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I'd been studying the golden age of spiritualism (1850-1920) when hundreds of books were written about spirit visitations, mediumship, the afterlife, etc and was somewhat sold on the possibility that what the authors were saying was true, but then I read something by Andrew Jackson Davis, one of the "fathers" of the movement and it totally made me think "This is just a lot of bunk, much like the stuff the Bible preaches."
Specifically, Davis speaks of a spiritual island in the afterworld somewhere called Akropanamede (no doubt an invention of his own fevered imagination). I was willing to give much of what he had to say in it a guarded pass until I read the following:
Quote:
Birds of the most celestial song, and with plumage of the simplest beauty conceivable fill the isle's fragrant air with a mournful melody. The saddest-singing bird is called Quarreau, a native of the planet Mars but brought here by the inhabitants of this Isle who frequently visit the living population there [Mars]
Well, Davis of course was writing in 1880, quite a while before Rover had a chance to get up there and tell him Mars is nothing but the biggest red golf sand-trap in the planetary system. Supposedly, this info about this glorious isle [shaped like a pear and about 20x's the size of Africa so the ocean surrounding it has to be as big as Jupiter] was conveyed to him by spirits, so you can't even trusts spirits to give you accurate info anymore.
Anyway, I've pretty much deleted all the pdf's of these classic books on spiritualism. Far as I'm concerned there's only one type of proof of an afterlife that holds any promise and that is accurate reports that people give while clinically dead of what was going on around them while they were in this death state. This is the thinnest veneer of evidence [actually, the only anything that can pass for evidence of an afterlife] and scientists are now beginning to study NDE's in earnest to see if they can find any empiric evidence in them.
What the scientists are saying is that they think they've proved that consciousness survives immediate death but that, like a flashlight left on, that consciousness gradually fades and then blinkers out.
Everything in religion is taken on faith. We actually have no certainty of anything except death and taxes.
I haven't read those books, but my only wonder is if you have misquoted those sources and come up with some crazy ideas that are not supported from them, as you so often do with the Bible.
I haven't read those books, but my only wonder is if you have misquoted those sources and come up with some crazy ideas that are not supported from them, as you so often do with the Bible.
Lol ... ask some spiritualists, I'm sure they will say he's doing exactly that.
And when you reject spiritualism they will claim you're doing exactly that.
It's how religious belief-systems work; always special pleading for YOUR beliefs and holy book.
What the scientists are saying is that they think they've proved that consciousness survives immediate death but that, like a flashlight left on, that consciousness gradually fades and then blinkers out.
Is it the consciousness which flickers out, or our ability to detect it ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by thrillobyte
We actually have no certainty of anything except death and taxes.
Many don't pay taxes, and death is not a certainty for all, because we can't predict
with absolute provable conviction that the Second Coming won't happen within the
lifetimes of ppl alive today, or any other drastic elimination of death won't happen
some other way. Heck, we don't even know if time or even distance is just an illusion.
Is it the consciousness which flickers out, or our ability to detect it ?
I don't think even the scientists know. It's all faith-based.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowball7
Many don't pay taxes, and death is not a certainty for all, because we can't predict
with absolute provable conviction that the Second Coming won't happen within the
lifetimes of ppl alive today, or any other drastic elimination of death won't happen
some other way. Heck, we don't even know if time or even distance is just an illusion.
Many don't pay taxes, and death is not a certainty for all, because we can't predict with absolute provable conviction that the Second Coming won't happen within the
lifetimes of ppl alive today, or any other drastic elimination of death won't happen
some other way. Heck, we don't even know if time or even distance is just an illusion.
Now what if the Jewish Messiah comes along and does all that he is supposed to do to be recognized as the Messiah?...Then what?...The world trudges on for another 20 or 30 years and you are here to see it...Then what will you say?...
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