Kyrok

Kyrok

Paragon
Nov 6, 2018
970
i'm 99.9% sure that god exists.
I'm 99.9% sure that God doesn't exist.

Why? (A) there's no evidence; (B) the evidence overwhelmingly supports a scientific account of all which exists; (C) the existence of natural evil is inconsistent with the standard concept of God; (D) faith is poisonous to the intellect.
 
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GeorgeJL

GeorgeJL

Enlightened
Mar 7, 2019
1,621
I'm 99.9% sure that God doesn't exist.

Why? (A) there's no evidence; (B) the evidence overwhelmingly supports a scientific account of all which exists; (C) the existence of natural evil is inconsistent with the standard concept of God; (D) faith is poisonous to the intellect.
That is one way of looking at it.

But how do you explain consciousness?
 
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Darkhaven

Darkhaven

All i have left is memories
May 19, 2019
979
Knowing a thing or two about bible prophecies, i would say killing myself right now is a great "bargain", because by passing now i would be escaping the incoming onslaught of "Armaggedon"
About the survivability of our souls i'm not too worried about. I believe that as soon as the body dies your soul just flicks off like when you turn a light off. It's an immediate response, i believe.
 
Kyrok

Kyrok

Paragon
Nov 6, 2018
970
That is one way of looking at it.

But how do you explain consciousness?
Um, Brain?

Is your consciousness affected by: fatigue, pain, booze, pot, acid, shrooms, etc etc etc?
If so, it looks like changes in brain chemistry results in changes in consciousness.

Likewise, my dog has consciousness.... and, um, brain.
 
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GeorgeJL

GeorgeJL

Enlightened
Mar 7, 2019
1,621
Um, Brain?

Is your consciousness affected by: fatigue, pain, booze, pot, acid, shrooms, etc etc etc?
If so, it looks like changes in brain chemistry results in changes in consciousness.

Likewise, my dog has consciousness.... and, um, brain.
But that is your problem you associate consciousness only with function. But you can separate the two. You can separate consciousness from awareness, that is awareness without function. That is special, that is inexplicable, pure awareness. That can be reached through meditation.

As far as the link between consciousness and drugs, yes conscious awareness is for the most part a slave to biology, and physiology. But what if I were you tell you that the free will of our awareness is dependent on very specific conditions that must be meet before that awareness can exercise it's power?
 
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foxtail

foxtail

Member
Jul 5, 2019
11
How consciousness is formed is still a hard question, we think it's the brain but that haven't been proved yet. Maybe there is no such thing as consciousness or freewill. How to define consciousness can be philosophical question. We think we have free will to make our own decisions but I believe things are already predetermined by our gene, experience, and the environment we're in. There are experiments shows our brain makes decisions before we actually does. It almost felt like everything was already designed in a way that every individual will have certain path. I guess that includes CTB.

Well the more research I done, the more confused I am. The truth is no one really knows, at least not yet. Even some of the greatest mind in our century have stumble on this question. That's why many of them are agnostic, cuz we just don't know.
 
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tomz323

tomz323

Walking to the bus stop
Mar 29, 2019
367
Um, Brain?

Is your consciousness affected by: fatigue, pain, booze, pot, acid, shrooms, etc etc etc?
If so, it looks like changes in brain chemistry results in changes in consciousness.

Likewise, my dog has consciousness.... and, um, brain.
How consciousness is formed is still a hard question, we think it's the brain but that haven't been proved yet. Maybe there is no such thing as consciousness or freewill. How to define consciousness can be philosophical question. We think we have free will to make our own decisions but I believe our things are already predetermined by our gene, experience, and the environment we're in. There are experiments shows our brain makes decisions before we actually does. It almost felt like everything was already designed in a way that every individual will have certain path. I guess that includes CTB.

Well the more research I done, the more confused I am. The truth is no one really knows, at least not yet. Even some of the greatest mind in our century have stumble on this question. That's why many of them are agnostic, cuz we just don't know.
That's what I think it is, we just haven't figured it out yet. All different parts of a brain come together to form our consciousnesses. Do we have free will? I guess in the end we are all just slaves to our wants and desires.
 
