Atheists, what are people mistaking for God?

Question

When a person claims to speak with God or feel his presence, what do you believe is really happening?

When someone relays a story about seeing angels or demons (assuming they are otherwise sane), what do you think?

Answer 1

Superstitious ignorance. We need to try and be more logical.

Answer 2

I think it's their own brains acting up. People may pray and get a lot of comfort from it and assume that God must exist, when actually it was the effect of the praying on their own subconsciousness that made them feel calmer and happier. Most religious people do not actually have any direct experience with anything they call God past things of this level. Those who do likely have some kind of mental problems; it is well known that crazy people can hear 'voices' and so on, and if the person is also deeply religious, they would be inclined to assume that the voices are from God or Jesus or angels or Satan or demons or whatever, and report the experience to other people accordingly.

Answer 3

I am a Christian and I know the answer to your question. We are not "mistaking" God for anything. Look around you. Look at nature and look at yourself. There has to be a creator. Think about the perfect way your body works. Think about fruit. It's taste is so naturally delicious. Think about the place the Earth is on its rotation. If it moved the tiniest bit closer to the sun, it would burn. If it moved the tiniest bit away from the sun we would freeze. There is intelligent design. There is a God. We are loved by a being so great! We are watched over and protected. I only wish you could experience the same God that i do.
Here is an example.
I was at a local park with my dad. There was a terrible bus wreck where the bus had crashed into a little white van. In the van was a man by himself. The man instantly died. My dad ran over before the police came and prayed for him. My dad looked to the left and there was an African American man in the car with him and the dead man. The African American was raising one hand to the sky and the other hand was on the man. My dad quietly prayed beside him. After this moment, my dad left and wanted to talk to the African American man. He looked in the car and he wasn't there. He looked all around. The man just wasn't there. My dad believes it was an angel.

Another example:
My dad was a marine and lived in Hawaii for a year or 2. His neighbor told him a story about his daughter who died when she was 6. The daughter was really sick and in the hospital. As she was dying, she said to her mom, " Mommy... i see an angel. Oh she's beautiful mommy. She wants me to go with her. What should i do mommy? what should i do?" Her mom cried and said, "oh honey... if she wants you to go with her, than you should go." The girl died.
Now these are just angel stories, but there are many stories about how God has worked in our lives.
God loves you and is working in your life whether you realize it or not.

Answer 4

When someone dreams that God/angels/whatever spoke to them in their dreams, it means they dreamt it. End of story.

And as yet I have never met a rational, sane person that claimed to have actually seen anything supernatural.

Speaking about "feeling a presence" most people will assign that presence to some sort of ghost, in reality it's been shown that magnetic fields cause activity in the frontal lobe that gives the feeling of a presence so I'm putting it down to that.

Answer 5

Calling them "nutso" or accusing them of having hallucinations may be going a bit far. Fact is, the human imagination is a powerful thing. We can convince ourselves of pretty much anything.

I have a very active imagination, probably because I read too much. One night a few years back I was laying in my bed and noticed that my curtains were were moving by themselves despite the fact that there was no breeze in the room. I thought, could there be a supernatural presence in here? Mind you I'm not superstitious like that at all, but it was the middle of the night, I was exhausted, and had just finished reading a horror novel. Convinced that I was not alone, I slept with the light on.

The next morning I laughed at myself and my crazy overactive imagination, especially when I realized the heating vent is under the curtains. The mind can convince us of nearly anything, especially when we are looking for it. It doesn't make people crazy by any means. They want to have a supernatural experience, things happen that have a rational explanation, but their imagination takes control because they want so desperately to experience it.

Answer 6

It's very easy to imagine a "presence" around you. Children do it all the time. Their fear at night can make them steadfastly believe there is a monster in their closet. And even the slightest creak in the floor will lend credence to the idea.

Anyone can do this, young or old. If you allow your imagination to run wild, you can "feel" anything you want to.

As for "speaking" to god, they are speaking to themselves. I did this when I was a Christian. I would ask god a question in my head, and he would answer it, in words. However, I can still do this to this day, as an atheist. I can have conversations in my head with myself all day long. Some people even do this out loud. Watch people in your rearview mirror who don't know you're watching them. They'll be having engrossing conversations with themselves at every red light.

Answer 7

Spouses who get cheated on are known to say, "I had no idea." People choose what they want to believe and deny any evidence that what they believe is false.

I also believe what they're feeling is utter justification of their solipsism. Religion assures us that God (who created the vastness of the universe) has no greater interest than our personal foibles and petty wishes--what a relief to be told that God shares our obsession with ourselves.

As for visions, I once thought I saw a ghost. I'm otherwise sane. Did I? Didn't I? Who knows. I do know this much: I wanted to see one.

Answer 8

We have dreams which are images and feelings generated in our brains. Some dreams are weird, and couldn't be consciously thought of in our waking moments. If a sane person claims to see angels, or hear God talking to them, its still generated in the brain and not in the physical world.

Answer 9

imagination and the idea that's been drilled into their minds when they were young long enough that they truly believe it

people aren't mistaking a physical thing for god-- it's almost the same concept as an imaginary friend.


when someone talks about seeing angels or deamons, i actually have many oppinions on the matter (i think the same things about ufo reports and alien sightings); many things could have happened, it all depends on the situation. maybe it was a trick in the light, and they related almost nothing into something they wanted to see, their eyes playing tricks on them, they saw something that they couldn't explain and decided that it was an angel or demon...

Answer 10

I'm an attorney, and I was representing this poor elderly woman some years ago. A few days after I told her in general conversation that my brother was a doctor, she called and, after telling me about her symptoms, told me that "God" had instructed her to see my brother for a check-up. I patiently explained that my brother was a cardiologist who practiced in a different county, and, since she didn't drive, or have cardiologically related complaints, I thought maybe either God was mistaken or she misheard Him. She laughed and said that she would have to start listening to The Lord more carefully, but she could have sworn that's what He told her to do. I was thankful, I suppose, that she didn't hear God tell her to jump off a bridge.

Answer 11

Lucid dreaming. They are dreams but it happens when your half asleep half awake and they seem so real. usually happens when your sleep deprived or are overly stressed. Hence someone is at a rough point in their life and they lose sleep over issues then one day they are sitting on the couch and are halfway asleep and wake and an angel comes and tells them everything will be better. Or maybe were wrong and they really are seing angels.