Near death experience of Howard Storm

[Angrboda]

I do have a serious question for all of you.

Would you WANT this story to be real?

The story reminds me of something out of Scientology. Are you asking if I want the story to reveal a literal God and angels? I don't want it to be either way. If it's truly indicative of reality, then I want to know that, but it doesn't seem so.

Would it make you happy if it were? Or would you still hate the idea of God and afterlife even after reading this story which paints God and the afterlife in such a positive light?

I don't hate the idea of God and afterlife. I suspect they are just absurd fantasies, but I don't hate them. I'm fully willing to accept that you can view them in a positive light, that God isn't a monster, and heaven isn't unbearable. I accept that there might be a pleasant version of both, but that does not change my stance on the likely explanation for such beliefs, nor would I find them any less absurd and unbelieveable.

Would you rather it all be a farce, and that we all just die when we die and there is no loving God?

Would I rather? I'd rather my former Hindu beliefs were true, which is to point out that when faced with the unreal, we retreat to our former beliefs. But what I believe isn't based on what I'd rather be true. If God exists, I would find it hard to reconcile the idea that he is loving with setting up a gulag of eternal punishment simply for disobeying or disbelieving in him. It isn't that I wouldn't desire a loving God. I find the notion that this particular God is loving absurd. Do I prefer a nice dirt nap to the prospect of an afterlife? Yes I do. Probably because I am unhappy and would not want to go on being unhappy for another interim. But if the afterlife were a pleasant experience, I can see that being desirable on its own merits as well.