atheists i have a question?

Question

actually this is for all those who dont believe in an afterlife...
how do you explain near death experiences? there are thousands and thousands of cases from all over the world and all backgrounds and they are all similar, almost the same exact story. so it cant just be a cult, this has to be a real thing. i dont think we just die and 'cease to exist' altogether.

Answer 1

Actually, they are not "exact". They are culturally biased, fulfilling conditions that meet that persons cultural pre-disposition. One culture sees angels, another sees dragons, or Vishnu, or ???. Cultural bias is a sign that the event is psychological, not spiritual.

A better example is that when Western Christian persons have "near death experiences", and claim to see Jesus, most describe the classical "Da Vinci" portrayal of Jesus when most agree that this is not an accurate portrait of a Mid-Eastern Jew from that time period (including the fact that he probably had short hair).

Essentially, your brain does amazing things when affected by drugs, oxygen depravation, and/or direct trauma. Why is it if one's mind is affected by drugs, one writes it off as delusion, but when one is affected by natural trauma, it is considered a religious experience?

Answer 2

I am open to the idea of an afterlife. I am not sure that the near death experiences are necessarily proof for it. One problem we have is that now so many people have heard about it that they may be conditioned to have the same experience when they do in fact come close to death. It's sort of like UFO abductions. Once a certain scenario is reported other people report the same experience. The only really valid case histories would be from those who never heard of it before they had their own experience.

I once read an interesting explanation in Reader's Digest. The author noted that people who come close to death as in drowning often see their whole life pass before their eyes. It is as if the brain when starved for oxygen releases all your memories at once. Then the author suggested that the passage through a tunnel to a bright light often reported in near death experiences could be a memory of ones own birth, i. e. the passage through the birth canal into the light outside ones mother.

None of this proves or disproves the existence of God or an afterlife. I prefer to believe that God and the world of the spirit lie completely outside our ability to perceive or measure scientifically. If we could perceive and measure these things it would diminish them and make them mere physical phenomena, not something to wonder at or worship.

Answer 3

Simply because physically we're all the same. Our brains and sensory perception shut down the same way when we die. Science has explained the rest and I'm happy with their explanation. You raise an interesting point however, you speak, "..of thousands of cases all over the world.." If you believe we all experience near death situations the same and thereby assume that what happens after death is the same, why then are there so many different religions with completely different beliefs as to what happens after death?

Answer 4

The chemical ketamine is produced in the brain when it begins to shut down due to a lack of oxygen. When non-dying, non- oxygen deprived people are given ketamine, they have the same, or very similar "near death" experience as people who were actually dying.

Also, even if you don't believe brain chemicals create delusions, have you ever wondered why people of different religions see different things? Only Christians seem to see Jesus at the end of a long dark tunnel, so you must question if different afterlifes for different people makes more sense than a delusion in which dying people see what they expect to see.

Answer 5

The events of a near death experience, as you call, are a matter of chemical reactions within an oxygen starved brain. Hence the similarities, however that in no way, shape or form signifies any kind of magical after life.

Answer 6

The mind does interesting stuff when its dying.

Thousands of people having the same experience means we cant discount the theory, but when you take into account just how many people have near death experiences, its a small amount.

Im not going to try explaining something that no person truly understands.

Answer 7

If I give you my email or telephone no, you can get in touch and tell me all about it after you shuffle off this mortal coil.
Near death experiences are very easily explained, have you never come round from an anesthetic? you have exactly the same symptoms, whirring sounds, a well lit tunnel then the awakening and the dentists bill.

Answer 8

actually near death experiences are not nearly the same for every person. and what is a near death experience really? your brain could go back and flash every good memory you've ever had or your subconsience could make up a tunnel with a light at the end. its all in your head

Answer 9

I am not an atheist and I do believe in an afterlife, but scientificly speaking, brain death doesn't occour for several minutes after the bodys systems stop functioning.

These people are fully capable dreaming.

Also, their experinces can vary quite a bit.

Answer 10

I would explain a near death experience this way: Kinda like being forced to listen to go to a Barry Manilow concert.. Almost enough to kill you, but not quite.