Ex-atheist describes near-death experience

Standard-Times ^ | 1/31/2004 | LINDA ANDRADE RODRIGUES

[MarMema]

Those are great stories. Thanks for sharing them.

[Quix]

Your conjectures and assumptions mascarading as major doctrine are . . .

sad

and

incredible,

IMhO

[Arizona]

There is another dimension - the spiritual - that none of us understand. Coming into contact with it even once in your life can totally change your take on life. (Your #280)

This one sentence sums it all up for me, it is the absolute truth stated so simply.

az

[Quix]

Evidently you think Christ was lying when He said to the thief on the Cross:

TODAY YOU SHALL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE.

Your mental and logical gymnastics with Scripture are pointless, to me, in addition to being inaccurate and mystifying.

[Quix]

I will earnestly endeavor to abide by your request.

HOWEVER, IF AND WHEN YOU CLEARLY SHOW OTHERWISE, I MAY FEEL CONSTRAINED TO POINT IT OUT.

[Quix]

BTW,

I work hard to avoid judgment and feel none per se toward you. You have had your path in life resulting in your perspective. I don't necessarily feel it is 100% as you seem to insist that it is. And, I'm not convinced that you are 100% insightful and accurate about yourself.

I DO MAKE A NUMBER OF OBSERVATIONS AND HAVE BEEN WELL TRAINED TO DISTINGUISH (A) FROM (B).

[lawgirl]

"There is another dimension - the spiritual - that none of us understand. Coming into contact with it even once in your life can totally change your take on life. (Your #280)"

This one sentence sums it all up for me, it is the absolute truth stated so simply.

Why thanks Az. People that haven't felt it don't get it, and I just shake my head and feel sorry for them.

[stanz]

The point is......why do you feel that YOU have to evaluate ME or anybody else, for that matter? Should I go to your profile page and start analyzing you? This is absurd. When I respond to any thread, I don't expect to be psychoanalyzed.
And...my "path" is none of your business. Whether I am insightful or not is also none of your business.Please disengage yourself...I am not interested in your observations.

[Quix]

It has been my understanding that all of us who hold forth in public forums expect observations and comments about what we write.

That discourse is part of the fun and intensity of the public dialogue in such forums.

We analyze what each other say and where each other seem to be coming from all the time. It's pretty standard SOP around her from a number of perspectives. And, we all do it differently as well as do it from different perspectives. But normally there's some mutual respect for that fact, process and phenomenon.

How would it even be conceivably possible to comment on any post without making observations about what one is responding to, first?

And responding to word content without an appreciation for the inner as well as interpersonal context it derives from is not very scientific, logical nor complete.

You seemed to feel free enough to make comments about the rationallity of the post and person starting the thread--and to do so with a bit of a cheeky attitude, IMhO.

But when comments got uncomfortably close to rationality about your posts, stance etc., then you wanted everyone out of the pool so to speak. Doesn't seem very consistent at all.

Nevertheless, I will try and file it away somewhere that you are evidently a fairly brittle one about such matters and I will try to avoid rattling your comfort zone. I have now posted your screen name on a post it note near my computer to help me avoid breathing on you any further.

But your seemingly double standards are not overly impressive, to me.

[stanz]

Your posts are not fun.
You are not responding to what I wrote. You are making comments about what you perceive to be my personality. Stop it now.
There are no double standards here. I made one lousy statement about the story on that post being hokey and from that you have deduced all kinds of untruths. If I wanted to be analyzed, I would consult a shrink. I do not wish to hear another word about this. It's tedious.

[Aquinasfan]

It would actually be "Died and Came Back to Life" experiences.

As a Catholic Christian, I have to rule out that possibility a priori on Scriptural grounds. Personally, I believe these experiences are real. I believe that these are truly "near death" experiences, where the soul is in transition to the afterlife.

[Lazamataz]

flame away, but I'll never believe differently. It was a gift.

Your mother loved you very much to make sure you shared with her in that experience.

[EggsAckley]

Thank you. What a kind observation!

[Lazamataz]

When I respond to any thread, I don't expect to be psychoanalyzed.

NOOOOOObody expects the Spanish Psychoanalysis! Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the American Psychological Association.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again.

[

[adam_az]

"Your understanding of theology and, well, reality in general appears to be about as adequate as your spelling."

While typing, I transposed an "e" and an "i," I suppose you've never made a typographical error?

Is that a mote in your eye, or are you just happy to see me?

[adam_az]

"If oxygen deprivation can, as very often reported and verified, enable its victims to float down the hallway and eavesdrop on doctor conversations about him - we need to start hiring a whole buncha people at Homeland Security to self-suffocate and eavesdrop on Al Qaeda."

You clearly have a lower standard for "verified" than I do.

"Actually, and more seriously, the Army used(s) Remote Viewing, before it ostensibly was abandoned. Translation: It went Deep Black."

Translation: You are speculating. BTW, if you know any remote viewers, send them to the Amazing Randi. He'll pay a million bucks to anyone who can prove under lab conditions that they have psychic abilities. Amazingly, he's had no takers.

[adam_az]

"Your only reason for replying was to ridicule. No one on this thread really cares if you believe that the entire universe is contained within your head and dies when you die. If you have nothing positive to add to the conversation, you should not even reply."

I suppose a "positive contribution" is one that takes *your* built in ideological biases and uses them as assumptions, as an epistimological starting point?

[Taliesan]

Show me your EVIDENCE that Mark wrote his gospel with that motivation. I'll spell it: E-V-I-D-E-N-C-E.

[cupcakes]

Only thing close to this I have to share was with my last delivery. I had been given an epidural too high in my back and it supressed the sensation of respiration(which I worked very hard to keep breathing although it was weird not to feel the breathing).
My blood pressure dropped dangerously low, while my heart rate was increasing dramatically. I was very near death and probably moments from cardiac arrest. While everyone was rushing around me and my husband was upset, I just remember this feeling of peace and I gotta tell you, I am one that despite a deep belief in God, I'm still scared of the unknown and here I was on death's door and in peace. I did not feel panicked at all. Some might say it was the anesthetic, but I had been put under in a general anesthesia before(which the epidural isn't) for a surgery and I still was pensive up to the last moment that I remember...this just wasn't the same. I had no fear.
Anyway, big deal. Not quite as neat as the others, but it stuck with me how peaceful I was even faced with death. With how anxious I get over that stuff, I really felt such a warm hand of calming reach down to me and let me know that either way, things would be ok.

[Some hope remaining.]

" 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "

Now who said that the Bible wasn't relevant for life today? What Jesus said in the above passage is this: listen to what the Scriptures say about this life and the afterlife. Don't depend on the 'miraculous sign' when you have God's testimony available already.

Perhaps you are over-applying these verses. The rich man and his family were not inclined to accept, for they had Moses and the prophets already to convince them and hadn't done so. A miraculous type of experience doesn't usually convince that type of person, or sometimes may only temporarily.

I don't think that rules out experiences for those who might be inclined to believe, or already believe but need comfort/strenghtening/etc.

It would be a strange God indeed, to permit Satan to deceive those in the least position to discern (e.g. the stories of the various two year olds posted in this thread.). Even stranger, perhaps, for Satan to be interested in deceiving in such a way as to strenghten the faith in the Lord of the child and his family.