Reply to Is Dark Matter Where the Seven Heavens Lie?

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "Is Dark Matter Where the Seven Heavens Lie?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=FruminousBandersnatch][quote=Anonymous]The point is that a Greek man first theorized the curvature of the earth, going against universal existing belief of a flat earth, and relying, in part, on faith because gravity had yet to be fully understood at the time. For all he knew, ships could be falling off the edge of a flat sea, but he trusted based only on a simple observation. I have been reading the other threads on NDE and clearly NDE'ers are similarly relying on their own observation and, also, in part, faith.[/quote]

The conclusion that the Earth is not flat was based on observations and the assumption that there was a natural and consistent explanation for the observed behaviors. It turned out that there was, and no supernatural entity was required to explain what was going on.

The same has been true for numerous observed phenomena throughout history - weather, cosmology, biology (including evolution), etc. There have been questions over time where science has said, "We just don't know, yet," for example, we're still trying to figure out abiogenesis and the reasons for the Big Bang, but there has yet to be a single instance where science has determined that an observed phenomenon is so inconsistent with other established natural explanations that such phenomenon can only be explained via some supernatural activity. Some people say that since science hasn't explained abiogenesis it must have been a supernatural event, but that's faulty logic. It's conceivable that it happened through purely natural activity (and there's a fair amount of research in this area), it's even possible that an alien race was responsible, and, of course, we can't [b]disprove[/b] the possibility that a supernatural entity reached down and caused life, but to leap to the conclusion that it must have been a supernatural entity is premature, at best.

Oh the other hand, if you want to [b]believe[/b] that it was a supernatural entity, that's your prerogative and it's a hypothetically possible explanation. And if a supernatural entity chose to do something in a way that is indistinguishable from how it could have happened naturally, then there's no way for us to tell that the supernatural entity did it.

As discussed in the other threads the PP mentioned, individuals are reporting certain experiences classified as "near death experiences" or "NDEs" (the "out-of-body" floating in the corner of the hospital room looking down on your body kind of thing). Like abiogenesis and the causes of the Big Bang, science has not fully explained all aspects of those experiences, but to say that because science hasn't explained the observed phenomena that it must be true that people have a soul is inaccurate. Some researchers are looking into the experiences described by those people trying to find a natural explanation, but anything that relies on human description that can't be separately observed or detected is fundamentally unreliable from a scientific perspective and difficult to research. However, to leap to the conclusion that these reported experiences are proof that there is a separate spiritual essence to our consciousness that can exist outside of the body is logically unsound and, at best, premature.

Even from a theological perspective, assuming that NDEs are the result of our having souls, you can't conclude that means any specific religion is correct. Religions that believe in reincarnation believe that there is a spiritual essence that moves from life to life, while the Abrahamic traditions believe that the soul goes to an afterlife. So, you can only have faith that such a spiritual essence is associated with your particular belief structure. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics