Introductory note: This article is written for all the well-intentioned, kind-hearted A&Aers(we will use A&As as an abbreviation at times for Atheists and Agnostics during this article for the sake of brevity lol).They have been unwittingly sold a bill of goods by a very skilful and manipulative cabal of philosophers and marketers that have been operating for a very long time.I hope this article may serve to put a dent into their well-honed atheistic armour!
There is a common social narrative, in contemporary society, that religious people are brain-washed by their religious leaders and agnostics are free-thinkers! Actually,nothing could be further from the truth! For over two hundred years, at least, the Western mind (and now it is present in the East as well) has been indoctrinated with atheistic principles .From the French Revolutions ” Liberté, Égalité and Fraternité” which puts all the emphasis on the human position to Nietzche’s “God is Dead” to the Empiricism of John Locke and the so-called “Scientific Revolution”, the Western mind has been inundated with atheistic concepts that put man at the centre of the Universe as opposed to God.Ironically this is the polar opposite to the equally politically correct Copernican discovery that the sun was the center of our galaxy,not the Earth.As opposed to that great astronomical discovery,A&As assert again the centrality of man as opposed to his Creator.I guess human arrogance and self-centeredness continues to reassert itself in various and sundry ways!
N.B.Empiricism is a biggie here because it says that all you can know is what you can see and hear with your five senses.Only the outer and the measurable is true in this vision. “Evidence-Based” and “data based”-we hear those phrases over and over again like a tired mantra.Now science has taken up the flag of this Empiricism and misled many,many people who have lost touch with their inner senses.Working as psychiatrists and psychotherapists, we can see how that imbalance wreaks destruction on peoples lives as well as their general understandings.On a larger scale the politicians and administrative governing bodies, including those pf private corporations, are all corrupted by this point of view! No wonder we are in such a mess!
This philosophical brain-washing has been going on right up until the modern epoch.So we have the Existentialists like Sartre and Camus making the same case.In Britain we have the esteemed philosopher Bertrand Russell writing”Why I am Not a Christian”. And then there are the great scientific geniuses like Freud and Marx and Darwin (although in all fairness to the latter, he ,for one,remained a believing Christian up to his death) telling us the same story.In recent times we have been treated to the eloquence of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins repeating the same narrative.So anyone thinking that he,himself,came up with this narrative is seriously deluded or incorrigibly arrogant.The story-line has been developing for centuries!
Now,the story line goes something like this.”Religion has been a bad actor for millenia.It has caused countless acts of violence and sowed division across the globe.Now there is some Truth to that statement.I will spare you,for now,however the historical analysis of non-religious movements like Fascism and Communism.The historians that have investigated this have concluded that non-religious movements have actually caused more death and destruction than religious ones!- but that is a discussion for another time.
This story line also tells us that although religion is BAD ,spirituality is GOOD,What is ignored in that affirmation is the fact that almost all forms of spirituality come from religion! I discovered that for the first time when I studied Transcendental Meditation back in the seventies-advertised as a secular practice.I quickly realized that the meditation techniques being taught were permeated through and through with Hindu philosophy,language and rituals.So too is Mindfulness- related to Buddhism and Yoga to Vedantic Hinduism. Separating spirituality from religion is like separating breathing from lung function! Impossible.Can’t be done.
Another part of this atheistic narrative is that science can explain everything.Really!? So when we see the obvious contradiction in the image of the famous physicist, Stephen Hawking, almost completely incapacitated in a wheelchair because of A.L.S promoting the Big Bang Theory as a potent theory for origin of the Universe,we have to recoil in disbelief! The fact that we do not react with disbelief is a sign of how far we have dissociated ourselves from common sense! The Big Bang Theory may tell us what some of the early events were in the Creation story.But it certainly doesn’t tell us the Original Cause.
In fact None of the Great scientific theories can tell us the Original cause-neither the theory of Evolution, in biology, nor the Class Struggle, in political history, nor the Unconscious of psychoanalysis nor the Theory of Relativity in Physics..They only address intermediary causes.And thus they tell us nothing about ultimate Causation and even less about meaning!