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GeorgeJL

GeorgeJL

Enlightened
Mar 7, 2019
1,621
How consciousness is formed is still a hard question, we think it's the brain but that haven't been proved yet. Maybe there is no such thing as consciousness or freewill. How to define consciousness can be philosophical question. We think we have free will to make our own decisions but I believe our things are already predetermined by our gene, experience, and the environment we're in. There are experiments shows our brain makes decisions before we actually does. It almost felt like everything was already designed in a way that every individual will have certain path. I guess that includes CTB.

Well the more research I done, the more confused I am. The truth is no one really knows, at least not yet. Even some of the greatest mind in our century have stumble on this question. That's why many of them are agnostic, cuz we just don't know.
That's what I think it is, we just haven't figured it out yet. All different parts of a brain come together to form our consciousnesses. Do we have free will? I guess in the end we are all just slaves to our wants and desires.
Your takes on this are much more reasonable than that of Kyrok.

One thing is self evident, if free will exists you will never truly be able to exercise it unless you believe it as studies have suggested.
 
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not_a_robot

not_a_robot

"i hope the leaving is joyful, & never to return"
May 30, 2019
2,121
That is one way of looking at it.

But how do you explain consciousness?
Consciousness is just a delusion of the physical body. The root of consciousness is infantile physical need.
"*I AM* hungry."
"*I AM* cold."
By the time the mind is developed enough to verbalize the existence of "I", assuming it's validity of "conscious" identity has merely become second-nature, it is not questioned.
It's all just a trick of neurochemicals, no different than any other drug-induced delusion.
Um, Brain?

Is your consciousness affected by: fatigue, pain, booze, pot, acid, shrooms, etc etc etc?
If so, it looks like changes in brain chemistry results in changes in consciousness.

Likewise, my dog has consciousness.... and, um, brain.
If your dog has enough consciousness in it's big, uh, brain, maybe he can be President.
 
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Kyrok

Kyrok

Paragon
Nov 6, 2018
970
But that is your problem you associate consciousness only with function. But you can separate the two. You can separate consciousness from awareness, that is awareness without function. That is special, that is inexplicable, pure awareness. That can be reached through meditation.

As far as the link between consciousness and drugs, yes conscious awareness is for the most part a slave to biology, and physiology. But what if I were you tell you that the free will of our awareness is dependent on very specific conditions that must be meet before that awareness can exercise it's power?

I probably have some functionalist sympathies, but still, I don't see consciousnes as a grand mystery. Inputs are received by the brain. There are habituated responses to those inputs. Science needs to figure out the details, of course, but the coarse mechanisms are understood and are amenable to empirical studies. Journals are replete with research on different aspects of the brain, their role, the brain's microstructure, etc..

To assume that something supernatural is responsible for consciousness because we don't fully understand it is like assuming that something supernatural is responsible for the weather because we don't fully understand it.

Do you think that consciousness continues when the brain stops? What in the world could serve as evidence for that? What are the properties of this consciousness such that it continues to exist? Where does it exist, even?

Nothing here proves that there is no supernatural consciousness/soul in us, but again, all the evidence suggests that it is brain-dependent and to believe otherwise is deletrious to one's intellectual virtues.

As for free will, very possible we don't have it in the full libertarian sense. But, I don't discount that possibility as perhaps we can assign superposition to some subatomic structures which, as per double-slit styled experiments, become deteminate through observation. That is, and this is speculative (but in line with science), perhaps self-consciousness yields a "wave collapse," determining which possible state is actualized.
 
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GeorgeJL

GeorgeJL

Enlightened
Mar 7, 2019
1,621
I probably have some functionalist sympathies, but still, I don't see consciousnes as a grand mystery. Inputs are received by the brain. There are habituated responses to those inputs. Science needs to figure out the details, of course, but the coarse mechanisms are understood and are amenable to empirical studies. Journals are replete with research on different aspects of the brain, their role, the brain's microstructure, etc..

To assume that something supernatural is responsible for consciousness because we don't fully understand it is like assuming that something supernatural is responsible for the weather because we don't fully understand it.

Do you think that consciousness continues when the brain stops? What in the world could serve as evidence for that? What are the properties of this consciousness such that it continues to exist? Where does it exist, even?

Nothing here proves that there is no supernatural consciousness/soul in us, but again, all the evidence suggests that it is brain-dependent and to believe otherwise is deletrious to one's intellectual virtues.

As for free will, very possible we don't have it in the full libertarian sense. But, I don't discount that possibility as perhaps we can assign superposition to some subatomic structures which, as per double-slit styled experiments, become deteminate through observation. That is, and this is speculative (but in line with science), perhaps self-consciousness yields a "wave collapse," determining which possible state is actualized.
The main difference between you and me and atheists and new agers is that we believe people when they say they had an astral projection or OBE near death experience. We count that as evidence. Many of yous think that all these people are delusional, which IMO is preposterous. And yet at the same time drug companies search for rare side effects off the internet from people they don't even know. Giving validity to side effects that from people that are not in any sort of scientific study. Then the question becomes how do you separate the claims that Christians are receiving he holy spirit when in fact they are just hyped up from placebo from real claims of the super natural? Now this is a very interesting question. To answer that I would say there are things to weigh. For instance what was the belief of that person before this happened? To help rule out placebo. Are they superstitious? To rule out delusions. Do they believe in science, or things like a 5000 year old earth? Also to help rule out delusions. Do they have any kind of credentials, eg doctor, phd, researcher, or are they just an average Joe? Are they making money speaking of their experience? This may or may not be an issue. Do they help others for free? Many astral projectors at astralpulse.com do help others learn astral projection for free for instance. Does the thing they are claiming fit nicely into other models. For instance does the NDE content fit nicely into the bigger picture of NDE research?

As you can see it's no so black and white, and for that reason I can see why many atheists, give up and say fuck it I'm not dealing with that. But if you can embrace nuance then you can learn to decipher spiritual truths.

The one thing that is a good bridge between science and spirituality is psychedelics without a doubt. Particularly DMT and 5-meo-dmt. Look into them if you want to start to embrace spirituality through science.
 
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Kyrok

Kyrok

Paragon
Nov 6, 2018
970
@GeorgeJL , it doesn't seem surprising to me that when the brain shuts down, people experience a tunnel, bright light, etc..

Sure it is evidence. But very weak evidence. I had a dream a few nights ago about the way the world will be in another 200 years. However vivid, I don't believe my dream was clairvoyant.

Further, we have no evidence from people who STAY dead.
 
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not_a_robot

not_a_robot

"i hope the leaving is joyful, & never to return"
May 30, 2019
2,121
@GeorgeJL , it doesn't seem surprising to me that when the brain shuts down, people experience a tunnel, bright light, etc..

Sure it is evidence. But very weak evidence. I had a dream a few nights ago about the way the world will be in another 200 years. However vivid, I don't believe my dream was clairvoyant.

Further, we have no evidence from people who STAY dead.
Bright light, tunnel and hallucinations are a perfectly explicable symptom of neurological distress/shutdown.
They are "evidence" of fuck-all.
 
Laststop

Laststop

Experienced
Jul 9, 2019
243
The fear of eternal punishment for CTB is enough to worry anyone who has even a little belief in it all. And isn't that what God is an issue for in our thing here? About the only way I can resolve any lingering worries is the knowledge I was going to Hell anyway.
 
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Kyrok

Kyrok

Paragon
Nov 6, 2018
970
The fear of eternal punishment for CTB is enough to worry anyone who has even a little belief in it all. And isn't that what God is an issue for in our thing here? About the only way I can resolve any lingering worries is the knowledge I was going to Hell anyway.
Good point at the end: a God who would damn you for ctb, is a God who probably has already damned you.
 
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not_a_robot

not_a_robot

"i hope the leaving is joyful, & never to return"
May 30, 2019
2,121
The main difference between you and me and atheists and new agers is that we believe people when they say they had an astral projection or OBE near death experience. We count that as evidence. Many of yous think that all these people are delusional, which IMO is preposterous. And yet at the same time drug companies search for rare side effects off the internet from people they don't even know. Giving validity to side effects that from people that are not in any sort of scientific study. Then the question becomes how do you separate the claims that Christians are receiving he holy spirit when in fact they are just hyped up from placebo from real claims of the super natural? Now this is a very interesting question. To answer that I would say there are things to weigh. For instance what was the belief of that person before this happened? To help rule out placebo. Are they superstitious? To rule out delusions. Do they believe in science, or things like a 5000 year old earth? Also to help rule out delusions. Do they have any kind of credentials, eg doctor, phd, researcher, or are they just an average Joe? Are they making money speaking of their experience? This may or may not be an issue. Do they help others for free? Many astral projectors at astralpulse.com do help others learn astral projection for free for instance. Does the thing they are claiming fit nicely into other models. For instance does the NDE content fit nicely into the bigger picture of NDE research?

