I have often objected to Scientism, which I define roughly as “that doctrine which believes that everything in the universe is in principle measurable empirically”, on the basis that it lacks what I tend to call a “qualitative place-holder” for the transcendental: for experiences which are real, but which cannot be fully described within the limits of a materialistic paradigm, wherein all apparent “experience” is simply an epiphenomenon of biochemical processes.
It just occurred to me that what I mean by place-holder is a conceptual basis for the elimination of the negative hallucination, which is when something is there, but invisible to you, as a result of effective hypnotic programming. We likely see signs of the divine daily, but lack the perceptive capacity to recognize them. We are much more likely to do so, though, if we accept in advance that such things are POSSIBLE. I have often debated dogmatic materialistic atheists, and it is quite obvious to me that were a spirit to materialize in front of them, and punch them in the nose, it would make no difference in their belief system. How much less could one expect them to feel or appreciate the subtle?