Trouble is . . . man tells us what God tells us. And we all know how often man gets things wrong or makes stuff up.
Theists are thought addicts via the Holy Dopamine Ghost (Dopamine Reward System). Imagine the euphoria experienced by the average person for believing they won a million dollars. Now imagine someone having the same sensations, but being convinced it's a paranormal contact for believing John 3:16.
The Holy Dopamine Ghost (Thoughts are addictive):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQATeZAnm87BaJjBtM1vMIq_gHRmBq3ie
"Genetic and behavioral factors influencing religiously motivated behavior appear related to dopamine metabolism and signaling. Inclination toward religious behavior and motivation has been associated with a polymorphism on the dopamine receptor gene DRD4 (Comings, Gonzales, Saucier, Johnson, & MacMurray, 2000;Sasaki et al., 2013). Acquired disorders of dopamine physiology also show links to religious behaviors."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5478470/
"Religious and spiritual experiences activate the brain reward circuits in much the same way as love, sex, gambling, drugs and music, report researchers at theUniversity of Utah School of Medicine. The findings will be published Nov. 29 in the journalSocial Neuroscience."
https://unews.utah.edu/this-is-your-brain-on-god/
These neurological processes reinforce neural pathways (bridging literal gaps) in the brain in order to repeat thoughts, and behaviours like energy gathering (eating) along with specie perpetuation (sex). Dopamine in varying levels is also related to creativity, patternicity, making nonsense make sense, and hallucinations (involuntary movements, tactile/feeling embraced, and speaking in tongues are also forms of hallucinations). Also see "Dopamine Hypothesis". Note that Paul was schizophrenic (2 Cor. 12:9), the early church was encouraged to hallucinate (Gal. 3:1-5), and perform glossolalia (1 Cor. 12:10).
"Dopamine, adrenaline, and noradrenaline are neurotransmitters that belong to the catecholamine family. Dopamine is produced in the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental regions of the brain, and dopamine alterations are related to schizophrenia (1, 2). Dopaminergic projections are divided into the nigrostriatal, mesolimbic, and mesocortical systems. Impairments in the dopamine system result from dopamine dysfunctions in the substantia nigra, ventral tegmental region, striatum, prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus (3–5). The “original dopamine hypothesis” states that hyperactive dopamine transmission results in schizophrenic symptoms."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4032934/
"Dopamine In schizophrenia (SCZ), there is evidence that very high levels of dopamine in the limbic system play a major role in emergence of hallucinations and delusions. Antipsychotic medications, which block central dopamine activity, alleviate the hallucinations of psychosis. Drugs with strong dopaminergic effect, such as L-dopa, methylphenidate, bromocriptine, pramipexole and piribedil, may induce hallucinations. D-amphetamine, a direct dopamine agonist, may also induce psychosis and hallucinations."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2996210/
"Tibetan mystics have long practiced a method to create sentient beings from the power of concentrated thought."
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vi...cle/exmqzz/tulpamancy-internet-subculture-892
Mesolimbic System (instinctive ancient part of the brain) overrides the Frontal Cortex (rationalizing modern) building a cognitive wall.
Dopamine Enhances Optimism Bias
"Here, we show that administration of a drug that enhances dopaminergic function (dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine; L-DOPA) increases an optimism bias. This effect is due to L-DOPA impairing the ability to update belief in response to undesirable information about the future."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3424419/
https://skepticsannotatedbible.com