Words of encouragement from scientism

See? Not relying on wishful thinking or palatability is hard, when it comes to figuring out how to live a life.

It reminds me of a few months ago when a dear friend of mine was in the hospital after a cardiac arrest, and his wife was staying with him day and night in the hospital. Their church friends said they were praying for him. Since I don't pray, all I could do was walk and feed their dog, drop off meals, and pick up friends and family from the airport. It would have been easier were I able to be a Christian.

Note: I was the only one going into the house, for several days, and then the only one going into the house (for the aforementioned dog care) besides his wife, for the next week. If anyone was dropping food off or doing something for the family other than the vitally important "praying for George and then telling everyone about it", I was aware of it.

Linda

Ah, but we can't be certain of that, can we? We can't just take your word for it, Linda. You of all people know just how unreliable human memory is. Think about those dumbass surgeons and the likes of Pam Reynolds wanting to tell a good story.  Anyway, it's possible that someone might have slipped in during the twilight hours. We can't rule it out, surely...?

I figured all the closed-minded materialists would pile on this one. Of course they consider all the empirical data contradicting their world view to be wishful thinking and fantasy, so in adversity we have no rational choice but to suck it up.

Really. So what about the empirical data? This falls under at least seven headings, each by itself a powerful argument pointing to a world beyond ours. These include deathbed visions, veridical near-death experiences, apparitions or ghosts, veridical past life memories of (mostly) little children, poltergeist phenomena, spirit channeling (mediumistic communications), and terminal lucidity among advanced Alzheimer’s and other dementia victims just before death. If even any of these, let alone all, are what they seem, then some kind of personal afterlife is strongly indicated.

Digesting this information should greatly reduce the feeling of panic at the thought of dying by COVID-19 or any other cause, and this response is well justified by the evidence.

They're just anecdotes...

if the human soul does not survive bodily death; that is, if the human soul is utterly annihilated at death, such that its consciousness is extinguished, never to be reignited, then what meaning does its Earthly incarnation hold?

 You could ask Malf ?

They're just anecdotes...

Scientific discoveries are just anecdotes too.  I wasn't there at the experiments to see what was happening so I rely on scientists to understand and remember their experiences perfectly and for that to be faithfully reported to the public without bias or presumption.  What can I actually know?

No, that's the problem. I haven't "put faith" in something. I understand that for many people "faith" is comforting. But I take no comfort from it.
Linda

Faith isn't about what gives you comfort, it's about what you believe.  For example, you cannot prove empirically that there is no god, therefore belief that there is no god is faith.

Not believing in God is agnosticism
Believing that there is no God is atheism.

Do you see the difference?

Scientific discoveries are just anecdotes too.  I wasn't there at the experiments to see what was happening so I rely on scientists to understand and remember their experiences perfectly and for that to be faithfully reported to the public without bias or presumption.  What can I actually know?

The experiments are replicated by different groups all around the world, so that the results are taken beyond the anecdote (collection of data) stage, Brian.

The experiments are replicated by different groups all around the world, so that the results are taken beyond the anecdote (collection of data) stage, Brian.

That is what we are told anyway.  Of course I believe it the same as you do but I was making a point about belief and anecdote.  Replication does not prevent it being anecdotal to me, it's just that replication adds evidence that personal anecdotes don't necessarily have.

Lol. I've read the New Testament many times. I've also read the Old Testament, the Koran, the Mormon Bible, the I Ching, Buddhist Sutras, among others.

We had to read the Bible every morning when I was in Grade 5 (this was a public school), which was my first exposure to it. Because I hadn't been indoctrinated into a religion or into Christian apologetics, I read it like I would read any other book. And when we were supposed to pick a section to write a report on, I compared and contrasted the two different creation stories, and observed that they both couldn't be true, so the book didn't seem like a reliable source of information. This was not well-received.

Anyways, my observations aren't generally based on a lack of familiarity. 

Linda

Oops, then I apologize for my presumption.