Another interesting irony here- there is more diversity in religious theory than there is in A&A theory!The agnostic discourse almost always has the same refrain.”Religious people are deluded.They believe in order to make themselves feel better about their lives.And their religious leaders have put a blindfold over their vision” .They all,universally, say the same thing!
Paradoxically,in the religious domain,however,diversity abounds!Some religions(Hinduism and Buddhism for example) believe that our Ultimate goal is Enlightenment.Western religions hold that our purpose is to worship God and serve Him.Very big difference there!. Some religions,like Christianity,believe that God incarnated in the flesh.Judaism and Islam reject that idea categorically.Judaism believes in the chosen nature of its nation while Islam and Christianity believe in the Equality of all humans.The list goes on and on.But it is intriguing to see that are more substantial differences in the minds of religious people than that in the supposedly “free- thinkers”.How ironical?! All the ‘free thinkers’ come to the same conclusions.Makes you wonder about their supposed freedom!
Now,let us get to the crux of the matter-the Basic Epistemology if you wish.The idea that there is no God is just that-an idea.Any self-reflecting atheist will have to admit that! You cannot prove the non-existence of something.Even the Western legal systems have come to the same conclusion.You cannot prove the non-existence of a thing or an event.So the notion of the non-Existence of God is just that-a notion.
On the other side,let us forget for now about Prophets and Saints and mystics and angels and Holy Books for now-although that is admittedly factoring out a lot of data! But I know how much those entities are anathema to the A&A mindset.So instead let us look at the n.d.e experiences as I relate them in my book “The Big Questions:Evidence-Based Faith'”These are ordinary people,most often not particularly religious some even being atheists prior to their experience.
Yes I am well aware that there is a commonplace pseudo-scientific argument that these represent the delusions of a dying brain.Anyone familiar with brain physiology and pathology should immediately see through that bogus argument( if you need more ‘scientific’ proof you can check out the work of Bruce Greyson and Pim Van Lomel although I must say that if you need to go that far in your research ,you are probably a lost cause lol). All forms of brain pathology create dysfunction and perturbations and physiological disease like headaches and vertigo and epilepsy.This form has as its effect more compassion,more serenity and more perspective on human life itself.How could that possibly be pathological?! Au contraire, instead of incapacitating the individual,it improves mental health and clarity.
So… these ordinary people in life-threatening situations see deceased relatives ,the heavens and the hellworlds, and beings of Light and God Himself-sometimes as separate from them and sometimes merged in His Essential Consciousness.They confirm ALL the teachings of the saints and mystics.And they have no more doubts!Then they report back to us their discoveries- as witnesses.
Let me be very clear here.If you are still holding on to an atheistic or agnostic position you are believing in a philosophical theory rather than in actual human experience.IMHO,that is a really bad choice-a bad exchange.And the loss in the hereafter could be VERY long-lasting.May God help you see the light!
Addendum.Since the most common objection about the relevance of the n.d.e experience is that it must be a change in brain chemistry caused by the dying brain, let me give you what I believe to be an accurate and simple analogy.And btw, this modernistic,”scientific” reflex,about brain chemistry,is a thoroughly conditioned response.Where are you now Skinner,the father of the conditionned reflex lol, now that we need you to explain this to people lol?!
The analogy goes like this:It’s the beginning of the summer and a neighbour tells you that there is a new ice-cream shop that opened down the road.So what are the possibilities? The neighbour may be a compulsive liar or even a sadistic teaser.Or he could have mis-spoken (dysphasia lol) or bought new glasses recently and thought that the computer repair shop was actually an ice-cream place.Or again he could be a psychic who saw into heavenly worlds where there are always ice-cream shops on hot days lol. Those are the kind of obtuse explanations the “scientists” are looking for!
But, far and away ,the most likely version is that the ice-cream shop is a reality and you are best off checking it out ASAP! You see,the scientists are operating from theory and conjecture and ideology.The bottom line is they don’t want to believe in other-worldly realities because it goes against their attachment to Philosophical Materialism and Atheism.Actually,now that I think about it,Agnosticism is actually a sophisticated cover-up for Atheism.They,too, prefer their “mind-productions” to actual reality.May God help them to open their hearts and souls.On the other hand,if they just use their minds it will surely lead them astray!