{"id":106368,"date":"2024-07-29T00:17:52","date_gmt":"2024-07-29T06:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=106368"},"modified":"2024-07-29T00:17:52","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T06:17:52","slug":"bread-of-life-living-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/07\/bread-of-life-living-water.html","title":{"rendered":"“Bread of Life, Living Water”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Die<\/a>
The waterfalls at Banias, which is near the ancient Caesarea Philippi of the New Testament gospels (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In sacrament meeting on Sunday morning, my ward sang one of the new hymns that will eventually be included in the revised hymnal of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>. \u00a0It is entitled \u00a0\u201cBread of Life, Living Water.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Along with many other such hymns and, for that matter, very many other aspects our belief and practice, I think that lyrics such as these of \u201cBread of Life, Living Water\u201d place those who seek to depict us as non-Christians under a very heavy burden.<\/p>\n

Many years ago, the Rev. Jeffrey Silliman was the respondent to a paper that I presented at that year\u2019s Sunstone Symposium. \u00a0My paper argued that none of the reasons commonly given by Evangelical Protestants and some others for claiming that Latter-day Saints aren\u2019t Christians hold up to logical and historical scrutiny. \u00a0(That paper eventually became the core of the book Offenders for a Word<\/em><\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI get the impression,\u201d Rev. Silliman commented, \u201cthat Professor Peterson wouldn\u2019t be bothered nearly as much if I were to pronounce him a heretic as he is by people calling him a non-Christian.\u201d \u00a0In saying that, Rev. Silliman was quite perceptive and precisely right. \u00a0Calling someone or something \u201cheretical,\u201d it seems to me, clearly presumes a particular theological standpoint from which the judgment is being pronounced. \u00a0Calling someone a non-Christian, by contrast, seems an objective description \u2014 which it may or may not actually be. \u00a0(In the case of Evangelical Protestants declaring Latter-day Saints \u2014 or Catholics [believe it or not, I\u2019ve actually heard<\/em> this!] \u2014 to be non-Christians, it is a subjective and biased judgment masquerading quite illegitimately as a purely rational and objective one.)<\/p>\n

By the way, I recall with fondness an Evangelical in Southern California who faulted me for my hypocrisy and double standard: \u00a0I wanted to be called a Christian, she said, while at the same time I flatly denied the right of Muslims<\/em> to be Christians. \u00a0I decided that a conversation on this particular topic with such a person was never likely to go anywhere or to achieve anything, so I politely bowed out of it.<\/p>\n

\"Mount<\/a>
A 2020 aerial view of Mt. Hood rather like the one that I enjoyed while descending on the flight from Utah to Oregon. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the flight from Salt Lake City over to Portland \u2014 which afforded the usual marvelous view of majestic, volcanic Mt. Hood \u2014 I read through most of the Journal for Near-Death Studies<\/em> 41\/1 (Spring 2023). (Like many other academic journals, it\u2019s significantly behind on its publication schedule.) \u00a0I want to share a few of my gleanings from two of the articles with you here:<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong>\u00a0 Pim van Lommel and Bruce Greyson, \u201cCritique of Recent Report of Electrical Activity in the Dying Human Brain\u201d (3-8). \u00a0Respectively a cardiologist at the Rijnstate Hospital in Arnhem, The Netherlands, and the Chester Carlson Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, Virginia, Drs. van Lommel and Greyson are responding here to certain interpretations of a recent research report about surprising electrical activity detected in the brains of a pair of comatose patients at the University of Michigan\u2019s academic medical center who died shortly thereafter. \u00a0Some commentators have jumped to the conclusion that near-death experiences have now been accounted for and explained away.<\/p>\n

In my judgment, Van Lommel and Greyson convincingly rebut such claims. \u00a0Much of their argument rests on particular moderately technical medical arguments. \u00a0To me, though, their most persuasive counterargument is the one that I myself, far from a trained medical specialist, would have made. \u00a0Even setting aside their medical reasoning, they write, and giving the report the widest possible application to NDEs, nothing remotely approaching an explanation of near-death experiences is apparent in the report at issue:<\/p>\n

Whereas such studies may contribute to an understanding of the mechanisms<\/em> through which the brain processes phenomena such as NDEs, they do not address the cause<\/em> of NDEs.<\/p>\n

For example, as you, the reader, read the words on this page, nerve cells in your eyes send electrical signals to the vision center of the occipital lobe of your brain and to the language center of your temporal lobe. \u00a0But the electrical activity in your nerve cells did not cause the words to appear on this page; they merely enabled you to see and understand them.<\/p>\n

Likewise, regarding the well-documented phenomena of NDEs, understanding electrical processes in the brain might elucidate the mechanisms whereby experiencers process their memories and interpretations of the NDEs. \u00a0However, electrical processes do not and cannot explain what enables unconscious patients to see unexpected things in the material world accurately from an out-of-body visual perspective; to recognize and interact with deceased persons who, in the material world, were not yet known to have died; or to experience greatly enhanced cognition and perception during cardiac arrest or general anesthesia when neuroscientific models deem such complex consciousness to be impossible. \u00a0(5-6; internal references omitted)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(2)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alex A. \u00c1lvarez, Rodrigo Arriolo-Godoy, and Rams\u00e9s D\u2019Le\u00f3n, \u201cNear-Death Experiences, Post-Traumatic Stress, and Supernormal Abilities in a Latin American Sample\u201d (40-66)<\/p>\n

The authors, who are all affiliated with the Unidad Parapsicol\u00f3gia de la Investigaci\u00f3n, Difusi\u00f3n y Ense\u00f1anza (UPIDE) in Mexico City, conducted a study of Spanish-speaking near-death experiencers from Latin America, mostly from Mexico, and a small number from Spain.<\/p>\n

Most NDE research to date has involved English-speaking samples. \u00a0(51)<\/p>\n

Overall, similarity of our participants\u2019 responses to responses of participants in previous studies of predominantly English-speakiing samples contributes to a growing perspective of the similarity of NDE features and aftereffects across cultures. (40)<\/p>\n

NDEs are experienced independent of people\u2019s culture or religion. \u00a0Researchers analyzing the experiences of people around the world have found core phenomenological aspects. \u00a0However, the content of the visions that occur throughout NDEs does seem to be related to or interpreted through the dominant culture and\/or religion that the near-death experiencer (NDEr) identifies with. \u00a0(41; internal references omitted)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I will return to the article by \u00c1lvarez, Arriolo-Godoy, and D\u2019Le\u00f3n in the next day or two. \u00a0It\u2019s been a long day, and I suddenly realize that I\u2019m nearing my limit.<\/p>\n

Posted from Depoe Bay, Oregon<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 In sacrament meeting on Sunday morning, my ward sang one of the new hymns that will eventually be included in the revised hymnal of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. \u00a0It is entitled \u00a0\u201cBread of Life, Living Water.\u201d Along with many other such hymns and, for that matter, very many other aspects […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":20412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2181,1104,2905,788,900,903],"class_list":["post-106368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christian","tag-death","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-mormon","tag-nde","tag-near-death-experience"],"yoast_head":"\n"Bread of Life, Living Water"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  In sacrament meeting on Sunday morning, my ward sang one of the new hymns that will 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