As you can see it's no so black and white, and for that reason I can see why many atheists, give up and say fuck it I'm not dealing with that. But if you can embrace nuance then you can learn to decipher spiritual truths.

The one thing that is a good bridge between science and spirituality is psychedelics without a doubt. Particularly DMT and 5-meo-dmt. Look into them if you want to start to embrace spirituality through science.
That bit about evaluating their prior belief system to rule out placebo?
Cons are on to that. They always begin their tale with "I had absolutely NO belief in the supernatural until this magic thing happened!" It's a contrivance to "hook" non-believers.
Careful listening will always reveal that yes, they do have some spiritual training in their background ("my grandma made me do catechism but I totally never believed it, honest!").
And that part is true, they never believed it. They just recognized a good scam, and how to make *others* believe it.
 
M

Morphinekiss

Enlightened
Jun 8, 2019
1,207
Fun story, I almost went to rabbinical school. I believe in G-d, have my own relationship with him, but do not fear punishment. If I die and there's no big man then oh welll, one more thing I was tricked about.
 
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Pupuce

Pupuce

Nobody exists on purpose. Come ctb
Apr 19, 2019
282
The main difference between you and me and atheists and new agers is that we believe people when they say they had an astral projection or OBE near death experience. We count that as evidence. Many of yous think that all these people are delusional, which IMO is preposterous. And yet at the same time drug companies search for rare side effects off the internet from people they don't even know. Giving validity to side effects that from people that are not in any sort of scientific study. Then the question becomes how do you separate the claims that Christians are receiving he holy spirit when in fact they are just hyped up from placebo from real claims of the super natural? Now this is a very interesting question. To answer that I would say there are things to weigh. For instance what was the belief of that person before this happened? To help rule out placebo. Are they superstitious? To rule out delusions. Do they believe in science, or things like a 5000 year old earth? Also to help rule out delusions. Do they have any kind of credentials, eg doctor, phd, researcher, or are they just an average Joe? Are they making money speaking of their experience? This may or may not be an issue. Do they help others for free? Many astral projectors at astralpulse.com do help others learn astral projection for free for instance. Does the thing they are claiming fit nicely into other models. For instance does the NDE content fit nicely into the bigger picture of NDE research?

As you can see it's no so black and white, and for that reason I can see why many atheists, give up and say fuck it I'm not dealing with that. But if you can embrace nuance then you can learn to decipher spiritual truths.

The one thing that is a good bridge between science and spirituality is psychedelics without a doubt. Particularly DMT and 5-meo-dmt. Look into them if you want to start to embrace spirituality through science.

Personal experience is never a good argument. Never. What if someone lacks the sensation of pain, puts his/her hand over a fire and tells "Go for it. It doesn't hurt", you would have to blindly trust that person if you think personal experience is reliable. You could say that yes but we know the person lack of ability to feel pain, but you may not, and we already know that fire burns,yes because we already went into the scientific to prove/explain it.

For the receiving the holy spirit part, people from all religions and non-religious have experienced similar situations, the only difference is that religious just stick God in it because they believe in it so they want to see it.

As for the rest, we have no reason to think that anything spiritual exist, and the vast majority of people who had spiritual experience believe in it, that is a source of bias. That's why the scientific method is so great, it doesn't care what you believe or not, and it doesn't claim anything without explaining it. And scientific method tells us that spirituality goes against laws of physics, and historically it comes from scammers, people who want to control masses, and straight-up crazy people. But with human kind fear of unknown, and an explanation given, no matter how unlikely that explanation is, they'll go for it.

And then parents will enforce them onto their children because you know "mother knows best", so most people will be raised thinking some fairy tails with no proof, and with human kind pride they blatantly refuse to accept their beliefs has no substance.
 
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LifeIsNotFun

LifeIsNotFun

Mage
Jun 1, 2019
530
No, I don't believe. Even when I was younger i was forced to do religious things by my parents, which I dreaded every time. I thought it was a complete waste of time, and my mom thinks by praying everything will 'fix itself.' I use logic, thank you. But now they've let me decide what I believe in or not. Thank goodness.
 
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GeorgeJL

GeorgeJL

Enlightened
Mar 7, 2019
1,621
Personal experience is never a good argument. Never. What if someone lacks the sensation of pain, puts his/her hand over a fire and tells "Go for it. It doesn't hurt", you would have to blindly trust that person if you think personal experience is reliable. You could say that yes but we know the person lack of ability to feel pain, but you may not, and we already know that fire burns,yes because we already went into the scientific to prove/explain it.

