Near-death experiences are not proof of an afterlife

Greetings.

Jewish date:  24 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Shemini).

Today’s holidays:  Day 9 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Birthday of the Buddha (Buddhism), Thursday in the Octave of Easter (Roman Catholicism), Feast for the Three Days of the Writing of the Book of the Law (Thelema), Feast of St. Geronimo (Church of the Subgenius).

Worthy causes of the day:  “ColorOfChange.org:  Keep the Internet open” and “Save the Critically Endangered Mexican Gray Wolves - The Petition Site”.

Image of a ketamine molecule via Wikipedia

Topic 1:  “The Ketamine Model of the Near Death Experience: A Central Role for the NMDA Receptor”. This may go over the heads of many readers.  The gist is that the author, Dr. Karl L. R. Jansen, claims that near-death experiences (NDEs)—the whole light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel business—can be reproduced by use of the drug ketamine.  That is not why I am noting this paper.  Instead, I would like to note this fragment:

Unfortunately, some scientists have been deterred from conducting research upon the NDE by claims that NDE's are evidence for life after death, and sensationalist media reports which impart the air of a pseudoscience to NDE studies. Irrespective of religous beliefs, NDE's are not evidence for life after death on simple logical grounds: death is defined as the final, irreversible end. Anyone who 'returned' did not, by definition, die - although their mind, brain and body may have been in a very unusual state.

One might quibble with Dr. Jansen on the definition of death; clinical death, in which the heart stops beating and the lungs stop breathing occasionally is reversible.  But, yes, a near-death experience is an experience which one may have near death.  Proof of an afterlife would require communication from someone who is actually dead.

Note:  I do believe in an afterlife, but only because I believe in a religion which holds by the existence of an afterlife—not due to any evidence which demonstrates that an afterlife exists.

Topic 2:  More on current anti-Semitism:  “Return of the Living Dead” and “FT: Promoting Demonization & Boycotts”.  The first article deals with the recent claim that the Gazan boy Muhammad Zen Ismail Al-Farmawi was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces.  Reports of his demise were premature, as he was found to be in Egyptian custody after illegally crossing the border.  This is only the latest in a series of events reported by “Palestinians” which turned out to be wildly inaccurate and biased to make Israel look bad.  The second deals with abuse of the term “apartheid” to make it apply to Israel.  (Shades of Nineteen Eighty-Four.)

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “I think I’ll pass, but thanks!”  (And I very much doubt that is what was intended when they made that movie.)

Peace.

Aaron

Looking for Raj Patel and Maitreya in all the wrong ways

Greetings.

Jewish date:  20 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Shemini).

Today’s holidays:  Ḥol hamMo‘edh Pesaḥ (AKA Passover; Judaism), Day 5 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Easter (Christianity).

Topic 1:  “A Brief Passover Message from Rabbi Shmuley”:  In this article, Rav Boteach argues that people do not want true freedom and prefer systems in which they do not have to make choices for themselves, i.e., conformity.  Being free requires nonconformity and making choices to do the right thing, even if no one else is doing it.

Topic 2:  “Raj Patel - Bible Code”.  An anonymous commenter on the BloggersBase version of my blogs recommended this page, claiming “Raj Patel is being used as a mouthpiece for maitreya. Don't be fooled by any of these smooth talking liars”.  (And, yes, we are discussing the claim that Share International holds Raj Patel is the Maitreya again.)   The “mouthpiece” claim is based not on objective, verifiable evidence, but rather on Bible codes.  I have already noted that Bible codes do not work.  This alone should disqualify any claim based on them.  However, this Bible coder clearly has ascended to a new level of Bible code incompetence.  “Raj Patel” and “Maitreya” are not Hebrew words.  The Bible coder has let software do his transliteration for him, resulting in the sequences ראיפתאל and מתרי.  Anyone who knows any

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor, in which I take advantage of other people’s Easter humor:  “ How am I”:

“der iz a speshul ring of hell”:

“Easter Bunneh”:

and “How to Make Peepshi = Peeps Sushi”.  The last is Barry’s suggestion.

Peace and ḥagh sameaḥ.

Aaron

Scientism and false dichotomies

Image via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  18 Nisan 5770.

Today’s holidays:  Ḥol hamMo‘edh Pesaḥ (AKA Passover; Judaism), Day 3 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Good Friday (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “MoveOn.org Political Action: Say no to off-shore drilling”, “Take Action: No legitimacy for Bashir | Save Darfur”, “action.firedoglake.com | Sign the petition to President Obama: Say NO to offshore drilling”, “Invest in America's Clean Energy Future: Join the Earth Day Revolution - The Petition Site”, “GOP hate intensifies” and Retire Ronald [McDonald].

Topic 1:  “Survivors”.  This Dry Bones cartoon justifiably attacks Barack Obama for complaining about Israel when he should be worrying about Iran.  (And, as I have mentioned before, expect material complaining about this to keep coming until Obama stops following the tradition of US presidents as far back as I can remember of trying to get Israel to be suicidally stupid.)

