What is the evidence for life after death?

[tonyrey]

Lewis, apparently didn’t. Though he had and excellent and developed reasoning, he did not make the final leap of understanding. His God, despite appearances, was at arm’s length.

Are you suggesting his belief in an afterlife was mistaken?

 

[Detales]

The very phrase “life after death” is an oxymoron. It denotes incomplete self examination. If English were based on metaphysical sanity as distinct from dualistic premises, that would be a statement incapable of utterance except as a self-contradiction. The mistake is in the distinction between belief as “evidence,” that belief including Scripture and its exegesis, including tradition, and actual Self Knowledge. In this case, though the route may appear to be through “self,” it has nothing to do with person as its referent, only Soul, or any of the synonyms for God. The maturity of Self Knowledge would render the speaker incapable of distinguishing life as relevant to a specific, discrete form. Ask Jesus; He said it well.

 

[1holycatholic]

The Ressurection of Jesus Christ. If we know that’s true, we have every reason to believe in life after death.

:yup:

 

[shoewindow3000]

I found a website with several examples of what are known as NDEs (Near Death Experiences) which they offer as “proof.”

CAUTION:** USE DISCERNMENT!!
A lot of the actual experiences seem fishy, and are very likely to be demonic by nature. I say this because Paul tells us to be careful, that “even Satan himself can appear as an angel of light.”**

To see the actual examples, just Google, “near-death.com” and look under the “Evidence Index.”

(1) People have NDEs while they are brain dead.
(2) Out-of-body perception during NDEs have been verified.
(3) People born blind can see during an NDE.
(4) NDEs demonstrate the return of consciousness from death.
(5) The NDE study by Raymond Moody has been replicated.
(6) Experimental evidence suggests that NDEs are real.
(7) NDEs can be considered to be an objective experience.
(8) NDEs have been validated in scientific studies.
(9) Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) have been validated in scientific studies.
(10) Autoscopy during NDEs have been validated in scientific studies.
(11) A transcendental “sixth sense” of the human mind has been found.
(12) NDEs support the “holonomic” theory of consciousness.
(13) The expansion of consciousness reported in NDEs supports consciousness theories.
(14) The brain’s connection to a greater power has been validated by indisputable scientific facts.
(15) The replication of NDEs using hallucinogenic drugs satisfies the scientific method.
(16) NDEs are different from hallucinations.
(17) The replication of NDEs using a variety of triggers satisfies the scientific method.
(18) Apparitions of the deceased have been induced under scientific controls.
(19) People having NDEs have brought back scientific discoveries.
(20) NDEs have advanced the field of medical science.
(21) NDEs have advanced the field of psychology.
(22) NDEs correspond to the “quirky” principles found in quantum physics.
(23) The transcendental nature of human consciousness during NDEs corresponds to principles found in quantum physics.
(24) NDEs have advanced the fields of philosophy and religion.
(25) NDEs have the nature of an archetypal initiatory journey.
(26) People have been clinically dead for several days and report the most profound
NDEs.
(27) NDEs have produced visions of the future which later prove to be true.
(28) Groups of dying people can share the same NDE.
(29) Experiencers are convinced the NDE is an afterlife experience.
(30) The NDEs of children are remarkably similar to adult NDEs.
(31) Experiencers of NDEs are profoundly changed in ways that cannot occur from hallucinations and dreams.
(32) NDEs cannot be explained merely by brain chemistry alone.
(33) NDEs have been reported by people since the dawn of recorded history.
(34) The skeptical “dying brain” theory of NDEs has serious flaws.
(35) Skeptical arguments against the NDE “survival theory” are not valid.
(36) The burden of proof has shifted to the skeptics of the survival theory.
(37) Other anomalous phenomena supports the survival theory.
(38) NDEs support the existence of reincarnation.
(39) The scientific evidence supporting reincarnation also supports the survival theory.
(40) Xenoglossy supports reincarnation and the survival theory.
(41) Past-life regression supports reincarnation and the survival theory.
(42) Contact with “the deceased” has occurred under scientific controls.
(43) After-death communications have been reported by credible people.
(44) Dream research supports the NDE and survival theory.
(45) Deathbed visions support the NDE and survival theory.
(46) Remote viewing supports the NDE and survival theory.
(47) The efficacy of prayer has been demonstrated under scientific controls.
(48) The “Scole Experiments” during the 1990s support the NDE and survival theory.
(49) Electronic voice phenomena (EVP) supports the NDE and survival theory.
(50) Prominent atheists have had NDEs which caused them to believe in the afterlife.
(51) Psychometry supports the NDE and survival theory.

 

[Sonny1954]

I suppose that the greatest “evidence” for life after death is that humankind has for millenia wished it were so. From the beginning of recorded history, people who believed that death meant total annihilation have been a minority. I don’t know where this long-standing wish comes from, but it does seem to be there, doesn’t it?

 

[tonyrey]

I suppose that the greatest “evidence” for life after death is that humankind has for millenia wished it were so. From the beginning of recorded history, people who believed that death meant total annihilation have been a minority. I don’t know where this long-standing wish comes from, but it does seem to be there, doesn’t it?

A wish in itself could be attributed to wishful thinking! But when it corresponds to a universal belief in justice and love the onus is on the sceptic to explain why it is misguided…

 

[punkforchrist]

I’ve always been a big fan of the “argument from desire”. We can start by observing that every innate desire (hunger, curiosity, sleepiness, sexual desire, etc.) corresponds to a real object that can satisfy it. This isn’t the same as saying that just any desire whatsoever corresponds to such an object. Many children may want to fly like Superman, but there is no Superman. This, however, is an example of a socially-conditioned desire, and not of an innate desire. The best way to know whether a desire is innate or not is if it is universal: is it found among all of us? If so, then it is innate.

One such innate desire is the desire to be perfectly happy. Yet, given their finitude, nothing in this life is capable of making us perfectly happy. So, as C.S. Lewis remarks (and I paraphrase), “I must have been made for another world.”