For the receiving the holy spirit part, people from all religions and non-religious have experienced similar situations, the only difference is that religious just stick God in it because they believe in it so they want to see it.

As for the rest, we have no reason to think that anything spiritual exist, and the vast majority of people who had spiritual experience believe in it, that is a source of bias. That's why the scientific method is so great, it doesn't care what you believe or not, and it doesn't claim anything without explaining it. And scientific method tells us that spirituality goes against laws of physics, and historically it comes from scammers, people who want to control masses, and straight-up crazy people. But with human kind fear of unknown, and an explanation given, no matter how unlikely that explanation is, they'll go for it.

And then parents will enforce them onto their children because you know "mother knows best", so most people will be raised thinking some fairy tails with no proof, and with human kind pride they blatantly refuse to accept their beliefs has no substance.
LOL your comparing apples and oranges comparing someone putting their hand in the fire to spirituality. LOL That is too funny.

Also I admit that most people that "receive the holy spirit" it's nothing but placebo. So I am with you on that. But there are serious spiritual claims that deserve to be looked at.

So let me get this straight people like you think this kid is just delusional?
Today Show - Expert investigates 10-year-old's reincarnation claims
 
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Pupuce

Pupuce

Nobody exists on purpose. Come ctb
Apr 19, 2019
282
LOL your comparing apples and oranges comparing someone putting their hand in the fire to spirituality. LOL That is too funny.

Also I admit that most people that "receive the holy spirit" it's nothing but placebo. So I am with you on that. But there are serious spiritual claims that deserve to be looked at.

So let me get this straight people like you think this kid is just delusional?
Expert investigates 10-year-old's reincarnation claims
The point i was trying to make about the fire, is that the only way we have to perceive anything is our senses, which can be fooled for a lot of reasons.
 
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GeorgeJL

GeorgeJL

Enlightened
Mar 7, 2019
1,621
The point i was trying to make about the fire, is that the only way we have to perceive anything is our senses, which can be fooled for a lot of reasons.
OK but what did you think of that video?
 
GeorgeJL

GeorgeJL

Enlightened
Mar 7, 2019
1,621
That bit about evaluating their prior belief system to rule out placebo?
Cons are on to that. They always begin their tale with "I had absolutely NO belief in the supernatural until this magic thing happened!" It's a contrivance to "hook" non-believers.
Careful listening will always reveal that yes, they do have some spiritual training in their background ("my grandma made me do catechism but I totally never believed it, honest!").
And that part is true, they never believed it. They just recognized a good scam, and how to make *others* believe it.
Just because someone does have prior spiritual beliefs doesn't mean that they are cons either. I've had out of body experiences with spiritual beliefs, that doesn't mean that my prior spiritual beliefs nullify my out of body experience and make me a con. But it would be even better if I didn't have any spiritual beliefs and then had an OBE. That is all I was pointing out.
 
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bluesky1972-2019

bluesky1972-2019

Specialist
May 21, 2019
377
I used to believe and even go to Christian church. But life has made me doubt it now. There are so many different religions out there, they all can't be right! Christians believe Jesus was the son of God. Jesus was Jewish. The Jewish people just think he was a good Jewish boy and definitely not the son of God!
My thinking now is that all religions were made up by human beings on earth in order to control people. The religious books were written by so called "wise" men and added to over the years and preached.
The universe has been around for millions of years, and probably will be for millions more. Long before man came on the scene and started making stuff up to try and make sense of it all.
That's my thinking at the minute. And I don't believe we have anything to fear about death. Can you remember where you were before you were born? You simply go back to that place.
 
puppy9

puppy9

au revoir
Jun 13, 2019
1,238
I'm just an ape, for us there is no god.:hug:
 
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GeorgeJL

GeorgeJL

Enlightened
Mar 7, 2019
1,621
@Pupuce @not_a_robot @Kyrok

It makes absolutely no sense at all that once the brain stop function that any of this is possible. It breaks all that we know about the brain. We know that blood flow is critical for brain function for instance. We also know that when the brain is dying that frontal lobe functions and higher level thinking is the first thing to stop.

