Discussion about scientific issues as they relate to God and Christianity including archaeology, origins of life, the universe, intelligent design, evolution, etc.
EssentialSacrifice wrote:Sorry ST, I was taking the dog out and getting breakfast together (she got up way too early today !!!) ... will be here for a while now.
bippy's topics for this site are just the best, aren't they ? He definitely opens more doors to faith more than just the topical reference. This NDE thing is an expose for afterlife in a "physically understandable" way. We can see the afterlife and possibility that here-to-fore were really unmentionable (without people thinking you're crazy)unless you knew someone personally who died and came back and heard and believed their story. With the advent of the internet, we have corroborating evidences of multiple, many instances where this NDE thing has taken place to not only confirm the veracity of the event but also the wonderful spiritual enhancement of those effected, that effect us upon disclosure.
I find it amazing the gifts we are and have been given by God to help prove there is so much more after life on earth and the value of living the Christian way to attain the goal that is perfection in eternity., Perfection in eternity. That is the essence of life, the real reality we are given, the opportunity to have, hold, enjoy, share ... so much to look forward too, so much to live well for here, today, for the reward of tomorrow, which will be our forever, living in the now.
Yes , I sometimes refer to these things as a trail of breadcrumbs from God but Nde's seem like a 6 course meal don't they ES?
And like u said we can now bring them up without someone thinking we are crazy (well I'm crazy regardless ), especially after parnia's aware study , which now leaves skeptics with very little wiggle room . Academia however is way behind which means college students have to find this information outside of their university setting as the materialists have for now kept it out of the universities . It's only a matter of time though . Plus parnia has already submitted fir funding for the aware 2 study .
Annette , I agree with the stick around a little longer part , but it's so hard nit to be excited when we have buy
T even a small idea of what awaits us up there . I get goosebumps just thinking about it. It's gonna be a hug feat as my bro DRDS would say
It looks like William lane craig has taken an interest in Nde's as well now . In this presentation he talks about 2 people.
First he focuses on doctor eben Alexander's nde , but he focuses less on the veridical out of eben's nde and more on the fact that he had it while his neo-cortex was completely offline.
In his second part he talks about Thomas nagle , an atheist philosopher who says in his book that materialsm is all sit certainly false and that there is an immaterial world . He also talks about the reason why nagle has remained an atheist and that is Nagle doesn't want God to exist and he doesn't want a world in which God rules to exist. Nagle is also one of the rare breed of atbeists that doesn't believe that Darwinian evolution is true .
Fascinating presentation
Best line in the 15 minute presentation: The human will to believe is inexhaustible. That from an anti-theist, one who does not want there to be a God !
Great find, thanks... it's an irrational thing not to believe, but the stubbornness of some is exceedingly great. All will come to know in the end, but it appears the NDE experience is past the pale of physical (even brain alone) activity. dude, what are we in for
Trust the past to God’s mercy, the present to God’s love, and the future to God’s providence. -St Augustine
melanie wrote:Everything we need as christians is contained in the bible. It is our authority.
Annette I strongly advise that you read scripture and rely on the bible not church doctrine and tradition. The Catholic Church believes that they have authority on biblical text determined and disseminated by the church. People must also accept the church as possessing the fullness of revelation. Catholicism has many doctrines outside of Scripture.
Mary, queen of heaven
The sinlessness of Mary, which is not stated any where in scripture.
The perpetual Virgin, completely contradicted by scripture. Jesus had siblings.
The ascension of Mary to heaven, escaping death, found nowhere in scripture.
The mediatrix of Mary, contradicted by scripture, there is one mediator and that is Jesus.
The idol worship of Mary, changing of the Ten Commandments as set out in Exodus, the Catholic Church has altered the second commandment to suit their doctrinal agenda.
This is just the unscriptural doctrine involving Mary.
Many Catholics are at complete ease with handing authority over to the church and the church using tradition outside of Scripture and that is entirely their choice, but as someone new to Christianity you should be aware that a lot of their beliefs are beliefs of the 'church' not found in scripture.
Edit: When you pray the rosary half of your prayers are directed to Mary, Jesus told us to pray to the Father and Him alone. Nowhere in scripture is there any example of anyone praying to a saint or an angel. Only God is all powerful and all knowing, Mary cannot hear and answer our prayers. All prayers should be to our Father, through Our Lord Jesus. And then we just have to praise and thank Him, tell Him what's on our mind, spend some time chilling with Him. Prayer shouldnt be repetitive and ritualistic and we certainly shouldn't be praying to Mary, as prescribed by a priest who calls himself holy as an authority to have our sins forgiven. There is only one person who qualifies for that job, Jesus!
Storyteller, I fear you are letting yourself be seduced by Catholic mumbo jumbo. Anything a Catholic says about Mary or the Holy Family or the Sacred Heart has to be examined in the light of Scripture. Most denominations have some BS but Catholic BS is quite generously spread around.
