Is There Evidence for Life After Death?
Is death the end, or is there something more? It’s the ultimate question and today on Truthtalk Live, Alex McFarland, President of Southern Evangelical Seminary, discusses the issue with Dinesh D’Souza, author of the book “Life After Death -The Evidence”.
D’Souza is a best-selling author and his articles have appeared in virtually every major magazine and newpaper from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Atlantic Monthly, Vanity Fair, New Republic and National Review just to name a few.
He’s also appeared on the Today Show, Nightline, The NewsHour, O’Reilly Factor, Moneyline and Hannity and Colmes.
D’Souza will be debating well known atheist Christopher Hitchens on Saturday evening, November 14th at the 2009 National Conference on Christian Apologetics.
7 Comments on “Is There Evidence for Life After Death?”
Good show topic for Halloween Eve[smile].
My Grandparents house is haunted, and we’ve all seen the ghost, so of course my answer to the question would be a “Yes, I believe that there is evidence for “life” after death.” Naturally you only have my word to go on this story, but then, I’m not really interested in trying to convince any skeptics[smile].
If you appeal to human arrogance you can get people to believe pretty much anything.
Arrogance? Fear works rather well too[smile]. Were you referring to the kind of people who believe in an afterlife, those who don’t, or both?
Welcome to the website Gurgus.
Wow, Gurgus, I couldn’t agree more. And I find that when I read the gospels, Jesus doesn’t appeal to human arrogance at all…but sadly, Christians sure read it into His words.
John, I’m referring to people who believe in any kind of afterlife. Fear might be a bigger factor in people believing in an afterlife, fear of dying, of death, fear of being punished in an afterlife forever. But first one has to be arrogant enough to believe that humans live on after they have a natural death; that we humans are somehow very different than the rest of biological life on the planet. I think belief in an afterlife comes from the ancients seeing their dead friends and relatives in dreams and figuring they must be still alive in some kind of spirit world. You’re not afraid of the ghost at Grandma’s house are you?
Kash, Of course the Jesus of the Gospels teaches humility not arrogance. The Sermon on the Mount comes to mind but there are many other examples throughout the New Testament where humility is encouraged such as Romans 12:16 and Philippians 2:3. All major religions teach humility and to avoid even appearing to be arrogant. People read all kinds of crazy things into the Bible. According to the prosperity preachers like John Hagee and Jess Duplantis Jesus was rich and lived in a big house. Of course in the text we read Jesus tell someone he had no place to stay.
I haven’t read D’Souza’s book, but I read the latest Newsweek summary of his arguments.
He argues, for example, that moral codes argue for an afterlife. I’m not sure that’s a good argument. If I made an automatic vacuum cleaner and programmed it to avoid my cats, does that imply that the vacuum cleaner will live on forever? Why does behavioral programming by an external agent imply that the programmed device will exist in eternity?
He also points out that belief in an afterlife gives the believer “a sense of hope and purpose”. Well, yes, I can vouch for that, but that’s no more to the point of arguing for an afterlife than the observation that a drunk man is happier than a sober one is an argument for drinking to excess.
And he also trots out quantum physics and cosmology to abuse them as if they prove his point the way countless pushers of pseudoscientific beliefs (e.g., The Secret) do. You’re not exactly helping our case by couching your arguments in technical-sounding gobbledygook, Mr. D’Souza. People who have an inkling of what these advanced ideas actually posit would rightly laugh you to scorn, and sadly, would probably drag all of Christendom with you.
Thank you for getting back to me on this Gurgus[smile].
I USED to be afraid of the ghost when I was very young, but not anymore, not for a loooooong time. I was fascinated and amused by her for the longest time, but these days I just kind of pity her.
If we could locate her darned head that’s lost somewhere in the house we could probably lay her to rest properly.
Oh well, que cera cera.