Christians and Personal Gnosis

[MiniSiets]

One of the things I've observed about the Christian apologetics of M&R is that they often argue that their beliefs are justified because they have had a personal gnosis. For those of you who do not know what I mean by that, personal gnosis is typically defined as a personal experience wherein spiritual knowledge is gained. In other words, a Christian might claim that they literally observed God perform a miracle in front of them as an example of a personal gnosis.

Whatever the case may be, this is typically their sole justification that they offer for their belief, as they might often acknowledge that this is the only way that a rational person could accept such extraordinary claims made by the Christian religion.

Taking all this into account however, I find conflict. On one hand, the Christian acknowledges that the only way a rational person could or should accept claims of great supernatural forces acting behind the scenes is by observing it for themselves through some type of spiritual experience. On the other, their religion specifically tells them to preach these claims to people who haven't experienced gnosis. In other words, they're basically being encouraged to teach people to accept claims irrationally and without good justification.

Thus, some questions are raised. Even if you had a gnosis which proved to you undeniably that God exists, why would you worship him when you know he asks of you to do things that you admit are unreasonable? What kind of perfect God would set up a system where he punishes people for not believing in him, but he won't provide the only rational means for people to accept such extraordinary beliefs? After all, we know that there are many people who go on living their entire lives and they never have a personal gnosis, so they die an atheist. Do you think that's fair then that God is just going to exclude someone from Heaven for that while you get to enter because you happened to be one of the lucky few rational people he decided to pick and choose for saving?

Is it just me, or does it seem a little convenient that everyone who claims to have personally experienced God also always happens to worship him? Why aren't there people out there who do believe in him but feel disgusted and outraged that he isn't letting your other brothers and sisters in on the secret?  

[Raticiel]

Oh, the gnosis case. It's very interesting. I know people who had such experience, although they never wanted to force anything on anyone.
This is something completely private and some people could have the similar experience as those who claim they had gnosis, but they don't think it was it.
I think it's too personal and it can't be considered good or not, reliable or not, true or false. It's like one's experiencing tomato juice's taste. It's not intersubjective, it can't be judged by the outside.  

[alteregoivy]

Actually, I do know a guy who was in school to be a priest. He still believes in God and the whole thing, but he refuses to worship Him because He's a b*****d. He admits he believes he's going to Hell.  

[What Happened To LSD]

A lot of these things are created in the mind. The most common being "near death experiences" which have been proven to be bullshit. A personal experience is not a worthwhile one to base your entire life off of. Until there is unquestionable proof for God, he isn't worth worshipping.