience and a certain religion

[JussiUt]

All of our experiences are subjective in a way. We can't shake "the chains" that tie us to our body and mind. Therefore anything that is claimed to be the truth should be based as much as possible on evidence and objective reasoning.

Subjective experiences should not give any insight into the 'real world' if that subjective experience cannot be backed up by empirical evidence. There have been thousands of religions in the world - isn't it remarkable to think that the religion you believe in and you have subjectively experienced is the universally correct one? Doesn't it make more sense if all the religions are humans' attempts to grasp the unknowable and understand the mystery, understand God if you want to put it that way?

There's something egoistical in the way of thinking that "what I subjectively experience" is objectively true. Of course true objectivity could be impossible to reach but that's why we have the need for evidence. People have subjective experiences all the time - one is a schizophrenic for example. While I'm not making a comparison between a mental illness and a religious belief it's clear that we have our own realities where we live in.

I'm not directing this to anyone specifically. I can't help but wonder what makes people think that "I have experienced the true God through MY senses and that MY subjective experience holds any universal truths." I do not deny for a second that people really sincerely believe they've had a contact with the supernatural. What I feel is illogical and a bit egoistical (though probably quite natural for us humans) to suppose that my extraordinary views about the cosmos and about life is more accurate than the next person's views. Even though YOU feel that it is correct doesn't mean that it's correct.

You can say that you saw a tree fall down. That's not a particularly extraordinary statement. You probably did see a tree fall down. There's not a lot of reason to suppose that you just had an illusion or something that the tree fall down. But when we come into the territory where people claim to hold transcendental, universal and supernatural truths about the world then we must be skeptics. Why? Because as history has shown us, there have been hundreds if not thousands of religions. What makes this one particularly more correct? Also because we know how the mind works, how psychologically we can experience same things very differently.

Long rambling short, I do find it remarkable that people can claim something so grand and extraordinary to be universally true when its source is YOU and YOUR experiences.