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What beliefs would we consider reasonable for a self proclaimed Christian to hold?
RE: What beliefs would we consider reasonable for a self proclaimed Christian to hold?
(March 12, 2018 at 2:30 am)vulcanlogician Wrote:
(March 12, 2018 at 2:09 am)He lives Wrote: I believe there is very good evidence that there is indeed a spirit (soul) that survives the death of the body. I was in audience with Dr. George Ritchie who wrote the books Return From Tomorrow, and My Life After Dying. He was  pronounced dead twice and ultimately was revived by an injection into the heart. He was chairman of the Department of Psychiatry of Towers Hospital; and founder and president of the Universal Youth Corps. There have been hundreds of books written about near death and out of body experiences. The research is ongoing.

There have been hundreds of books written about bigfoot and alien abduction. This proves nothing.

There is no compelling evidence for a soul or spirit. 

There are vague experiences. There are dark spots in our knowledge. And there are story-weavers pied pipering their message to those who want to listen and believe. There is just as much credible evidence that the soul survives death as there is for ouija boards, the abominable snowman, or haunted houses. You can't use anecdotal evidence to found theories about the the existence of a soul or its survival of bodily death.
Although anecdotal evidence is not proof, it is still evidence. It has spawned large research projects at hospitals in many countries. I am confident that the proof is there and is forthcoming. I wonder if any atheists will engage in this research.

(March 12, 2018 at 2:56 am)Grandizer Wrote:
(March 11, 2018 at 8:55 pm)He lives Wrote: Science does not have all of the answers. Some people believe that scientists know how life began, but they don't know. There are many scientific hypothesis regarding the beginning of life and none of them are provable. So if you want proof you are not going to find it.

Don't worry. Just give it time, and they'll figure out exactly how life began on earth. We don't just go for a "God explanation" for something just because we haven't figured out yet how it came about. God is not even an explanation. It's just a filler of knowledge gaps. The best stance is simply to acknowledge ignorance on the matter, and wait/hope for some actual explanation to emerge eventually.

That said, I am confident that abiogenesis, broadly speaking, has happened on this planet, in a similar way that I am confident lightnings occur due to purely natural processes (even though scientists are still trying to figure out exactly how they occur). So it's not Zeus throwing lightning bolts or anything like that.
I am confident that abiogenesis can not and will not ever be proven because life was created by intelligent design.

(March 12, 2018 at 8:54 am)Astreja Wrote:
(March 12, 2018 at 2:09 am)He lives Wrote: I believe there is very good evidence that there is indeed a spirit (soul) that survives the death of the body. I was in audience with Dr. George Ritchie who wrote the books Return From Tomorrow, and My Life After Dying. He was  pronounced dead twice and ultimately was revived by an injection into the heart. He was chairman of the Department of Psychiatry of Towers Hospital; and founder and president of the Universal Youth Corps. There have been hundreds of books written about near death and out of body experiences. The research is ongoing.

I am strongly of the opinion that Dr. Ritchie's brain was not permanently dead and that he experienced a run-of-the-mill NDE (which I do not accept as evidence of life after death).

Well he was pronounced dead twice. I believe he was brought back to life. Here is an article:

Dr. Kenneth Ring published a scientific paper in the Journal of Near-Death Studies (Summer, 1993) about people who have had a near-death experience (NDE) of a type providing verified evidence supporting the Afterlife Hypothesis. Such people suddenly find themselves outside of their bodies and observing detailed events happening far away, sometimes hundreds and thousands of miles away, which were later verified by third-parties to have actually occurred. This phenomenon is called "veridical perception" and it is currently unexplainable by modern medical science. Such verified out-of-body observations are highly suggestive of a reality where consciousness can survive apart from the physical body and perhaps survive even death. Should conclusive evidence of veridical perception be found under strict laboratory conditions, it would be one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time. There have been research studies performed, such as the , where hospitals have attempted to monitor cardiac patients for possible NDEs as they occur in the hospital. Targets displaying random images are placed near the ceiling where out-of-body perceptions are more likely to occur during cardiac arrest. There already exists a substantial amount of anecdotal accounts of veridical perception, and it may only be a matter of time before out-of-body veridical perception is proven to exist under strict research controls which will satisfy the skeptics.

From: https://www.near-death.com/science/evidence.html

(March 12, 2018 at 11:35 am)Whateverist Wrote:
(March 12, 2018 at 2:09 am)He lives Wrote: I believe there is very good evidence that there is indeed a spirit (soul) that survives the death of the body. I was in audience with Dr. George Ritchie who wrote the books Return From Tomorrow, and My Life After Dying. He was  pronounced dead twice and ultimately was revived by an injection into the heart. He was chairman of the Department of Psychiatry of Towers Hospital; and founder and president of the Universal Youth Corps. There have been hundreds of books written about near death and out of body experiences. The research is ongoing.

*my bold*

An indication of just how desperate believers are to receive even a crumb of hope for the weird shit you believe.

I am confident that out of body experiences will be proven to be factual. I also believe that after they are proven there will still be many who will deny that it was proven.
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Messages In This Thread
RE: What beliefs would we consider reasonable for a self proclaimed Christian to hold? - by He lives - March 12, 2018 at 11:39 am

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