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.
Same for you,although, I do feel that time spent in prayer and Adoration is certainly more fruitful than time spent on FR forum
Good to hear from you Mark and sfa. Happy Easter to both of you.
No argument there, Mark. Don't even get me started on the Book of Mormon.
I am a poor soldier in the ranks of God and sometimes the give and take of the apologist might serve.
A fantastic piece of work. You’d never know that old Joe Smith pulled it out of his hat.
I think you serve very well,dear brother
It certainly takes some imgaination. In fact, didn’t he use the magic hat to read the alleged Egyptian gold plates by putting his face in it? The rabbit hattrick takes on a whole new meaning...with Joe Smith.
I have heard one argument against NDEs that went, “It’s just a kind hallucination at the end of life.”
And my first thought was, “From Whose kindness?”
Appreciate the sentiment. I am humbled by my betters on this forum and appreciate them considerably. The Catholic posters on FR (as well as the non Catholic ones) have significantly shaped my posting practice and content. I must thank all FR for influencing me, and certain specific Catholic posters very much so.
Mark,
Do you know why petronski is not posting here anymore,has he been banned or something ?
After having been convicted of fraud with 'glass looking" (looking in a mirror and seeing hitherto unseen things), he hit on the idea of the Urim and Thummims (OT stones that allowed the high priest to get revelation from God) and put them into a top hat. The stones, when he put his face into the hat, gave him the story of the BOM. Of course, it wound up having hundreds of revisions, so it must have been his reception of the signal.
Those of us who have looked into the LDS history see the significance of such as Sidney Rigdon, who was first seduced by the Campbells pere et fils in the Church of Christ Campbellite movement, and then brought over to the LDS, where he wrote most of the real LDS theology, and then waited in the wings for first, Joe Smith to die, and then for the followers who broke away from Joe Smith Jr. and Brigham Young to come back. He was hiding out in Pittsburgh, assumed the new title, and was out of a job in less than 2 years. Sad little man.
And no closer to the Gospel of Jesus than the JWs or the Oneness Pentecostals.
Negative. He is taking a break.
He has shouldered a rather impressive burden for so long, that he needed to pull away for sanity’s sake. He is sorely missed; I will include him on this for when he logs on next. I know that I miss his comforting dialogue and his rather impressive defense of the Faith.
Agreed!
He is like the Saint Michael of FR
He'll be back!
Can you describe what you saw? I obviously missed the thread where you talked about it...
I honestly can't say one way or the other that I KNOW that NDEs are supernatural events. However, it would seem to me that if a Christian accepted the truth of the precedent Biblical accounts of actual resurrections besides Jesus:
... (and I certainly do), then it would seem much less of a stretch to accept the plausibility and possibility that NDEs are truly real and supernatural. In addition, I can't think of any discrediting scripture.
Many of those are resuscitation vice resurrection.
No.... far too involved and detailed to glimpse it..
A glimpse would just wet the appetite for more.. as my experience shows..
Words just don't do the experience justice..
Could be a vision is in order for you.. pray about it..
Your vision may give you what you need..
Not what you want but what you need..
Which seems to be the point.. of a vision in the first place..
INDEED.
No doubt. Do you still remember all the details, or does it fade away with time?
Could be a vision is in order for you.. pray about it..
You could be right...it would be nice...
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