Have you read what melanie wrote, above? She got it right.
FL
Hold everything lightly. If you don't, it will hurt when God pries your fingers loose as He takes it from you. -Corrie Ten Boom
+ + +
If they had a social gospel in the days of the prodigal son, somebody would have given him a bed and a sandwich and he never would have gone home.
Best line in the 15 minute presentation: The human will to believe is inexhaustible. That from an anti-theist, one who does not want there to be a God !
Great find, thanks... it's an irrational thing not to believe, but the stubbornness of some is exceedingly great. All will come to know in the end, but it appears the NDE experience is past the pale of physical (even brain alone) activity. dude, what are we in for
Hehe yea ES, and william lane craig usually never veers from his usual topics as he is very conservative .i can't say I blame him because he is out there on the battle field against the seculars . He has to watch what he says
which is why this presentation showed me that even WLC has taken notice of the evidence for NDE's.
I never knew how strong the evidence was until I really started studying the peer reviewed research of Lommel and parnia .
Lommel was a straight materialist atheist who left that worldview simply because the evidence from Nde's and survival after death was just too strong for him to deny.
Yea about professor nagel , it seems to me like he has the absolute wrong idea about God . I don't understand why he thinks of him as a cosmic dictator . Why would a cosmic dictator come down to earth allow himself to be crucified for our sake.
I really hope that Nagle overcomes his emotional objections to God and comes to Christ
melanie wrote:Everything we need as christians is contained in the bible. It is our authority.
Annette I strongly advise that you read scripture and rely on the bible not church doctrine and tradition. The Catholic Church believes that they have authority on biblical text determined and disseminated by the church. People must also accept the church as possessing the fullness of revelation. Catholicism has many doctrines outside of Scripture.
Mary, queen of heaven
The sinlessness of Mary, which is not stated any where in scripture.
The perpetual Virgin, completely contradicted by scripture. Jesus had siblings.
The ascension of Mary to heaven, escaping death, found nowhere in scripture.
The mediatrix of Mary, contradicted by scripture, there is one mediator and that is Jesus.
The idol worship of Mary, changing of the Ten Commandments as set out in Exodus, the Catholic Church has altered the second commandment to suit their doctrinal agenda.
This is just the unscriptural doctrine involving Mary.
Many Catholics are at complete ease with handing authority over to the church and the church using tradition outside of Scripture and that is entirely their choice, but as someone new to Christianity you should be aware that a lot of their beliefs are beliefs of the 'church' not found in scripture.
Edit: When you pray the rosary half of your prayers are directed to Mary, Jesus told us to pray to the Father and Him alone. Nowhere in scripture is there any example of anyone praying to a saint or an angel. Only God is all powerful and all knowing, Mary cannot hear and answer our prayers. All prayers should be to our Father, through Our Lord Jesus. And then we just have to praise and thank Him, tell Him what's on our mind, spend some time chilling with Him. Prayer shouldnt be repetitive and ritualistic and we certainly shouldn't be praying to Mary, as prescribed by a priest who calls himself holy as an authority to have our sins forgiven. There is only one person who qualifies for that job, Jesus!
Storyteller, I fear you are letting yourself be seduced by Catholic mumbo jumbo. Anything a Catholic says about Mary or the Holy Family or the Sacred Heart has to be examined in the light of Scripture. Most denominations have some BS but Catholic BS is quite generously spread around.
Have you read what melanie wrote, above? She got it right.
FL
I did read it FL, and I have taken it on board
I promise you all I am not being taken in by anything. I am merely curious. I am studying. I am praying. I am listening to God. The Catholic faith interests me, that`s all.
As I have said before the only thing I am absolutely CERTAIN of is my love for God and that Christ is my salvation. I am studying the Bible more now and I am trusting the Holy Spirit to guide me.
I suppose this stems from the fact that the Mysteries appealed/appeal greatly to me. They help me understand the Bible better. The Bible will be my primary source for any information but through the Mysteries I learnt things that I had no knowledge of prior to reading them.
Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof - Kahlil Gibran
Storyteller, I fear you are letting yourself be seduced by Catholic mumbo jumbo. Anything a Catholic says about Mary or the Holy Family or the Sacred Heart has to be examined in the light of Scripture. Most denominations have some BS but Catholic BS is quite generously spread around.
Have you read what melanie wrote, above? She got it right.
FL
ST, as you yourself have said, no Catholic on this site has ever told you what to think, how to have faith or where to worship. I pray this remains so, because truly the decision is yours. The only thing I have asked and will continue to ask is for your perseverance. Pray consistently and the path you will be asked to take will be yours, and yours alone. This relationship you now have and wish to continue is so dependent on your ability to keep on keeping on, is desired by Him so the communication of the relationship strengthens and allows it to grow in to a maturity of faith you can relate to and He can and will add to daily.
