reply to post by schuyler
I think ti's rational to think NDE's or OBE's are chemical processes just like dreams.
However, to think that's the ONLY explanation IS tortured, as you state.
It's my enduring tendency to think that belief in an after-life or some larger purpose than is apparent to us is more affirming and not as insecure as
the belief that after death there's nothingness. So people are encouraged to believe in something more because it makes them feel better. After all,
wouldn't you rather believe that when you die you'll have 72 virgins on the other side and all the freedom and luxury desired, as opposed to believing
you'll just be worm food and absolutely oblivious to everything and anything forever? If we can't know the extent of this life or can't change the
circumstances of death then we may as well believe whatever makes us feel good.
If we humans are immortal or our purpose is much greater than is apparent given the knowledge we currently have, I'd expect this to also extend to the
rest of the creatures on earth. I see no reason to give ourselves special privileges. This would include most or all of the animals and the aquatic
creatures. Perhaps it would include all life-forms, including single-celled organisms. There're about 5 quadrillion ants on earth. The total number of
ant cells is approximately equal to the number of human cells. From this you can guess that there're a LOT of creatures on earth!
What's the purpose of all of these creatures and organisms being given immortality or a greater purpose than is apparent to us right now? Is this what
you mean by a scientific explanation for survival? But how can we know? All of reality might be our invention 5,000,000,000 years from now. So to know
the full explanation you'd have to somehow survive about 5,000,000,000 years. This is like an ant trying to contemplate the motivations of a human
being. I think the best explanation I've heard is that an advanced intergalactic civilization reached the limits of living and could no longer expand
or learn anything new. Since no more knowledge could be gained, the answer was to forget it and then repeat the whole process anew. Thus, it
intentionally stunted its development and relived life through the eyes of lower life-forms. This allowed them to continue surviving. There're lots of
assumptions here. One of them is that we require the ability to learn new things and grow. The other is that some key portion of this advanced
civilization would have to persevere in case it somehow failed. A sort of fail-safe mechanism. If it failed then it could use its universal knowledge
to rescue itself. It would only do this for a short-time and then it would return to blissful ignorance.
edit on 16-1-2013 by jonnywhite
because: (no reason given)