The notion that religion is a natural tendency produced by human cognition is gaining serious momentum. The tendency is universal in all but those who willfully suppress it and those who are mentally deficient e.g. those who have autism, etc. Just when you thought it was always best to be thoroughly rational and confident....
Putting aside for now, if you can, the miracle of life, if their is a God he/she/it's two greatest gifts are that of love and our ability to think rationally. That we should delude ourselves we have ‘discovered our creator’ by irrational means could be seen a blashphemous.
Far too many of us are habituated towards pride and rationalism. The latter is an obsolete but commonplace carryover from the Enlightenment of the 1600s. Its flaws weren't thoroughly brought to light until about 1920 thru 1960. As one Nobel laureate declared, reasoning is a necessity but is not always a sufficiency. Truth is no longer determined exclusively by reasons; rather, truth is based on the reasons why we think something is true. Wow, that link lets loose a wild intellectual brain fart. So, when standard science is stymied between a rock and a hard place, point the finger at the missing question. The frustration of not advancing towards a better fit between standard science and deeper aspects of reality has prompted acrobatic-like theorizing. In Einstein's day awards weren't dispensed for scatterbrain schemes before fruitfulness. With all due sympathy, space-time is a construct, and one tough nut to crack. There's too much angst over fine-tuning being supposedly incongruous with naturalism. Resorting to serendipity is a cop-out to avoid giving credit where credit is due: for intentional design and purpose, IMO. There is no solid-matter particle basis of reality; it's all energy (electromagnetic fields, etc.), empty space, and consciousness. The latter implies a Being. Then comes the useless objection: who created the being? Who cares, it's a moot problem, a step too far.
While I respect your right to believe whatever you wish, I disagree with your conclusions. There is a large & growing mass of evidence supporting the idea that our consciousness survives our physical death. Believing in that evidence in spite of some kind of scientific "proof," is no more challenging than believing in love, compassion, kindness, or any other emotion, which can't be proven scientifically either. If we limit ourselves to only those aspects of life than can be scientifically proven by experimentation, then we will be hamstrung with a very narrow, limited world view. I don't choose that path for myself. I believe we are all "more than we think we are."
1. The medical definition of "death" is the only "scientific" one we have to work with, so if you dispute that definition while everyone else uses it, then no conversation between you & anyone else on the topic will ever find common ground. That leaves you in limbo. 2. I've never heard of an NDEr returning with mental deficiencies of any kind. But the opposite is often true. Many NDErs return with enhanced mental abilities &/or psychic ones. While it is true that individuals can & do experience trauma that can leave them incapacitated, or mentally damaged, such injuries aren't normally associated with NDEs. All NDErs return saying that what they experienced while physically dead, was far superior to anything in their lives here on Earth, & many don't want to return here from that bliss.
It seems to me, based on the growing number of Near Death Experiences, the definition for death you cite needs updating, to include "short term death experiences".
The Russian was not breathing, showed no brain wave function, & had no heartbeat. He was in the morgue for almost two days. But when he returned he had a detailed story to tell regarding his out-of-body experience while he was clinically dead. He had the medical records from the hospital to prove it. You can play with semantics & word games all you want, but to deny these incredible, life changing experiences, better demonstrates your own inability to accept new info that contradicts your mind set than it demonstrates the finality of death.
Funny how you cannot provide the link to the actual medical data. When you can it might be worth considering.
I posted the medical definitions which are distinctly different from the one in common usage. Did you not read them? And if you haven't heard of peopke whose brain function has temporarily stopped or whose blood flow has temporarily stopped and then they return with impared function you are spending too much time on fruit loop NDE sites.
There is absolutly no evidence that consciousness survives beyond medically defined death. If you want to believe in something for which there is no actual evidence that is your right.
Your intransigent focus on semantics is preventing you from learning an incredible truth about life after life. Sad.
I don't dispute the fact that there are cases such as you describe, but you are inaccurate in trying to regard them as the same as Near Death Experiences. NDEs involve the cessation of heart, breathing & brain functions for a time, with accompanying spiritual experiences taking place during that interval. The thing you describe above, includes none of these. They are NOT the same.
And if you want to close your mind to the possibility that we're all participants in multiple dimensional realities that include the Earth & non-physical ones, & inhabit them sequentially, taking turns in a redundant cycle, then that's your right. But my reality is far larger & more diverse & interesting than yours. Sorry to see yours so limited.
Sorry but nobody closes their eyes to the infinite possibilities for the universe. The difference is the intelligent require evidence to make the distinctions between the possibilities.
Nope they all have been in the near death situation. It is an obvious choice of those pushing the case that near death is the same as medical death to only push the cases where supposedly spiritual experiences happen because of course that supports the fantasy that they have seen the afterlife.
I have interviewed several NDEs personally, & what you regard as "fantasy" they regard as the most profound, life-changing event of their lives.
Since I have done the research and there is no data whatsoever I suspect your insult is just your way of admitting you can't find any either.
