Anonymous
Why atheists so afraid to confront the compelling Nde evidence for the soul and afterlife ? Does it go against their religion of atheism ?
We're not afraid, you simply don't have any evidence. But then anyone too stupid to realize atheism is not a religion probably doesn't understand what 'compelling' or 'evidence' actually means. Now here's the science bit you won't like, taken from a science paper you have not even read.
Dr S Parnia has just concluded a study with people suffering cardiac arrest and post-resuscitation periods. Unexpectedly, 39% of the patients remained aware even though they demonstrated no clinical signs of consciousness during CPR as assessed by the absence of eye opening response, motor response, verbal response whether spontaneously or in response to pain.
One patient accurately described people, sounds, and activities that occurred over a period of three minutes during his resuscitation. He recorded the use of an automated external defibrillator, which is usually used when the heart is electrically active but unable to pump blood. Under these circumstances, the above signs of consciousness normally disappear after 30 seconds, which makes his three minutes of awareness remarkable.
But the fact that he is statistically an anomaly means there may be something amiss with his account, because we would expect more people to be aware than we have. Therefore this does not help in determining if there is an after life, especially as there is no distinct point of death in these circumstances. The study just demonstrates that people may remain aware longer than expected with near death experiences.
There are also other possibilities that need to be taken into account, such as that he only thought he heard the machine twice, or that he actually had blood flowing to his brain, and so was conscious. And these possibilities need to be taken into consideration, you can't simply ignore them because you want to believe in the afterlife.
An aside in the paper mentioned that people from different cultures have different NDE's, which suggests NDE's are formed by the brain to try and make sense of the stress of what is happening, and being shaped by the cultural background of the person having the NDE. For example, some people see some sort of heaven, others see UFO's.
They also did the classic test of putting symbols on top of shelves to determine if the out of body experiences were real or just the brain playing tricks. No one reported seeing these symbols, so to date there is no verifiable claim for actual out of body experiences.
When it first came out, you could read the paper, but now it is behind a paywall. If you have an account, you can read the report here: http://www.resuscitationjournal.com/article/S0300-9572%2814%2900739-4/fulltext#sec0040
numbnuts222
One big problem with NDEs is that people who experience them aren't dead, its near death experiences, and as such can't be compelling evidence of an after life since the subjects are still alive.
Jereme K
Why are you still a 40 year old virgin? God has no one for you?
Atheism is not a religion, and if so, by all means, explain what our doctrines are. NDEs are not proof of an afterlife, or your God, or any god, or that atheism is wrong. Get over it, virgin.
harpertara
NDE's can be explained scientifically with the idea of the release of chemicals into the brain during those times. Do you also know that there are studies regarding people who have nearly died or 'died and been revived' who say they felt or saw 'nothing'?
Anonymous
Guffaw!! at "compelling NDE evidence". NDE evidence is compelling only to ignorant brain dead dumb@$$es. Rolls eyes