Dear Kathy,
Thank you for your sensible response.
To every person, the truth is what we believe! It's as simple as that.
What we believe usually, but not always, depends on the amount of information that we're given so as to make an informed decision. Some people, however, despite all the information presented, still stick to their own version of truth and reality. What I put forward about NDEs was based on current scientific evidence which happened to be supported by Bible information.
To date, all respondents have criticized the Biblcal aspects of the argument but not the scientific ones, and I find that very interesting. Probably it's because we can often find reasons to downgrade the Bible (especially when so few know what it contains) such as you've described.
May I try to account for this, please? Yes, ordinary men and women contributed to the Bible but, as the Bible itself says, those people were directly commissioned by God for that purpose. Not all the writers were willing to take on that task and many were quite reluctant to do so, but inspiration is a marvellous thing. The point is, despite their individuality, each wrote along the same lines and supported the same messages. The four Gospels are typical: Matthew was a tax collector and wrote in terms of a politician; Mark was a much younger lad and wrote as a working man; Luke was a doctor and wrote as one, while John was Jesus' cousin and wrote as an ordinary man. Two of these Apostles would be classed as well-educated and two would be classed as working-class, but despite such disparity, what they wrote about as identical in every way. Another example could be that if you and I were told to write something about, let's say, how to make a fruit cake? The odds that we'd both write exactly the same and include the exact same ingredients or cooking times are just about impossible but, at the end of the day and regardless of our differences, both may be great cakes. There were forty separate writers of the Bible and all were different BUT the messages are exactly the same when all is hung out to dry.
Yes, we're all fallible but that doesn't mean we're all liars or fools!
Such an arguement, therefore, holds no water at all as far as the Bible goes.
Finally, anything that cannot be proven remains, at best, a theory and I'm unable to work out how an NDE can be anything more than a theory unless proven. All I know is that scientific evidence says it's impossible and, since we always need two witnesses for making such claims, it is also supported by the Bible! Thousands of people claim to have had NDEs; thousands of people claim to have been abducted by aliens and others claim there's a mysterious Yeti in the Himalayas and on it goes. Where's the evidence? Are people expected to believe everything that others tell them when it always hearsay? Kathy, consider this: George Bush claims God spoke to him and told him to invade Iraq!!! Thousands of others claim way-out things spoken to them by none other than God (shades of Manson). Do you really believe this stuff?
You write like an intelligent lady so I hope you'll think such things through.
Regards,
Gee.








You are right, of course, that