Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
A major London hospital is currently conducting research into "out of body experiences". Apparently, some people claim to experience them during operations, and be "hovering near the ceiling", looking down on themselves. What this hospital has done is to display some very prominent geometric symbols on the top of cabinets in the operating theatres, where they are invisible at ground level, and in their standard post-operative follow-up checks, they are asking people if they experienced any such thing and, if so, to describe what they saw.
The results should be interesting.
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Yes, I agree. And, if it turns out that out of body experiences are nothing more than an interesting hallucination, while I will still personally believe in a living energy that is separate from the physical being, I will have to admit that the typical out of body experience will not be valid evidence for it.
But, you know, belief is a funny thing. It's sort of chicken and egg .... I have no idea which comes first, the belief or the rationale for the belief. I sometimes wonder if I stopped believing in a god about the same time I found out that Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the venerable Tooth Fairy were just stories. I know I didn't have a fully formed concept of atheism at that time .... but I definitely went through a "what did you just say?" moment there. And, it was all downhill for my relationship with Christianity after that.
Not that any of those symbols are intended to be associated with Christianity. Just that the same people who put up a Christmas Tree near the church and taught me the words to "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer" were the same ones who were trying to persuade me that people really rose from the dead (and I'm not just talking Jesus here .... there are other Biblical examples). And, I started to realize that I simply did not believe any of the stories .... not that I am devoid of beliefs, or things that I hold on faith (such as multiple universes), just that I don't believe the Bible, I don't believe in a god, and I don't believe that Jesus was the son of a god I don't believe in.
I have reason to believe (and a very strong faith) that the Sun will not go nova this Thursday. I hope I am correct in my belief, otherwise I just wasted a crap-load of money on a new dishwasher. I have reason to believe (and a very strong faith) that the energy that makes up the living part of my being didn't simply pop into existence sometime in post WWII New Mexico. I have reason to believe (and faith ... blah, blah, blah), that I "am." You know, the "I think, therefore I am" view, which I believe (there's that word again) was brilliant.
I rather think you will understand this line of thought. I rather think tompe won't, but that may well be because I am not expressing it a way that he is understanding given the language barrier (not that his English isn't way better than my Swedish).