Posted on 04/03/2010 9:50:37 AM PDT by betty boop
Review of Life After Death: The Evidence
by Stephen M. Barr
Life After Death: The Evidence
by Dinesh D’Souza
Regnery, 256 pages, $27.95
While much apologetic effort has been spent arguing for the existence of God, relatively little has been spent defending the reasonableness of belief in an afterlife and the resurrection of the body, despite the fact that these are among the hardest doctrines of biblical religion for many modern people to accept. D’Souza brings to the task his renowned forensic skills. (By all accounts, he has bested several of the top New Atheists in public debate.) He understands that persuasion is less a matter of proof and rigorous argument than of rendering ideas plausible and overcoming obstacles to belief.
One obstacle to belief in bodily resurrection is the difficulty of grasping that there could be places that are not located in the three-dimensional space we presently inhabit, or that there could be realms where our intuitions about time, space, and matter simply do not apply. D’Souza rightly points out that modern physics has broken the bounds of human imagination with ideas of other dimensions—and even other universes—and has required us to accept features of our own universe (at the subatomic level, for example.) that are entirely counterintuitive. He shows how blinkered, by contrast, is the thought of many who think themselves boldly modern, such as Bertrand Russell, who asserted that “all experience is likely to resemble the experience we know.” Another impediment to belief in life after death is our experience of the disorganization of thought as sleep approaches and the mental decline that often precedes death. While near-death experiences do not prove as much as D’Souza suggests in his interesting chapter on the subject, the discovery that many have a surge of intense and coherent experience near the very point of death does counteract to some extent the impression of death as mere dissolution.
D’Souza approaches his subject from many directions. In two chapters, he gives a very accessible account of recent thought on the mind-body problem and the reasons to reject materialism. In the chapter “Eternity and Cosmic Justice,” he bases an argument for an afterlife on our moral sense. Our recognition that this world is not what it objectively ought to be suggests not only that there is a cosmic purpose, but that this purpose is unfulfilled and unfulfillable within the confines of this world. Some of his philosophical arguments, however, are less happy. In particular, his use of Hume and Kant to undermine what he regards as the pretensions of science will provoke not only scientists, but all those who have a strongly “realist” epistemology. D’Souza can also be faulted for sometimes claiming to demonstrate what cannot be demonstrated. Nevertheless, even those who find loose ends in his arguments will be rewarded with many fresh perspectives on the only question that really is of ultimate importance.
Maybe for the simple reason it is all true.
I hope everyone had a blessed Resurrection Sunday.
He is Risen.
When I was a teenager(barely)in 1954, my uncle told me and my brother a story he said he had never told anyone, ever. He was a Captain of Marines in the Pacific an came down with a disease, he doesn't know what it was, something unspecified and undiagnosed by the docs at the time.
He does know he was dying, he was taken into what the other men called the dying room, because no one came out of the room. He said that he floated through a tunnel toward the light and when he got there he saw all of his dead relatives and a person he didn't know, who told him that he would have to return because it wasn't his time yet, that he had work to do.
He woke up and was returned to the regular ward, where he became extremely ill once more and once more he was returned to the "dying room". He died again, and again went through the light and talked to his dead relatives(including his mother and father)and was once again told he had to go back.
He woke again and was returned to the regular sick ward where he recovered but was given a medical discharge from the Marines. He retained his title of Captain and used it with pride on all of his correspondence until his death at 83 years of age.
I believed him when he told it and I still do. There is life after death and there is a creator, IMO.
I find it interesting that when scientists talk about the search for life in space and extra-terrestrials, everyone takes them seriously, including themselves. When Christians talk about angels and demons, those same scientists (and evos) scoff and mock.
Scientists propose alternate dimensions and multiverses, but label them heaven and hell, and watch the derision start.
That which we call a rose by any other name.....
Pastor’s Column
Easter Sunday, 2010
This week, my yard has had regular visits from some uninvited (though cute) guests, just in time for Easter: two mallard ducks and two white bunnies. They come and go as if they own the place. All I need now are a few chicks, colored eggs and Easter lillies and I will have all the symbols most people associate with Easter. Yet Easter really has nothing to do with chicks, ducklings, eggs and bunnies!
The truth is more incredible than anything we could ever imagine. There exists another world, very close to our own, but invisible to our eyes at present. How do we know it exists? We know it because Jesus, who came from that world into our own, told us about it. The record of his words are in the Bible. All sorts of beings live in heaven: among them angels, who are pure spirits, and they always do the will of God. Heaven is the home of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Spirit. The Son of God, Jesus, through whom everything was made, both that which is visible to us and the invisible world, entered our world and became visible. Why did Jesus do this? Why did he become human for our sake? To save us from death and to help us to understand how the world really is.
Some people live as if this world is the only reality that there is, but they are very much mistaken. The moment that a person realizes that there is life after death, everything changes. Even some scientists are beginning to realize that the evidence for life after death is simply overwhelming. For example, I recommend to you a new book out called Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences by Jeffrey Long, M.D.
