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Current time: December 23, 2024, 9:03 am
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Fear of hell, advice please
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(March 1, 2018 at 8:17 pm)orthodox-man Wrote:(March 1, 2018 at 6:37 pm)Succubus Wrote: Sceptiko and Eben Alexander is as far as I read. The first is highly concentrated woo and as for the second one; his mother should be charged with dope carrying. near-death.com also doesn't look credible to me. It's too focused on woo as well. Note about the credible journal sites: It's always good to distinguish between the results of a study, and the interpretations of these results and conclusions drawn. Don't be quick to jump to extraordinary conclusions when the results are yet inconclusive. There may very well be a naturalistic explanation for the apparent vividness of NDEs that has yet to be picked up on (it it hasn't been already). (March 2, 2018 at 1:01 am)Grandizer Wrote:(March 1, 2018 at 8:17 pm)orthodox-man Wrote: I put a few published sources in there too, Good point and I agree with you. In some past comments I admitted that: even if we can't explain it doesn't make it supernatural. I still don't get 2 things fully: consistency in hell ndes and the fact that christians tend to report seeing Jesus quite often while people from other faiths don't report seeing as many of their dieties ex: Muhammad or Krishna. However, that may have more to do with conditioning. Anyways, I want to see more studies. If more and more studies keep failing, I will have no choice but to reject my potential thought of afterlife, and I will become atheist.
Orthodox-Man,
I didn't read through the whole thread (I've seen it before) so my apologies if I missed something that has already been posted. Point 1: In the Christian universe, we are either destined for Heaven or Hell. Point 2: God is omniscient (all-knowing). That means that even before He created any of us, He already knew what our fate would be. Point 3: If you were a good God, why would you create a being you KNEW would wind up in Hell in the first place? Do you see the problem? Hell makes no sense at all. If you end up there, it's a result of you being created by God in the way that you were. Don't even bother crying about free-will. It doesn't matter whether or not you actually have it. God knew where your free-will would lead you before He created you. If you are bound for Hell, who's fault is it? If God is what Christian mythology says He is, it's all on Him. There is no passing the buck. God made the universe what it is and all the evil in it is on Him. Once you realize this, your fear should vanish. You should no more fear God and His ridiculous Hell than ghosts or goblins. It's all the invention of human minds in a fearful state. As Carl Sagan said, science is a candle in the dark. Clear-headed thinking will lead you away from such nonsense and free you from fear.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Albert Einstein (March 2, 2018 at 2:18 am)orthodox-man Wrote:(March 2, 2018 at 1:01 am)Grandizer Wrote: near-death.com also doesn't look credible to me. It's too focused on woo as well. Ok, what have we failed to address with regards to the bolded? I thought it was very clear what the counterarguments were in the other threads you made?
Here's an opinion you won't get on af very often. I'm not sure what a lost belief in afterlives is supposed to do with atheism. Why, if a person stopped believing in them, they would suddenly stop believing in gods. It seems as if "god" is getting the short shrift in this exchange. Does there have to be an afterlife for there to be a god? Is the one somehow necessary to the other? I don't see why.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
(March 2, 2018 at 2:18 am)orthodox-man Wrote:(March 2, 2018 at 1:01 am)Grandizer Wrote: near-death.com also doesn't look credible to me. It's too focused on woo as well. Christians see Jesus because that expectation is drilled into many of their psyches starting in childhood. Sure, they say that you'll see your lost loved ones - but a young child rarely has many family members that have died. So many parents and teachers will tell children that the first person you will see after you die is Jesus - and he will welcome you with open arms, he will show you a perfect, glorious place, and he will answer any questions you have. "Going to see Jesus" is a major theme, so it's expected.
"The family that prays together...is brainwashing their children."- Albert Einstein
(March 2, 2018 at 5:03 am)Khemikal Wrote: Here's an opinion you won't get on af very often. I'm not sure what a lost belief in afterlives is supposed to do with atheism. Why, if a person stopped believing in them, they would suddenly stop believing in gods. It seems as if "god" is getting the short shrift in this exchange. Does there have to be an afterlife for there to be a god? Is the one somehow necessary to the other? I don't see why. Correct me if I'm wrong but in all religions, the god creates the heaven and hell, so they are linked in their fairytale world. (February 28, 2018 at 8:50 pm)orthodox-man Wrote: Hello, Relax! Enjoy your short life. Do you get upset over the idea that Santa may put a lump of coal in your stocking! Of course not, because you know your M+D stuff the stockings and Santa is a myth. Just apply the same to Gods.
God thinks it's fun to confuse primates. Larsen's God!
RE: Fear of hell, advice please
March 3, 2018 at 5:55 pm
(This post was last modified: March 3, 2018 at 6:05 pm by Brian37.)
(March 2, 2018 at 2:18 am)orthodox-man Wrote:(March 2, 2018 at 1:01 am)Grandizer Wrote: near-death.com also doesn't look credible to me. It's too focused on woo as well. We can explain NDE's. It is a false perception the person has due to the ignorance of lack of knowledge of how the brain acts under stress while shutting down. Your brain is packed with neurons and neurological pathways you have imprinted from life experiences. If you already buy into superstitions and seeing loved ones those beliefs are held like a filing cabinet, even if totally false beliefs. When your brain slowly dies, it is like turning over a filing cabinet and dumping out all the files. If you want to believe you were floating over your body, it isn't that you actually did, it is because someone told you that prior to having that phantom "experience". Hallucinations and the so called "bright light" "experience is due to denying oxygen to the brain. NEAR is still the key word, not beyond. If one were to get decapitated or blow their brains out with a shotgun, NOT RECOMMENDED, that person would not have that experience at all. NDE's are false perceptions that only happen when the brain is in tact but dying slowly. Like a dimmer switch on a wall for your light. You can also think of your memories and beliefs as being like an old 8 millimeter film real jumping off the spool, then nothing. It is an "experience" in the same way if you tell a kid at Halloween, that the bowl of covered olives in the dark kitchen at the kids party, are human eyeballs. If you want to believe it badly enough, sure you felt something, but they were olives, not eyeballs. When your brain dies, you die, that is it, near only means near. If you come out of an event and fully recover with no brain damage, that merely means there was just enough activity during a window to allow for you to come back. But, once enough brain cells are damaged beyond repair you die. I watched my own mother die in front of me. It was horrifying to watch, her lips were the last motion I saw in her, and I knew in that last minute, those were the last vestiges of neurons firing only from her brain stem, the "her", the thinking part of her brain, was dead before. There was no her at that point. No soul floated out of her. I loved her very deeply and still miss her to this day. But no old mythology or superstition will cause me to ignore that reality. But as much as that pained me to see, and as much as loosing her hurt, I still enjoyed the time we did have while she was alive. I feel no need to buy naked assertions to value the real time we did have together. Point being, "NDE's" are superstitions born out of ignorance and a mental placebo due to lack of understanding the real medical reality that is going on in such an event. It's a false perception, nothing more. Let me add, if you talk to people of other religions they too will claim "NDE's" but someone in India if they claim to see God will talk about Brahma. If a Muslim from the middle east has one, they will claim to have met Mo or Allah. Buddhist will claim they were almost reincarnated. Japanese will claim they saw their ancestors. But it is all, no matter where still a misunderstanding of how biologically the brain operates under extreme stress, and or while shutting down at death. |
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