Getting random stuff organised
Anyone who wants to try and make out a credible case for ‘reincarnation’ has to do at least three things: Either explain how reincarnation is possible under our current understanding of physics, which is based on 400 years of research and literally billions of experiments and observations, or explain how and why our physics is …
Continue reading “What would count as evidence for reincarnation?”
People who make claims about ‘supernatural’ or ‘paranormal’ phenomena often try to dodge their obligation to present evidence by maintaining that these phenomena are ‘non-physical’, and hence can’t be expected to leave physical traces. Obviously this contradicts many of the other claims they make; for instance, if you can see a ‘ghost’ then it must …
Continue reading “How can we test for the occurrence of ‘non-physical’ events?”
Reports of paranormal phenomena can invariably be explained by the following common, well-supported scientific observations. Coincidences occur. People tell lies. People misinterpret sensory information. People misremember events they were involved in. People recounting remembered events adapt their stories to what others expect or want to hear. People suffer delusions and hallucinations for various reasons, including stress …
Continue reading “How is [alleged paranormal phenomenon] explained scientifically?”
Atheists can believe anything and everything, as long as it doesn’t entail the existence of any gods. Some atheists believe in a better afterlife, and some probably believe in a worse one. But the main reason why people become and remain atheists is that they tend to reject claims that are made without evidence. Since …
Since there is no more reason to believe in a god of any kind, atheists feel no more apprehension about his behaving badly than we do about possible attacks by fairies, unicorns or radioactively mutated sea-lizards who can breathe fire. It doesn’t take very much research to reveal that these are all clearly myths, arising …
There is currently no more reliable evidence for any kind of ‘afterlife’ from science (or any other source) than there always has been—none whatsoever. We have effectively proved the non-occurrence of any afterlife many years ago, in the only way that non-occurrences can be proved; by a consistent failure to find any evidence that they do occur, …
Continue reading “Is science close to disproving that there is no afterlife?”
Atheists in general are rational people. If something good happens to us unexpectedly, we will enjoy it. If something bad happens to us unexpectedly, we will be distressed by it. Most of us would be delighted to enter upon a happy afterlife. But there’s absolutely no reason for us to expect it. So it’s not …
Nobody deserves eternal damnation. Or any kind of damnation. Enlightened people and enlightened societies now recognise that punishing someone is a lousy way of getting them to change their mind about what they did, and an even lousier way of getting other people to change their minds about doing what the first person did. The main positive …
Continue reading “Do people who die as atheists deserve eternal damnation?”
Roughly 300,000 people die each day, a large proportion of them in hospitals surrounded by potential witnesses. If only one dying person in ten thousand had a ‘near death’ experience and survived to recount it, we would still expect to accumulate hundreds of them in the course of a month. But we don’t see anything …
Because there’s absolutely no reason for anyone at all to think that they will spend eternity ‘in a lake of fire’—or anywhere else, for that matter. The particular religious stories which make this claim are not supported by direct observation or by any remotely reliable accounts from identifiable individuals. They are just as incredible as the hundreds …
Continue reading “Why aren’t more people afraid of having to spend eternity in a lake of fire?”
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