# God Spoke to Me: Why is this Good? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 23, 2009, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-spoke-to-me-why-is-this-good/514821 "2009-10-23T03:17:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2009, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-spoke-to-me-why-is-this-good/514821/41 "2009-11-15T19:52:04Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > As for the “possible explanations of religious experience”, I happy to read them but first I need to know what they are. To continuously throw out link after link and then say that none is intended to be a convincing explanation but all are intended to be possible doesn’t convince. Why did the chicken cross the road? 1. Because there was food on the other side. 2. Because it just happened to wander over there. 3. Because a gust of wind forced it over. 4. Because there was a handsome rooster on the other side. 5. Because it was fleeing from a predator. 6. Because aliens controlled its brain. Explain to me why the existence of a multitude of plausible and boring explanations of which any one could be the right answer for a particular chicken that crossed a particular road make #6 be the right answer for any possible examples? That I can tell, the fact that there are a plenitude of possible and reasonable answers, any one of which or combination thereof fully explain what we are seeing is very strong evidence _against_ #6. Saying that the existence of a multitude of reasonable answers isn’t “convincing” for the likelihood of reasonable answers seems questionable. Why shouldn’t I look at all the reasonable answers and think to myself that for any case handed before me, it is probably one of those? ---
**Author:** ![code\_grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@code\_grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/code_grey)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-spoke-to-me-why-is-this-good/514821/42 "2009-11-16T02:21:57Z")
the question of how to tell if religious experience comes from God or the devil is as old as the Church itself. E.g. "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, " 1 John 4:1. My understanding is that some early Christian thinkers / saints / monks (aka “church fathers”) wrote on and on about this topic. In fact, this is part of that “tradition” that got thrown out by Luther because he wanted “sola scriptura”, but it is still at the very least accepted by Catholics and Orthodox (even though maybe most people are too lazy to actually go and study it intensively - most don’t read the Bible either). And yes, if “God” told you to go kill people, you don’t need much saintly writings to figure out who was REALLY speaking :-). ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-spoke-to-me-why-is-this-good/514821/43 "2009-11-16T04:13:35Z")
> [@code\_grey](#): > > the question of how to tell if religious experience comes from God or the devil is as old as the Church itself. E.g. "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, " 1 John 4:1. My understanding is that some early Christian thinkers / saints / monks (aka “church fathers”) wrote on and on about this topic. In fact, this is part of that “tradition” that got thrown out by Luther because he wanted “sola scriptura”, but it is still at the very least accepted by Catholics and Orthodox (even though maybe most people are too lazy to actually go and study it intensively - most don’t read the Bible either). > > And yes, if “God” told you to go kill people, you don’t need much saintly writings to figure out who was REALLY speaking :-). Judging from the Bible, that’s not true at all; God is generally portrayed as extremely ruthless and bloodthirsty. Then again, why should you care if it’s God? If God tells you to kill people, and you actually believe that it’s God, shouldn’t you just tell God to shut up? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-spoke-to-me-why-is-this-good/514821.md?page=2)