When we learn more about the world to come (the one that is one heartbeat away: yours!), we come to appreciate in a deeper way what this life is all about and how we are to live our lives. In order to understand these things, we must listen to someone who has been there and back: Jesus Christ, the only Son of God who both created us and saved us by dying on a cross. He did this to open a way to heaven for those who believe in him.
Our earthly lives, even the longest of them, are very short indeed. As Christians we are called to have an eternal perspective. How will my actions today look in the light of eternity, my final destination? How am I living my life? What have I done with the precious gift of life that God has given me? Jesus waits for us to have faith in him. He gives us time to choose him before he reveals everything to us on the last day of our lives. If I believe in Jesus and the world he has opened up for me, my life will never be the same again, starting right now.
Father Gary
How’s the retread account working out for you?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2478926/posts?page=121#121
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2478926/posts?page=122#122
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2303251/posts?page=99#99
Excellent comment!
Thanks for posting this - for pinging out tomorrow and I want to buy the book!
(If my little brain can grasp it.)
Thank you ever so much, dear Salvation, for posting Father Gary's "Pastor's Column" for Easter Sunday, 2010. It is simply beautiful! So simple, clear, and direct — in magnification, glorification of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Logos of the Beginning, Alpha and Omega, our Risen Lord....
A truly wonderful meditation. Thank you so much, dear sister in Christ, for sharing it with us!
Great story.
There is such a thing as an “expectant” area. Those who are “expected” to die are taken there.
It’s standard military practice. In fact, it’s a necessary part of the triage process, iirc.
This may be a stupid question, but I’ll ask it anyway. Why is it that NDEs are always described as very pleasant events? It’s as if nobody who almost dies is destined for Hell. Has anyone here heard of such “negative” NDEs?
I read “23 Minutes In Hell” but that wasn’t an NDE, and probably a far more powerful account of the reality of Hell since NDEs seem to only brush with the actual afterlife.
Speaking of which, can anyone recommend a (credible) book/story of Heaven? “23 Minutes” was very powerful, but I’m generally more of a “carrot” guy than a “stick” guy.
Thank you so very much, calex59, for sharing your Uncle's testimony about his NDEs. They seem to have been closely similar in form to the reports of so many others who have undergone the experience. I don't see a reason not to believe what your Uncle told you was true.
Of course, those picky folks out there who disdain "witness testimony" as any kind of reliable evidence will not be satisfied. Their fundamental presupposition seems to be that witness testimony is thoroughly unreliable. For one thing, the similarity of the NDE reports might actually indicate the existence of a conspiracy.... There's no pleasing these folks.
Thank you again, calex59, for putting your Uncle's experiences "on the record" here!
My Uncle told me those things, as I said, about 1954, this was long before any books had been written about “going through the tunnel to the light” or any of the other things that occur during a death(I don’t think they are near death, I think they are dead)experience. He had never talked to anyone else about it and he had never read or heard of others having the same type of experiences. It wasn’t until about 10 years later he started reading and hearing from others on the subject. Now, of course, it is common knowledge and many people put it down as people copying others.
I’ve heard of an occasional encounter with hell myself, but you’re right that they’re not to common.
It could be that if the tunnel is only like a gateway, nobody ever really gets there to find out.
The with accepting witness testimony for some is that when they want to believe it, they do accept the witness testimony.
When they don’t, they won’t accept the witness testimony.
The other thing is, is that they have arbitrarily determined that something like *hard* evidence, physical evidence like fossils, is much more reliable than eyewitness testimony, not considering the fact that the physical evidence needs to be interpreted, which is a form of witness testimony of its own, from what I can see.
Here's some more testimony.
My Mother passed away in 2003. Some time later, as my nephew was having breakfast, she walked in, asked for a cup of coffee, and said ‘’I sure have missed you.’’
So true and essentially "the gospel".. there is a spiritual dimension of another kind..
In the same Universe two(at least) realms of reality..
Boggles the mind really.. two realities...
Both existing and real with different sets of axioms..
Life after death can bring both life and/or death into re-examination..
A mental exercise that challenges flesh and spirit..
And sings the song of what is the Spirit?..
What are spirits, are they creatures, are they beings?..
What really am I?.. The siren song of the Bible..
Humans seeking God, what is it, what am I?..
Are this worlds religions the science of the spirit?..
-OR- Sheep pens protecting superstitious pseudo-science?..
Is the Holy Spirit the one only teacher of this reality?..
Or are their human men and women authorized to certify others..
or can you even be certified?..
INDEED.
Those who disdain witness testimony are likely going to be more than a little shocked . . .
when the
—rocks cry out against them
and when
their own memory indicts them.
and when
the hosts of Heaven indict them.
What will they have to say about witnesses then?
thanks for the ping
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