intellectual understanding vs. direct experience.

i have kissed a girl before. i know what the experience feels like.
there are some who, for whatever reason, have not had the pleasure.
some of those people can talk about what it must be like to kiss a girl.
some of those people are deciding right now to go out and kiss a girl any chance they can.
there are scientists among this group of people who have never kissed a girl who can tell you all of the biological functions and neuro-chemistry involved in the process of kissing girls.
there are psychologists and sociologists that understand the motivations and dynamics of girl-kissing and how this action effects society.
but if they`ve never kissed a girl they have no direct knowledge of the experience.
and some of those people might hold a slight grudge against someone who has.

experiencing the divine has similarites with kissing a girl, that, while i won`t go into the finer details here, can be interchanged with the concept of kissing a girl in the preceeding paragraph.

there are those who have no direct experience with the divine, yet hold themselves out as experts...........