"We have a model for the kinds of people who interact with angels and gods: we call them saints."
What do you mean by the verb "interact"? Could not one say that everyone who prays "interacts" at the level of consciousness that they are capable? In a certain sense, for instance, everyone who prays the rosary might meaningfully interact to some extent with Catholic divinities. Many gangster have extremely passionate interactions with the Blessed Virgin Mary. That does not make a criminal ipso facto into a saint, but that also doesn't negate the fact of the gangster's religious life.
To argue that one must be a saint in order to interact with a divinity to my mind is easily disproved. The term I would use is "practitioner." What's more many, many practitioners who are even rather base characters report divine intercession and miraculous occurrences. For this reason, I don't think that the model given here proves descriptive of the reality on the ground.
no subject
What do you mean by the verb "interact"? Could not one say that everyone who prays "interacts" at the level of consciousness that they are capable? In a certain sense, for instance, everyone who prays the rosary might meaningfully interact to some extent with Catholic divinities. Many gangster have extremely passionate interactions with the Blessed Virgin Mary. That does not make a criminal ipso facto into a saint, but that also doesn't negate the fact of the gangster's religious life.
To argue that one must be a saint in order to interact with a divinity to my mind is easily disproved. The term I would use is "practitioner." What's more many, many practitioners who are even rather base characters report divine intercession and miraculous occurrences. For this reason, I don't think that the model given here proves descriptive of the reality on the ground.