Taken from Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences

The Nine Lines of Evidence from the book "Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences"

"1. Crystal-Clear Consciousness. The level of consciousness and alertness during near-death experiences (NDEs) is usually even greater than that experienced in everyday life even though NDEs generally occur when a person is unconscious or clinically dead. This high level of consciousness while physically unconscious is medically inexplicable. Additionally, the elements in NDEs generally follow the same consistent and logical order in all age groups and around the world, which refutes the possibility that NDEs have any relation to dreams or hallucinations.

2. Realistic Out-of-Body Experiences: Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are one of the most common elements of NDEs. What NDErs see and hear of earthly events in the out-of-body state is almost always realistic. When the NDEr or others later seek to verify what was observed or heard during the NDE, the OBE observations are almost always confirmed as completely accurate. Even if the OBE observations during the NDE included events far from the physical body, and far from any possible sensory awareness of the NDEr, the OBE observations are still almost always confirmed as completely accurate. This fact alone rules out the possibility that near-death experiences are related to any known brain functioning or sensory awareness. This also refutes the possibility that NDEs are unrealistic fragments of memory from the brain.

3. Heightened Senses. Not only are heightened senses reported by most who have experienced NDEs, normal or supernormal vision has occurred in those with significantly impaired vision, and even legal blindness. Several people who have been totally blind since birth have reported highly visual near-death experiences. This is medically inexplicable.

4. Consciousness During Anesthesia. Many NDEs occur while under general anesthesia- at a time when any conscious experience should be impossible. While some skeptics claim that these NDEs may be the result of too little anesthesia, this ignores the fact that some NDEs result from anesthesia overdose. Additionally, the description of a NDE differs greatly from that of one who experiences 'anesthetic awareness.' The content of NDEs that occur under general anesthesia is essentially indistinguishable from NDEs that did not occur under general anesthesia. This is further strong evidence that NDEs are occurring completely independently from the functioning of the physical brain.

5. Perfect Playback. Life reviews in near-death experiences include real events that previously took place in the lives of those having the experience, even if the events were forgotten or happened before they were old enough to remember.

6. Family Reunions. During a NDE, the people encountered are virtually always deceased, and are usually relatives of the person having the experience- sometimes they are even relatives who died before the NDEr was born. Were the NDE only a product of memory fragments, they would almost certainly include far more living people, including those with whom they had more recently interacted.

7. Children's Experiences. The near-death experiences of children, including very young children who are too young to have developed concepts of death, religion, or near-death experiences, are essentially identical to those of older children and adults. This refutes the possibility that the content of NDEs is produced by preexisting beliefs or cultural conditioning.

8. Worldwide Consistency. Near-death experiences appear remarkably consistent around the world, and across many different religions and cultures. NDEs from non-Western countries are incredibly similar to those that occur in people in Western countries.

9. Aftereffects. It is common for people to experience major life changes after having near-death experiences. These aftereffects are often powerful, lasting, life-enhancing, and the changes generally follow a consistent pattern. As the NDErs themselves almost always believe- near-death experiences are, in a word, real."

Source: https://www.nderf.org/NDERF/EvidenceAfterlife/evidence_afterlife.htm#Nine
 
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Pilum Muralis

Pilum Muralis

“We'll never be as young as we are tonight.”
Jul 2, 2019
187
Im a wishy washy agnostic. I was an atheist. My father was, and I wasn't raised around religion. It wasn't until I started dating my now husband that I was exposed to anything religious. He is a devout Christian (he was a virgin when we married!). The more I explored orthodoxy (our faith), the more I started to question my own disbelief in, at the very least, some higher power.
I don't know if I'll ever truly believe in a God. Maybe on my deathbed, whether by my hands or natures, I'll make up my mind.
 
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GeorgeJL

GeorgeJL

Enlightened
Mar 7, 2019
1,621
Im a wishy washy agnostic. I was an atheist. My father was, and I wasn't raised around religion. It wasn't until I started dating my now husband that I was exposed to anything religious. He is a devout Christian (he was a virgin when we married!). The more I explored orthodoxy (our faith), the more I started to question my own disbelief in, at the very least, some higher power.
I don't know if I'll ever truly believe in a God. Maybe on my deathbed, whether by my hands or natures, I'll make up my mind.
Nothing wrong with being wishy washy. Just as long as you can articulate why you are wishy washy, and you want to know the truth is all that really matters.
 
