near death experiences

Yes-Another near death experience question.

Sun, 2008-10-12 22:33 — iens

Question::

I find the answers atheists give to this question all seem to carry a touch of desperation, as though they will grab at anything which will deny the remotest possibility that the tens of thousands of people who have had such experiences are all the victims of their own wild ,crazy hallucinations. Most of these people state very clearly that what they have experienced bears no relationship to the dreams and hallucinationa they have experienced during their lives. We are talking about an enormous range of people, including atheists, agnostics and very young children. How do you explain verified accounts of people who have not only left thie body but seen and heard things in other hospital rooms which have later been verified? Are all these people liars? How can you hallucinate factual observations in physcial locations in which your body is not present?

Atheist Answer:

Do read my comments in the original question where I explain that there is very likely a difference between a brain which is dying, or almost dying, and one which is not. One might expect the experiences of the former to be somewhat unique, no?

Regardless of what a patient's religion is, if they're in the news we read then they're in a country where if the Christian concept of the afterlife, if not widely believed, is at least widely known. The reason why even non-Christians' experiences may feature Heaven and Hell (that's where you're going with this, right?) is most likely a simple unconscious association of these ideas with death. It doesn't denote belief, and it certainly doesn't speak to reality more than any dream does.

As for factual observations of things not visible or audible to the patient (which is getting into the more general field of out-of-body experiences), those are exactly the events which have not been verified. There are stories of course, but nothing that it's actually possible to pin down and say, "This happened."

Disagree with me? Then don't just wave your hand at the world and say the evidence is out there. That shows us nothing. Go find some concrete examples and link to them in a comment (use HTML links please, as in a href), so that we can do our own research and come to our own conclusions. Make an effort.

That's not just to Iens, it's to everybody. Show us what you've got.

- SmartLX

3 comments

what about NDE's?

Mon, 2008-01-28 20:34 — 33vai33

Question::

hi, i'm an atheist but recently i've been very troubled with a kind of epiphany i had. what if near death experiences are ways of leaving your body to visit other dimensions, heaven perhaps? what if religion is something that is not meant to be proven or disproven and that its about faith. on the other hand maybe people had NDEs in mind when they made the concept of heaven and hell. im just curious as to what your opinions are on the matter. thanks!

Atheist Answer:

The thing to remember is that someone having a near death experience is, obviously, near death. The brain is in a panicked state. It hallucinates, or dreams, of happy or fantastical things to get away from reality and pain. Since the person knows on some level that death is nearby, thoughts are likely to turn to the afterlife and whatever concepts of it the person has been exposed to. Of course Heaven and Hell are going to figure heavily in these hallucinations. Contrary to what you suggest, I think people simply have Heaven and Hell in mind when they have their NDEs.

- SmartLX