RE: Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), Souls, and Atheism
November 22, 2011 at 7:53 pm
(This post was last modified: November 22, 2011 at 8:25 pm by Milky Tea.)
Unfortunately I'm not able to see the original full copy of that paper which is on Lancet, only the abstract, and from previous experience with religious people I've distrustful of information they host on their websites because it's not always been accurate, often due to deliberate alteration. Looking at your copy of it there appears to be some inconsistencies between the actual percentage of religious people who experienced or didn't experience a NDE and the percentage cited on the list which leads me to believe that they've been altered.
For example of the 62 who reported a NDE 26 of these stated they were religious which is around 42%, not 70%. Of the 282 who didn't report a NDE 27 of these were identified as religious which is around 10%, not 73%. Granted it's been some times since I did statistics at University but I'm fairly confident that this isn't right and there are similar errors in some of the other percentages cited. From these figures those who didn't identify themselves as religious would be higher than the 28% you cited, more like 58% in fact since of the 62 who reported a NDE 36 didn't identify themselves as being religious.
Without being able to see the full paper I'm reluctant to accept the copy hosted on a Christian website as being accurate.
If anything on the basis of that abstract it appears that the frequency of NDE's is pretty low which which isn't consistent with the claim that NDE's are evidence for the existence of souls. Either only 12-18% of people have souls leaving a lot of soulless people or there is something else going on which influences whether or not a person experiences a NDE.
Regarding brain activity I've not been able to find a definitive answer from a reliable source on how it varies follow cardiac arrest and subsequent hypoxia. Most reliable sources simply state that the longer a persons brain is without oxygen the more damage is incurred until they are brain-dead. Full consciousness can certainly be lost very quickly but this is not the same thing as there being no brain activity. I also question how it's established at which point the person experienced their NDE. The assumption is that it happened when they had little brain activity but I don't see why it couldn't have occurred during the loss or gaining of consciousness.
As for you claims about the religious impact NDE's had on people this doesn't constitute as evidence for the existence of souls or a validation of Christianity. As I said earlier those who interpret this experience in a religious framework likely do so because they are already religious or are subject to religious culture. No doubt if the study was carried out in a culture where a different religion was dominant we'd expect to see some people experiencing a strengthening of their faith of adoption of that faith. You can't ignore the cultural aspect of where the study is carried out.
For example of the 62 who reported a NDE 26 of these stated they were religious which is around 42%, not 70%. Of the 282 who didn't report a NDE 27 of these were identified as religious which is around 10%, not 73%. Granted it's been some times since I did statistics at University but I'm fairly confident that this isn't right and there are similar errors in some of the other percentages cited. From these figures those who didn't identify themselves as religious would be higher than the 28% you cited, more like 58% in fact since of the 62 who reported a NDE 36 didn't identify themselves as being religious.
Without being able to see the full paper I'm reluctant to accept the copy hosted on a Christian website as being accurate.
If anything on the basis of that abstract it appears that the frequency of NDE's is pretty low which which isn't consistent with the claim that NDE's are evidence for the existence of souls. Either only 12-18% of people have souls leaving a lot of soulless people or there is something else going on which influences whether or not a person experiences a NDE.
Regarding brain activity I've not been able to find a definitive answer from a reliable source on how it varies follow cardiac arrest and subsequent hypoxia. Most reliable sources simply state that the longer a persons brain is without oxygen the more damage is incurred until they are brain-dead. Full consciousness can certainly be lost very quickly but this is not the same thing as there being no brain activity. I also question how it's established at which point the person experienced their NDE. The assumption is that it happened when they had little brain activity but I don't see why it couldn't have occurred during the loss or gaining of consciousness.
As for you claims about the religious impact NDE's had on people this doesn't constitute as evidence for the existence of souls or a validation of Christianity. As I said earlier those who interpret this experience in a religious framework likely do so because they are already religious or are subject to religious culture. No doubt if the study was carried out in a culture where a different religion was dominant we'd expect to see some people experiencing a strengthening of their faith of adoption of that faith. You can't ignore the cultural aspect of where the study is carried out.
Um...