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Pupuce

Pupuce

Nobody exists on purpose. Come ctb
Apr 19, 2019
282
@Pupuce @not_a_robot @Kyrok

It makes absolutely no sense at all that once the brain stop function that any of this is possible. It breaks all that we know about the brain. We know that blood flow is critical for brain function for instance. We also know that when the brain is dying that frontal lobe functions and higher level thinking is the first thing to stop.

Taken from Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences

The Nine Lines of Evidence from the book "Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences"

"1. Crystal-Clear Consciousness. The level of consciousness and alertness during near-death experiences (NDEs) is usually even greater than that experienced in everyday life even though NDEs generally occur when a person is unconscious or clinically dead. This high level of consciousness while physically unconscious is medically inexplicable. Additionally, the elements in NDEs generally follow the same consistent and logical order in all age groups and around the world, which refutes the possibility that NDEs have any relation to dreams or hallucinations.

2. Realistic Out-of-Body Experiences: Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are one of the most common elements of NDEs. What NDErs see and hear of earthly events in the out-of-body state is almost always realistic. When the NDEr or others later seek to verify what was observed or heard during the NDE, the OBE observations are almost always confirmed as completely accurate. Even if the OBE observations during the NDE included events far from the physical body, and far from any possible sensory awareness of the NDEr, the OBE observations are still almost always confirmed as completely accurate. This fact alone rules out the possibility that near-death experiences are related to any known brain functioning or sensory awareness. This also refutes the possibility that NDEs are unrealistic fragments of memory from the brain.

3. Heightened Senses. Not only are heightened senses reported by most who have experienced NDEs, normal or supernormal vision has occurred in those with significantly impaired vision, and even legal blindness. Several people who have been totally blind since birth have reported highly visual near-death experiences. This is medically inexplicable.

4. Consciousness During Anesthesia. Many NDEs occur while under general anesthesia- at a time when any conscious experience should be impossible. While some skeptics claim that these NDEs may be the result of too little anesthesia, this ignores the fact that some NDEs result from anesthesia overdose. Additionally, the description of a NDE differs greatly from that of one who experiences 'anesthetic awareness.' The content of NDEs that occur under general anesthesia is essentially indistinguishable from NDEs that did not occur under general anesthesia. This is further strong evidence that NDEs are occurring completely independently from the functioning of the physical brain.

5. Perfect Playback. Life reviews in near-death experiences include real events that previously took place in the lives of those having the experience, even if the events were forgotten or happened before they were old enough to remember.

6. Family Reunions. During a NDE, the people encountered are virtually always deceased, and are usually relatives of the person having the experience- sometimes they are even relatives who died before the NDEr was born. Were the NDE only a product of memory fragments, they would almost certainly include far more living people, including those with whom they had more recently interacted.

7. Children's Experiences. The near-death experiences of children, including very young children who are too young to have developed concepts of death, religion, or near-death experiences, are essentially identical to those of older children and adults. This refutes the possibility that the content of NDEs is produced by preexisting beliefs or cultural conditioning.

8. Worldwide Consistency. Near-death experiences appear remarkably consistent around the world, and across many different religions and cultures. NDEs from non-Western countries are incredibly similar to those that occur in people in Western countries.

9. Aftereffects. It is common for people to experience major life changes after having near-death experiences. These aftereffects are often powerful, lasting, life-enhancing, and the changes generally follow a consistent pattern. As the NDErs themselves almost always believe- near-death experiences are, in a word, real."

Source: https://www.nderf.org/NDERF/EvidenceAfterlife/evidence_afterlife.htm#Nine
Well yeah it breaks all we know about the brain, but we don't know everything about the brain yet. So if what we don't yet happens to explain those, i'll change my mind.
Point 1 just looks like a response to a deathly threat from the brain, focusing on the surrounding to survive and ignoring pointless thoughts
Point 2 okay i don't have anything to say about that, but i'm not convinced at all
Point 3 refer to Point 1
Point 4 "at a time when any conscious experience should be impossible" well considering it doesn't looks like much people have NDE, maybe it comes from the part who wasn't properly unconscious
Point 5 That's memory, having consciously forgotten doesn't mean you have completely forgotten
Point 6 imagination/hallucination does the trick, don't know why it doesn't include more living people but brains are weird sometimes
Point 7&8 just means that the brain reaction to death is innate and independent from age/beliefs/origin etc
Point 9 A great psychological/physical trauma tend to leave marks, good or bad

But i have one question, How is someone blind his/her entire life supposed to recognize and know what is vision?
 
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