Personal gnosis is probably the strongest basis for religious conviction, if it hasn't just been beaten into you. But the problem with personal gnosis of even the most compelling sort is its individuality, subjectivity, and plasticity--people having strange spiritual moments will dub-in whatever imagery they can that will make things manageable. In the literature on NDE's, for example,this results in Christians seeing angels, while others do not. Some find relatives waiting for them, others see spirit guides, and others see a mental panorama that is not populated. So there's a wild variable which is hard for scientific sorts to manage. It is easy to use this as grounds for dismissing the whole subject. (Babies and bathwater).

This is also why it is really important to keep religion out of law and civil transactions.


A