Topic 2:  “Blinded by Scientism” and “Recovering Sight after Scientism”.  One of the claims sometimes made by militant atheists is scientism, the belief that all belief systems other than science are invalid.  These two articles correctly note that science itself cannot support scientism.  This requires support from a system other than science to demonstrate scientism—a contradiction with the premises of scientism itself.  I cannot say I agree with everything in these articles (though to be fair, I think I need to educate myself further on philosophy), but at least some of the reasoning is sound.

Topic 3:  “Seeing Secular Zionism in a Positive Light”:  This article is a great reminder to beware of false dichotomies.  It is very easy to forget that human-created categories are not rigid or real entities in themselves.  This article complains about the dichotomization of the world of many (or at least many vocal) Ḥaredhi Jews into Ḥaredhi-good versus non-Ḥaredhi-bad.  This artificial division blatantly ignores anything good done non-Ḥaredhim, be they religious, secular or Zionist, and everything bad done by Ḥaredhim.  This division also ignores that religiousness is not Boolean (true versus false), but rather very much a multidimensional continuum of shades of gray; statistics are given in this article on Pesaḥ observance in Israel, and clearly most Jews considered secularists in Israel observe Pesaḥ to some degree.  While people on the edges of the continuum tend to make the most noise, almost everyone is somewhere closer to the middle.  As far as I can tell, this lesson holds true in general, not just in discussing Judaism in Israel.

Topic 4:  For today’s religious humor, in the spirit of Pesaḥ:  “Passover Videos on YouTube”, courtesy of Jacob Richman.  This should keep you busy for a long while.

Peace, ḥagh sameaḥ, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Sedher stuff

Image via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  17 Nisan 5770.

Today’s holidays:  Ḥol hamMo‘edh Pesaḥ (AKA Passover; Judaism), Day 2 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Holy Thursday (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Tell Congress to stand up to corporate influence” and “Heart Disease and Stroke. You’re the Cure.”

Topic 1:  “Obama’s Hospitality: A Question of Character” and “How Was Yours ?”  In the former, Rav Shmuely Boteach notes that it is possible and practical to treat those with whom one disagrees respectfully. Rav Boteach notes that Binyamin Nethanyahu is not the first major leader Barack Obama has treated badly for political reasons.  The latter is a Dry Bones cartoon which notes the inconsistency between there being a sedher at the White House, considering Obama’s maltreatment of Nethanyahu over Israel exercising sovereignty over Jerusalem and the famous prayer from the sedher which demands Jewish sovereignty, “Next Year in Jerusalem!”, which carries an additional, currently politically explosive connotation of Jewish sovereignty over the Temple Mount and rebuilding the Temple.  (Sacrifices are supposed to be brought at the Temple on the Temple Mount.  And Obama is going to be taking flack for as long as he keeps trying to get Israel to do stupid things.)

Topic 2:  For today’s religious humor:  “happy Passover!”.

Note:  Those unfamiliar with the sedher can find more about it and Pesaḥ in general at OU.ORG.

Peace.

Aaron

Why is China opposed to “defamation of religion”?

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Ṣaw).

Today’s holidays:  Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent (Roman Catholicism), Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel (Greek Orthodox Christianity), Feast of Mansur al-Hallaj (Thelema).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Repower America | We got next”, “Take Action: Send Congress Your State's Invoice for Foodborne Illness.”, and “MoveOn.org Political Action: Republican Leaders: Condemn the hate”.

New cool software:  Ancient Semitic Scripts, which is a collection of fonts for Hebrew and Aramaic based on historic texts.  Mac OS X users can put the font files (things ending with “.ttf”) into the Fonts folder of the Library folder (personal or system).

Topic 1:  More anti-Semitism:  “Not the White Response” and “Muslim-Jewish tensions roil a Swedish city”.  The first article deals someone saying something outrageous and then trying to rationalize it, thus metaphorically only stuffing his foot further into his mouth.  The second deals with anti-Semitic hate crimes in Malmo, Sweden, much of them connected with Islam.

Other religious persecution:  “Pakistani Christian couple refuses to convert: husband is burnt alive, wife raped by police”, “Christians Face 1,000 Attacks in 500 Days in Karnataka, India”, “Kidnapping reflects fears of Pakistan minorities”, “Christian Woman Jailed under Pakistan’s ‘Blasphemy’ Laws”, “Islamic Extremists in Somalia Kill Church Leader, Torch Home”, “RUSSIA: Lutheran extremists?”, and “RUSSIA: Who initiated anti-Jehovah's Witness and anti-Nursi campaigns?”.

