You've said that before, that ndes don't convince you of anything. But given u believe in the afterlife to begin with, it especially don't make sense to me. Do you think it's common for people to hallucinate elaborate afterlife stories when they die, and supposedly this is meaningless? What about the fact that out of body phenomenon is shown accurate under scientific conditions? That the blind see? I wouldn't think someone who believes in the afterlife would torture their logic and all the evidence, like skeptics do.
Hi, and thanks for your response.
I don't agree that believing in The AfterLife requires me to believe in NDE's.
Why do I believe in the AfterLife? It's certainly not because I've had an NDE or that I know someone else has.
It's because I believe in the existence of God and because I believe the Bible is true.
I look at the creation around me and sceptic that I am, I can't conceive that it all just randomly happened by blind chance. Yes, there are lots of anomalies in the creation and many things I can't comprehend. Yet, it makes more sense rationally than it all just happened by blind chance and then natural selection. That simply requires more faith than I could conjure up.
The God, I believe in, however, is the God of the Bible. Many religions have a God or gods and some of these religions posit that their god or gods created this world. These religions are welcome to their views. I don't have to agree with them. Nor do I intend to seek them out. Their God or gods have never come to me and told me that they created the world or this universe. Their God or gods have never presented their case to me to believe or not believe.
The God of the Bible doesn't explicitly rule out NDEs. I would never opine that such events do not occur. Yet I would not base my belief on The Afterlife on an NDE of me or someone else. And the reason for that is as follows.
NDEs tend to be similar. Yes, there are differences. I know Christians who have given testimonies of their own NDE and I have heard testimonies of those who are not Christians do the same thing. Often they are similar. Some are scary. Some are loving and warm and full of light. Some contain chasms to pass over and others quite different things.
If the Bible is correct, which I believe it is, not all people end up in a nice place when they die. Many of the NDEs I have heard testimony from are people who don't believe Jesus is God and yet their experience of a so-called Afterlife is pleasant and welcoming. When they return to full consciousness, they don't become Christians and preach the gospel of the Bible. They may become very spiritual and preach the virtues of doing good. Sometimes their lives don't change at all. For me, this is fraudulent if the Bible is true.
For me, I think NDEs are a convenient reason to believe in the Afterlife without having to believe the hard truths of the Bible. It is not necessary to believe that such things are helpful for me to believe so. Sadly, from my point of view, I think NDEs are a trap for the gullible. And for those who want to believe that everyone goes to live in an Afterlife without suffering the consequences of this life. In that regard, I think such NDEs are positively dangerous and deceptive.
So far from torturing any logic, my logic is quite sound. It requires consistency as to my understanding of what the Bible says about the Afterlife. And the Bible indicates that not EVERYONE goes to heaven or some warm wonderful Afterlife experience. For me, if NDEs are helpful, then there was no need for Jesus to die on the cross for the sins of the world.
