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From: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc,sci.med
Subject: Re: NDEs
Message-ID: <1044@rti-sel.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 20-Oct-86 10:16:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: rti-sel.1044
Posted: Mon Oct 20 10:16:06 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 22-Oct-86 03:34:59 EDT
References: <7775@tekecs.TEK.COM>
Reply-To: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Distribution: na
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, NC
Lines: 21
Keywords: Near Death Experiences
Xref: watmath talk.religion.misc:656 sci.med:58

In article <7775@tekecs.TEK.COM> mikes@tekecs.TEK.COM (Michael Sellers) writes:

>                     ... For the non-religious/non-Christian,
>you might want to read Dr. Ritchie's book (it could easily be read in a few
>hours), if for no other reason than to get a very good insight as to why
>many Christians feel as strongly and certainly as they do about their faith.

In his book titled (I think) "Eternal Life?", theologian Hans Kung 
dismisses such experiences as evidence of life beyond the grave on the 
grounds that they represent the last stages of life rather than the 
first stages of an afterlife. I've also read that non-Christians
(i.e., Buddhists, Hindus, etc.) experience NDEs somewhat differently:
although certain aspects of the experience (the dark tunnel/light at
the end) seem to be fairly constant, the manifestations of a religious 
nature differ depending on your religious upbringing. So a Christian
has an encounter with Christ, and a Hindu has an encounter with
Krishna. I've also never heard anyone claim that EVERYONE who is
brought back from the edge of death has an experience of this sort...
seems like pretty weak evidence for a "Christian" afterlife.

                        -- Cheers, Bill Ingogly