***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coincidentally, several friends and acquaintances of mine have lost a parent over the past two or three days.\u00a0 And that fact has put me in mind of a famous poem by Henry Van Dyke that\u2019s entitled \u201cI Am Standing Upon The Seashore.\u201d\u00a0 I hope that maybe one or two out there might perhaps find it of some comfort during a time of sorrow and loss:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\nI am standing upon the seashore.<\/span>
\nA ship at my side spreads her white<\/span>
\nsails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.<\/span><\/section>\nShe is an object of beauty and strength.<\/span>
\nI stand and watch her until at length<\/span>
\nshe hangs like a speck of white cloud<\/span>
\njust where the sea and sky come<\/span>
\nto mingle with each other.\u00a0<\/span><\/section>\nThen, someone at my side says;<\/span>
\n\u201cThere, she is gone!\u201d\u00a0\u201cGone where?\u201d<\/span>
\nGone from my sight. That is all.<\/span>
\nShe is just as large in mast and hull<\/span>
\nand spar as she was when she left my side<\/span>
\nand she is just as able to bear her<\/span>
\nload of living freight to her destined port.<\/span>
\nHer diminished size is in me, not in her.\u00a0<\/span><\/section>\nAnd just at the moment when someone<\/span>
\nat my side says, \u201cThere, she is gone!\u201d<\/span>
\nThere are other eyes watching her coming,<\/span>
\nand other voices ready to take up the glad shout;<\/span>
\n\u201cHere she comes!\u201d<\/span>
\nAnd that is dying.<\/span><\/section>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
And, while I\u2019m thinking about death and dying \u2014 not, I promise, morbidly \u2014 here are some short notes from J. Steve Miller, Near-Death Experiences As Evidences for the Existence of God and Heaven: A Brief Introduction in Plain Language<\/em> (Acworth, GA: Wisdom Creek Press, 2012):<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to Dr. Bruce Greyson, now Chester F. Carlson Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia and one of the foremost researchers in the field,<\/p>\n
\u201cMost near-death researchers did not go into their investigations with a belief in mind-body separation, but came to that hypothesis based on what their research found.\u201d (cited at 38)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an NDE-experiencer named Chen, from China, in his own slightly non-standard English:<\/p>\n
\u201cI believed in Marxism.\u00a0 I joined the Chinese Communist Party when I was in university and I had a great ambition when I was employed.\u00a0 I deeply believe[d] in materialism and I strongly rejected anything that relate to idealism.\u00a0 Neither did I believe in God.\u00a0 However I experienced an NDE and it has changed me completely.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cAfter the NDE . . .I started to concern about the suffering in the world.\u00a0 I comfort others who is in despair. . . .\u00a0 I filled my life with love and I loved to help others.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care about money or fame anymore.\u201d\u00a0 (cited at 102)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is Victor, from Russia, who had no religious background.\u00a0 Previously, he had been plagued by depression, especially related to his difficulties in completing his college education.\u00a0 \u201cI simply didn\u2019t see the point of my own existence,\u201d he says of his state of mind before having a near-death experience:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe light was extraordinary.\u00a0 In it were love and peace.\u00a0 I was completely enveloped by love and I felt totally secure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cSome invisible force had opened up new paths along which I must travel, something to strive for, that my life was not in vain, and that I should have goals that fill the needs of those around me as well as my own, and that every day should be filled with good and meaningful activities.\u201d\u00a0 (cited at 102)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
A frequent commentator on this blog, an atheist, frequently declares that those who find near-death experiences persuasive \u2014 whether their own direct, personal experiences or the accounts of others \u2014 do so because they\u2019re already theists and because they come to the subject with prejudices that dictate their conclusions.\u00a0 This seems to me quite mistaken; this particular commentator is demonstrably unfamiliar with the literature, which does not sustain his position.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also frequently claims that life after death is impossible, because, supposedly, it violates everything we know about science and about what he likes to term \u201cthe real world\u201d \u2014 which seems, candidly, to be the world as allowed and framed by his naturalistic ideology.\u00a0 However \u2014 even, for purposes of argument, assuming his notion of \u201ceverything we know about science\u201d and of \u201cthe real world\u201d to be true (which I don\u2019t believe it to be) \u2014\u00a0 he seems to have adopted a standpoint that would essentially rule any anomalies out up front, a priori<\/em>, and, thus, that would dismiss fundamental, paradigm-shifting new discoveries in advance.\u00a0 And yet it\u2019s those anomalies (e.g., curious phenomena that Newtonian physics could not explain) that permit major steps forward in science.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a story, likely fictional, about a German professor in Heidelberg who forbade his students to repeat a certain experiment.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut,\u201d they protested, \u201cit\u2019s always been successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNevertheless,\u201d the professor responded, \u201cits results are absolutely untenable from a scientific point of view.\u00a0 It may work very well in practice, but it\u2019s not theoretically sound.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
That is the background of the somewhat famous and very ironic dictum \u201cThat works very well in practice, but how does it work in theory?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fundamental question in this particular matter is whether near death experiences are authentic and whether they really are what they seem to be.\u00a0 If they are, then so much the worse for any theory that claims them to be impossible.\u00a0 Data have priority over theory.\u00a0 That\u2019s the way genuine science works and has always worked.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 *** \u00a0 This interfaith discussion series, keyed to the \u201cCome, Follow Me\u201d curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, seems to me an absolutely wonderful idea.\u00a0 I intend to incorporate it into my regular ponderings for this new year: \u00a0 John A. Widtsoe Foundation \u201cCome Follow Me\u201d Conversations: The Old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Death, Data, and Theories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" *** This interfaith discussion series, keyed to the "Come, Follow Me" curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/01\/death-data-and-theories.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Death, Data, and Theories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" *** This interfaith discussion series, keyed to the "Come, Follow Me" curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/01\/death-data-and-theories.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-17T02:57:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/11\/800px-Sailing_at_Marbella_Spain.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/01\/death-data-and-theories.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/01\/death-data-and-theories.html\",\"name\":\"Death, Data, and Theories\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-17T02:57:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-17T02:57:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\" *** This interfaith discussion series, keyed to the \\\"Come, Follow Me\\\" curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/01\/death-data-and-theories.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/01\/death-data-and-theories.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/01\/death-data-and-theories.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Death, Data, and Theories\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Death, Data, and Theories","description":" *** This interfaith discussion series, keyed to the \"Come, Follow Me\" curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/01\/death-data-and-theories.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Death, Data, and Theories","og_description":" *** This interfaith discussion series, keyed to the \"Come, Follow Me\" curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/01\/death-data-and-theories.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2022-01-17T02:57:53+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/11\/800px-Sailing_at_Marbella_Spain.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/01\/death-data-and-theories.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/01\/death-data-and-theories.html","name":"Death, Data, and Theories","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-01-17T02:57:53+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-17T02:57:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":" *** This interfaith discussion series, keyed to the \"Come, Follow Me\" curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/01\/death-data-and-theories.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/01\/death-data-and-theories.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2022\/01\/death-data-and-theories.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Death, Data, and Theories"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"At](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/11\/800px-Sailing_at_Marbella_Spain.jpg\")
<\/a>