Don't be swayed by those who use other's words to sway you, that embroils that other person's words in to the bitterness and anger they feel, as if that other person feels that way also. I gave Mel my heart in Christ, just as I have you because of her kindness, love and our mutual act of contrition to one another. If you wish to know her complete thoughts on brother and sisterhood in Christ, the make-up of all in the body of Christ and the unique qualities of her faith, ask her. She is the only one that knows all about her faith and, although we do have our differences in faith opinions, we are forever locked in our mutual love of God, and thereby each other. This feels so much better than the anger and angst displayed in here regularly enough.
Trust the past to God’s mercy, the present to God’s love, and the future to God’s providence. -St Augustine
EssentialSacrifice wrote:Storyteller, I fear you are letting yourself be seduced by Catholic mumbo jumbo. Anything a Catholic says about Mary or the Holy Family or the Sacred Heart has to be examined in the light of Scripture. Most denominations have some BS but Catholic BS is quite generously spread around.
Have you read what melanie wrote, above? She got it right.
FL
ST, as you yourself have said, no Catholic on this site has ever told you what to think, how to have faith or where to worship. I pray this remains so, because truly the decision is yours. The only thing I have asked and will continue to ask is for your perseverance. Pray consistently and the path you will be asked to take will be yours, and yours alone. This relationship you now have and wish to continue is so dependent on your ability to keep on keeping on, is desired by Him so the communication of the relationship strengthens and allows it to grow in to a maturity of faith you can relate to and He can and will add to daily.
I will persevere in my journey. I will continue to pray and to listen to God. I have every faith in Him. I think each journey is a personal one and He reaches in a way that we can relate to. Will that be Catholicism for me? I don`t know. as I have said before I don`t actually think I will ever follow a particular doctrine, only the Word of God. If the Mysteries help me understand His Word then I am happy with that.
Don't be swayed by those who use other's words to sway you, that embroils that other person's words in to the bitterness and anger they feel, as if that other person feels that way also. I gave Mel my heart in Christ, just as I have you because of her kindness, love and our mutual act of contrition to one another. If you wish to know her complete thoughts on brother and sisterhood in Christ, the make-up of all in the body of Christ and the unique qualities of her faith, ask her. She is the only one that knows all about her faith and, although we do have our differences in faith opinions, we are forever locked in our mutual love of God, and thereby each other. This feels so much better than the anger and angst displayed in here regularly enough.
I actually like the fact that there are so many different views on here. I think we all find our own way, our own path. If trust in God is paramount and we really listen to where God leads us I don`t think we can go too far wrong.
I guess things may get a little fraught at times when we all think we are right, all I can say is I will continue to pray and do what God wants me to do. Tolerance, compassion, love and respect. I appreciate all the opinions on here, even if I don`t agree with them all.
My faith is mine, and mine alone. My relationship with God will be different to everyone elses as I am different to everyone else but like you say, the one thing that binds us is love for God.
My ideas may end up different to Mels, to yours, or anyone elses but I have every confidence that if I listen to God, He will make it plain to me.
Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof - Kahlil Gibran
SoCal , this is old hat because people have experienced Nde's under all sorts of conditions and not just during cardiac arrest .
The doctor who conducted this study was on skeptiko and if you had seen how many times they backtracked on their sensationalist a list claims u would t have recognized them.
You also have veridical Nde's and shared Nde's .
Plus you have documented cases such as a girl that had been with no heart beat for 45 minutes and had a veridical nde way past this brain surge time.
It's almost as if they are trying their best to grasp at straws to hold onto their materialistic worldview .
Don't get me wrong, I see issues with the article too, namely how the study the author uses as their main source to back their assertion has nothing to do with the actual assertion at all.
SoCalExile wrote:Don't get me wrong, I see issues with the article too, namely how the study the author uses as their main source to back their assertion has nothing to do with the actual assertion at all.
Correct socalexile and when I was going through old surge study these doctors had done ,they had also assumed that because the rats had a surge if electrical activity right before physical death that this was the great brain based explanation for Nde's . What the doctors forgot to mention is that the rats that were given anesthesia had no brain surge at all, not even an iota of of a brain surge and yet many nde experiencers had their nde while they were under anesthesia .
Hermant mehta calls himself the friendly atheist but when it comes to Nde's he seems to know very little about what constitutes an nde . It just seems like he will cling to any shred of evidence that will support his atheism .
That is the essence of life, the real reality we are given, the opportunity to have, hold, enjoy, share ... so much to look forward too, so much to live well for here, today, for the reward of tomorrow, which will be our forever, living in the now.
), especially after parnia's aware study , which now leaves skeptics with very little wiggle room . Academia however is way behind which means college students have to find this information outside of their university setting as the materialists have for now kept it out of the universities . It's only a matter of time though . Plus parnia has already submitted fir funding for the aware 2 study .
dude, what are we in for 
