Death and Finality

This is a follow-up Page to June 24, in this Quarter.  I noted there, in closing the first paragraph, the matter of Near Death Experience (NDEs) reviewed by Robert Gottlieb.  He followed a spate of books on the subject, and followed up with still another article.  This Page takes up on the second of the two articles, also prompted by a number of relevant book titles, some repeated appropriately from the first.  It is obvious that he is reaching out for objectivity but admitting his inner personal skepticism.  I acknowledge my orientation in a belief in life after death, based on faith in God prompted by the biblical account and the mercy of the Creator with some skepticism that evidence in the terms of science (nature) can be found persuasive.  The evidence might show possibilities, but the issue is not one related to any natural system of proofs.  Human evidence found in nature is largely related to probabilities and not understood as applying in the same rules as those in the divine context.  Spiritual evidence, if known, is related to God, faith and absolutes (unchanging).  Humankind tends to shy away from claims for absolutes.  Absolutes are related to immortality, probabilities to mortality.  Christians find holistic life in the overlay of the two contexts.

Gottlieb, in the second article moves into an even larger context of study, not only in the matter of (NDEs) but of actual death experiences (ADEs).  The first might be explained in scientific studies by dreams, visions or hallucinations.  The concept of after death experience takes on the matter in a more relevant way as relates to spiritual life issues.  Gottlieb is impressed with the book, Erasing Death by the physician, Sam Parnia.  Parnia deals with some of the certainties of death in subjects studied after time lapses, and with persons declared brain dead, as well as others.  He is in the leading group of scientists who have learned how to achieve resuscitation in persons presumed dead from hypothermia.  The research continues and has raised sincere questions about the possibility of mind continuance after physical death.  In some areas the explanations appear confusing, but certainly worthy of investigation that may draw mankind closer to some touch with the hem of the garment of God.  We must remember that God is the source of all – both in nature and super-nature – in biblical and mystery terms.  Some of the mysteries appear connected.

The biblical concept of life and death appears to accent that in the presence of one there is some reduction of the other.  The life of the fetus in the womb becomes death on the birth to life in open nature, but with contributions of the former womb-life melded into the new life.  The Christian anticipates the transition of death in the life of nature to life in the spiritual context, with factors of natural life carried over in perfect function related to God’s kingdom for those lifted from nature’s kingdom.  Those describing near death experiences appear to strengthen that belief.  The first approach for Christians evaluating both NDEs and ADEs will focus on the personages who appear in these reports.  Do Islamists see what Christians see in these experiences?  If the Christian sees Jesus, and the Islamist sees Mohammed, we have a problem with some of the traditional interpretation of Scripture, or a problem with the concept that the deceased person studied has actually died.  What happens in a vision, hallucination, or dream?  Do secularists see God, or what appears to be the image of God, in the same way that theists express the matter?  One test relates to the reality of faith, as it relates to the belief that there is one God, identifiable in Jesus Christ or, are the experiences of heaven’s graces only?  At this point we have no persuasive argument that the darkness of death has any meaning to the light of God.  From what we have at the moment, the promise of the perpetuity of life (consciousness) relates entirely to God, and is not likely to be proven in terms of earth science where we die.  Any observations of life replacing death, and there are several in Scripture are attended by mystery, and related to something of importance to God at the moment.  Any brain research ought to go forward, and will benefit the context of humankind.  We would like to find something in the human context that relates to the meaning of religious faith.  There is a natural faith related to biblical faith so to generate trust, ability to reach beyond nature.  Many persons trust God in a logic of faith.