Personal experiences are not evidence. Some people might think they are but then at least you mention validity of evidence. Personal experiences are completely subjective and unreliable. Humans don't even know all the limits of their perception, that's why we can make optical and audio illusions. That's why people think they will see stuff that they don't. Personal experience is more often than not just taking a mistake that the brain makes, or that they just want to see, and treating it as though it is somehow reflective of reality.
The mixed bag doesn't matter. Either there is evidence or there isn't. If a spirit has no physical impact on the world then there's no way for them to detect and no reason to assume it exists. They probably don't assume a couch has a spirit but there's just as much evidence for the spirit of a couch as for a person.
You can describe what a cloud looks like, there are various names for different types of clouds. They sometimes resemble stuff and that is unique to each cloud but you can show a photo of a cloud and say what it looks like. Yes, that's open to subjectivity but that means it's not evidence. People's opinions are not a reflection of truth.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
Personal experiences are not evidence. Some people might think they are but then at least you mention validity of evidence. Personal experiences are completely subjective and unreliable. Humans don't even know all the limits of their perception, that's why we can make optical and audio illusions. That's why people think they will see stuff that they don't. Personal experience is more often than not just taking a mistake that the brain makes, or that they just want to see, and treating it as though it is somehow reflective of reality.
The mixed bag doesn't matter. Either there is evidence or there isn't. If a spirit has no physical impact on the world then there's no way for them to detect and no reason to assume it exists. They probably don't assume a couch has a spirit but there's just as much evidence for the spirit of a couch as for a person.
You can describe what a cloud looks like, there are various names for different types of clouds. They sometimes resemble stuff and that is unique to each cloud but you can show a photo of a cloud and say what it looks like. Yes, that's open to subjectivity but that means it's not evidence. People's opinions are not a reflection of truth.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~