Now this is not evidence if its existence, granted, but to those are feeling the “presence” no other evidence is needed. And there are fabulous scientific contributions to the explanation of what exactly people are feeling that they describe as “God.” There’s right temporal lobe disorder, stimulation of areas of the brain that mimic the “Third Man Factor” (a book with the same name describes this phenomenon at length), there are drugs that bring on mystical experiences, i.e., visions, etc… so yes, science can bring doubt because there are explanations to the physical sensations that pass for “God’s presence.”

Where it gets weird though, and again, this is not proof to a non-believer, (in fact, some believers don’t even believe these things – see Cathechism of the Catholic Church) is when these phenomena occur with no prodding, no prior religiousity in the subject, no religious knowledge, no desire for them, no drugs, no disorders, no stress, no death (for the sake of near death experience arguments), etc.

The spontaneity of mystical/religious experiences and the information that comes with them (see gnosis) is what keeps belief going. Why? Because the experience is so incredibly overwhelming, and it deals with something so completely *other* and powerful that it can’t be ignored or denied.

Documentation of these experiences exists from time immemorial, but if someone has never experienced it, it is just ignored or written off as a hallucination and left at that. Where what *should* be happening, is study of the phenomenon. Thankfully, there are scientists finally on this bandwagon (see Neurotheology).

If there were millions of people (and there really are this many having sensations and visions of what they claim to be God) every year actually *seeing* or feeling the presence of the tackliot, well, you can imagine the difficulty in excising it from the population.

The experience/perception/sensation of “God” is self-reinforcing. It is more pleasurable than any man-made drug, idea, sexual experience, anything. Logic cannot *even begin* to compare to the feeling of it. And yet there are people that pause to find scientific explanations for it. Keep in mind though, that being and staying skeptical in the face of such an experience is *not* proof that God goes *not* exist…there is free will…or so the story goes. Absence of proof, is not proof of absence.

But it is absolutely reasonable, and understandable, that those that have never felt a single sensation argue against a “God,” or tackliot.

As an aside, my speech of “God” here, does not refer to any particular god. It speaks of a God that may have a completely different make-up and purpose (if any at all) than purported via the Bible, or any other holy book. Individual facts within the Bible or Qur’an are verifiable, and able to be scientifically disproven, once that occurs they should be discarded.

But the instinct to believe in something greater than ourselves is never going to go away so long as people get random firings of neurons that reinforce a supernatural presence. Most people just aren’t strong enough to resist it.