One of the theses I have harped-upon here is that metaphysics is primary, and all "evidence" and reasoning happens within metaphysical assumptions (despite that these assumptions may be unconscious, or even denied).
An example come from my earlier life, especially in my late twenties and thirties - during which I developed strong interests in all kinds of transcendental, religious, and Christian matters... But I remained metaphysically a materialist-atheist.
For example; I believed that the thinking and aspirations of individuals and small groups could have a large and positive social influence, even when these were operating in obscurity.
That intense study or conversations on a particular theme, or themed formal and ritual activity, might nonetheless affect "the world" in a very general way. Even when these conversations and rituals took place privately, in an unworldly or cut-off context.
On the face of it, this was a magical way of regarding the world; in that it acknowledged that individuals, groups, symbols, ritual activities and the like had power that extended beyond their particular situation.
Yet when it came to the question of how such activities exerted their power; I would have resisted strongly any explanation of a spiritual kind.
Instead my explanations were all of a material nature.
In other words; I would explain all general effects in terms of observable communications, and their effect on psychology.
For instance; a man thinking would, as a consequence of his thinking, communicate with other people by word, sounds, images - and these images would conceivably be registered and interpreted by at least one other person.
And from there the communication might, potentially, be spread by other such channels of communication; maybe resonate with other people such that one person informs two others, in a geometric increase. 2,4,8, 16, 32 people would thus be informed - and soon enough there would be thousands, then millions who had been affected!
Or perhaps inter-personal communications would be taken-up and even more rapidly amplified by mass media interacting with human wishes and motivations.
Plus the communications could be stored - perhaps in a magazine of book, or on an audio or video medium - and much later experienced and "activated" to start the above kind of geometric increase to exert general power.
The point I would emphasize is that by such explanations, all past, present and possible spiritual phenomena could be and were explained on a material basis.
And this will always be the case; because the metaphysical assumptions - in this case that there was no God, and no spiritual reality - will always be able to explain everything that happens and is real and needs explaining.
Metaphysics can explain everything that happens that matters; because metaphysical assumptions are about the fundamental nature of reality: and thereby metaphysics dictates what counts as an observation, a fact, a valid mechanism, a conceivable or possible explanation.
I think this way of materialistic thinking is very common - indeed almost universal, since we are all socialized into the metaphysics of aspiritual-atheist-materialism; and these are the assumptions that lie behind all public discourse of a significant, socially-functional, broadly-acceptable type.
So we absorb this - mostly unconsciously - through childhood, and it is daily sustained and reinforced by the bureaucratic "System" the world of institutions such as government, law, media, corporations, education, medicine, science, police, military etc - and most of what churches actually do for nearly all of the time.
And I repeat that this metaphysics cannot be refuted by any observation, by anything that happens.
The only way we can break free from it is to have different metaphysical assumptions.
In my case, this required that I become aware of my own assumptions, and aware that they were indeed assumptions - they were Not "facts of life".
They were prior assumptions; not inferences derived-from my knowledge and experience; nor derived-from the knowledge and experience of my society or institutions.
This is why evidence or logical proofs of the existence of God, or of the validity of a particular religion or church, are ineffectual.
This is why not even the LEGO Minas Tirith can compel an atheist materialist to acknowledge a personal deity and a providential universe!
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