Why do believers speak authoratively? It seems a common malaise of believers to talk as though they absolutely know what their god does or does not do, think or is motivated by. Believers are more than happy to claim that others do not 'see','hear' or perceive the 'truth' but that to them God has perfectly revealed itself so they are free to speak as its spokesperson. While AGuest is one of our most extreme the hallmark of all believers is that at some point they must make a statement on behalf of divinity ( he died for x, it's name is y, she is responsible only for the good, they are all powerful etc.)
Where are the good old fashioned believers who believe god is a punishing god of wrath and anger? I suspect that what we see today is belief filtered by our advancing secular morals so driving a new definition of the biblical god ( not enough experience to say if this is also happening with the Allah believers ) in short modern believers are out of step with the perception of bible god just as much as Xians are out of step with the old testament war loving and animal sacrificing Yahweh. The lack of consistency across believers in time, culture and individuals is perhaps the greatest testimony against all the gods. No god cares enough to ensure they are portrayed consistently by all believers. No god cares to stop acts of barbarity or stupidity done in their name. All gods seem perfectly happy for anything to be said as gospel truth by anyone.
That there are passionate personal reasons to believe, that people experience - via their physical mind and emotional, chemical body - powerful perceptions that seem otherworldly and supernatural is certainly not in doubt. I've had them myself so I do understand. What is in doubt is that they are actually divine ( and the vast majority cannot be since they lead to different truths like the veracity of the Book of Mormon or the acceptability of a global genocidal flood ) and since there is no discernible variance in earnestness or even willingness to die for such tenuous truth ( I dont think many scientists would accept death as a penalty for an incorrect theory ) it becomes abundantly clear that the likelihood of any version of god being true is statistically close to zero. Just a few years ago I would have passionately defended my god ( who would have confirmed to me that AGuest's was clearly a devil fooling her ) and have felt justified in talking about greater light, knowledge and love in my life because of the influence of the spirit in my life. All wrong but seemingly the absolute truth at the time.
I used to believe I was a true seeker of truth but I realised that a truth seeker is eclectic giving a little, learning a lot whereas a believer has ceased to seek truth (though the conceit is that they will never admit that ) and simply seeks to justify their position by preaching and self inculcation ( repeatedly reading approved religious materials , scouring well read texts like a starving man seeking sustenance from a pile of well picked chicken bones, while avoiding critical works .) This position of assured truth owner is what makes belief in god so intellectually weak and socially dangerous. With the honourable exception of PSac no believer has had the guts to simply accept that they do not know why their god has not provided a morally acceptable answer to why we suffer but we have had a full display of speaking for and behalf of god.
Considering how many times posters misunderstand each other here I don't think there is much chance they have switched to hyper clarity and understanding mode with the divine.