Image of state religions which really ought to include atheism via Wikipedia

Topic 2:  “UN rights council slams 'defamation of religion'”.  This article has me puzzled.  Islamic countries are infamous for promoting prohibiting “defamation of religion”, the intent being to protect Islam from criticism or condemnation, whether it be fair or not.  However, China, of all countries, supported the resolution.  China, you will recall, is an officially atheist country.  The only way I see around the discrepancy is that China wants atheism protected from defamation as a religion, though this may be pushing it.

For the record:  I am opposed to this resolution because it seeks to squelch legitimate debate.  If one cannot make decent replies to criticism but has to squelch it, then one should be questioning whether one is right in the first place.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor, based on the next major Jewish holiday, Pesaḥ (Passover):  “Tough Love” and “All Together”.

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

He REALLY isn’t the Maitreya you’re looking for

Greetings.

Jewish date:  9 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Ṣaw).

Today’s holidays:  Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent (Roman Catholicism), Feast of Priapas (Thelema), Student Day (Scientology).

NOTE:  Yesterday I created an iCal calendar for Scientology holidays.  iCal calendars for holidays of religions I am not currently tracking would be appreciated.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Take Action: No stolen elections in Sudan | Save Darfur” and “ColorOfChange.org:  Tell the GOP: Stop inciting and supporting hate”.

Questionably worthy cause of the day:  “A Ticket For Rush!”.  (Submitted by Barry.)  Apparently Rush Limbaugh said on the air that if health care reform passed, he would go to Costa Rica.  This site is trying to raise money for his ticket.  While I would not be saddened by Limbaugh leaving the United States, I do not wish to inflict him on another country.

Topic 1:  Yesterday I posted on how Share International thought that author/activist Raj Patel is Maitreya, a Mashiaḥ/Messiah-like figure.  Someone calling himself “Dave” left a comment on that post denying that Share International actually thinks that Patel is Maitreya, claiming that it is all just a rumor started by Christian fundamentalists.  A bit of searching revealed that Share International makes no mention of Patel at all on their Web-site, and I wrote to Share International for further confirmation.  This is what they wrote back:

Thanks for visiting the Share International website and for your query.

A pity the media doesn't check the validity of these 'facts' as well, before
publishing. But, yes, the "Patel is Maitreya" claim is indeed "only a
spurious rumor".

Why Christian fundamentalists (or anyone else) would start such a rumor or why anyone is bugging Patel, I do not know.  Maybe someone got annoyed at both Share International and Patel and decided to be mischievous towards both.  But the moral of the story is not to blindly trust everything in the news.

Topic 2:  “Super-sizing the "Last Supper"”:  Just something curious reported recently.  Apparently the portion sizes in paintings of the Last Supper have increased over time.

Topic 3:  I had long heard of a strange claim popularly mocked that if one were photographed one’s soul would be stolen in the process.  Only recently did I learn who actually believed it:  Crazy Horse (of the Battle of Little Bighorn fame).  He apparently took this belief seriously enough that there are no known photographs of him in existence.

Topic 4:  For today’s religious humor:  “Happy Passover LOLCat Graphic”:



Yes, that is a scarf the cat is wearing, not a ṭallith.

Peace.

Aaron

He’s not the Maitreya you’re looking for

Greetings.

Jewish date:  8 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Ṣaw).

Today’s holiday:  Feast of Turibius de Mogrovejo (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Protect the Flat-tailed Horned Lizard - The Petition Site”, “Health Insurance Reform: Finish the Job | Senator Harry Reid, Nevada - HarryReid.com”, and “Urge Congress to Increase Funding for Emergency Food Assistance - The Petition Site”.

Topic 1:  “I'm not the messiah, says food activist – but his many worshippers do not believe him”.  I do not know what to do with this article.  Apparently Share International, an offshoot of the occult religion Theosophy, has decided that author and environmental activist Raj Patel is Maitreya (the group’s equivalent of the Mashiaḥ/Messiah).  Mr. Patel has been identified as Maitreya on the basis of him fitting multiple items of what Maitreya is supposed to be like.  One question to be considered is whether there are criteria for Maitreya which Patel does not fit; Patel himself claims that his politics are the opposite of what they should be for Matreiya.  It would be nice to know whether there are “misses” which are not not covered in this article.  Also, there is the question about how many of the “hits” are by chance alone.  The chances that one single human will fit an arbitrary list of criteria are often small, but with over 6,000,000,000 humans on the planet, the chances that someone will fit the same list is usually higher.

Also:  Patel has a sense of humor about his Maitreyahood.  See “Stephen and me” and “Call Me Brian”.

Also note:  If anyone of you, like me, is awaiting Mashiaḥ or any similar special figure, the statistics works in your favor.  The more humans there are, the more likely there is someone who fits the bill.

Topic 2:  The Dry Bones cartoon “Occupied Territories (1977 2009)”.  This cartoon puts Israel’s situation in perspective.

Topic 4:  For today’s religious humor, for which I blame Alan:  “Best pesach photo I could find”.  If anyone needs me to explain how crazy people get cleaning for Pesaḥ (Passover), please let me know.

Peace.

Aaron