Atheism is Dead
You Don’t Need Blind Faith Anymore
Before new discoveries in physics and the dawn of the information age, a writer named Nietzsche declared, “God is dead.”
That was 139 years ago, and I’m here with an update:
God isn’t dead.
And neither is Nietzsche.
The Honesty of Atheists
I love the atheists I know, because they’re making an honest effort to understand the universe. However, it’s my humble opinion that they don’t have enough knowledge yet.
Ironic, I know, as atheists often assume spiritual people are the ones lacking in knowledge. But it’s a misconception that all spiritual people rely on blind faith. In the information age, nothing could be further from the truth.
Today, with the treasure troves of once-hidden knowledge available, the situation has flipped. Atheism requires a sort of blind faith to claim there are no higher powers at work in our existence.
I humbly say, in light of new findings maybe you’ll agree: atheism is dead.
First, Go Beyond How You Were Raised
I’ve seen religious people “blindly” accept the teachings they were raised with. And I’ve seen atheists become that way because of the harsh teachings they were raised with.
Both stances are erroneous, as they are give too much weight to how one is raised. Our raising is important, and filled with lessons, but it’s not the end-all.
Can we really make conclusions about the nature of the universe based on the biases of people who brought us into the world? Sure, we can learn from them, but the journey is ultimately our own.
Once we’re grown up, it’s time to evaluate the world with objective eyes, to question what we think we know and see if it holds up to reality, to put our beliefs and unbeliefs through the fire to see if they emerge intact.
Even Jesus Will Sit This One Out
Even though every prophesy in the Old Testament about the Nazarene came to pass, as did the predictions he had for the world after him (including the false teachers who use his name for their own gain), we’re focusing more on modern scientific findings.
But we will keep in mind his two main points, which relate back to the causal realms of our life cycles: That we are here to love our divine source and to love each other. We’ll circle back to “love” after the unveiling.
We Aren’t Proving Religion, but Soul Survival
Forget trying to prove or disprove a certain religion, what we’re going to prove here is the survival of consciousness after death. For clarity, consciousness is the scientific word for “soul.”
If consciousness survives death, this overrides any belief that we’re nothing but fleshly machines evolving by random acts of nature and that death is the end.
If the soul is real, then there’s more going on than a professor may confess in front of his colleagues (though he might hint at it after a drink a two around a campfire).
If we can prove the soul is real, then that proves there is a higher intelligence at work in our cosmos beyond what current science knows.
You’re saying “PROVE” … Really? Wouldn’t this be like a Holy Grail?
When I use the word prove, I already hear some scoffing out there.
However, I’m speaking in the sense of a courtroom case. Instead of proving guilt or innocence, we’ll prove the survival of consciousness after death.
How well can I prove something so profound on one page? More thoroughly than any murder conviction in history…
This will be like presenting the evidence of thousands of cases and putting them all into one verdict: your soul continues on, which means “you” do too.
Soul survival has been proven more thoroughly than any verdict in history, and with no need for a lawyer … over and over again.
“Your honor, I will be representing The Human Soul.”
“Well then, present the evidence…”
I begin by calling on the young children who see visions, who are still free in mind, unconditioned by society, who have not been told what to believe or not believe.
?? Exhibit 1??
Past-Life Memories of Young Children
I will freely admit, I thought the idea of past lives was ludicrous even just a few years ago. But that’s how powerful this evidence is, it changed the mind of this trained journalist who had no motive to believe this was a possibility.
Now, I realize it’s not only possible, it’s been proven with overwhelming evidence in case after case. Also, philosophically it makes sense: we learn from the mistakes of one life to become better in the next.
So, let’s go…
You probably think we’re going to head over to the Himalayan mountains to meet yogis and oracles. Well, they are some of the first to document this phenomena known as reincarnation, but we’re actually heading to an American university that’s been quietly studying this phenomenon for more than 50 years.
At the University of Virginia, Dr. Jim Tucker heads up a team studying thousands of cases of children with past life memories. He’s been doing it for 20 years, and before him, Dr. Ian Stevenson quietly and meticulously studied the phenomena for 35 years.
How did board-certified physicians and scientists at a respected university begin studying the “supernatural?”
It wasn’t because of anyone in the academic circles, that’s for sure.
Instead, it was an innovative and wealthy free-thinker, Chester Carlson. Earlier, he invented of the Xerox copying process that changed the world. Thanks to his spiritual wife, Carlson left a million-dollar grant to launch Division of Perceptual Studies (equal to about 8 million dollars today).
The program is devoted to the “ investigation of phenomena that challenge mainstream scientific paradigms” and “ suggest continuation of consciousness after physical death.”
Some prominent atheists confess they don’t know what to do with the striking evidence, specifically in regards to reincarnation.
As one psychologist states in a blog post for Scientific America titled, “Ian Stevenson’s Case for the Afterlife: Are We ‘Skeptics’ Really Just Cynics?”
“If you’re anything like me, with eyes that roll over to the back of your head whenever you hear words like ‘reincarnation’ … then keep reading, because you’re precisely the type of person who should be aware of the late Professor Ian Stevenson’s research on children’s memories of previous lives.” — Jesse Bering
Outside of western society, people are more used to hearing stories of children discussing their past lives. That’s because there’s not a cultural taboo associated with reincarnation. Before we study an American case brought to light by Jim Tucker, here’s an extraordinary cases from overseas.
Boy Identifies His Killer and Location of His Previous Life’s Body
Let’s begin with news of a 3-year-old Syrian boy who claimed he was murdered by an axe blow to the head in his previous life.
Because other cultures are more open to such reports, authorities investigated, escorting him to the village where he said the murder occurred. The boy remembered his killer’s name, so the authorities confronted the man, who reportedly turned white-faced and denied everything.
The toddler then led authorities to the location where he said he was buried. In the exact spot, they uncovered the body of murdered man killed by a blow to the forehead. They also uncovered the axe that killed him.
It’s worth noting the boy was born with a long, red birthmark on his forehead. As the University of Virginia’s website points out, “Some of the children have birthmarks and birth defects that correspond to wounds or other marks on the deceased person whose life is being remembered by the child.”
The American Boy Who Remembered Dying in World War II
Some young children often show certain behavior, like phobias, that don’t make sense in the context of their current family, “and cannot be explained by any current life events,” the University’s website explains.
An American mother became alarmed by her 2-year-old son having intense nightmares of a plane crash. The boy first started waking up in the middle of the night screaming, “Airplane crash on fire! Little man can’t get out.”
The nightmares wouldn’t stop, so the mom began looking for help.
Of course, Western doctors offered little in terms of understanding, but fortunately she ran into a woman who suggested she simply ask her son what happened.
That began to unravel a past-life case so airtight that even the University of Virginia’s scholars were moved.
The boy, James Leininger, said he remembers flying a plane off a boat in the Pacific. James explained how on one mission, his plane was shot down by Japanese fighters.
Only 28 months old, James father asked him the name of the boat, to which James replied, “Natoma.”
James’ father, a Protestant who had no reason to believe his son had a past life, began a rigorous online search. He discovered the USS Natoma Bay was an escort carrier stationed in the Pacific during World War II.
James’ parents asked him the name of the “little man” in his dreams. But he would always just say “James” which was his current name. However, he loved drawing pictures of planes in combat and often signed the drawings, “James 3.”
Finally, his parents asked him if he could remember anyone else who is with the “little man.” He replied, “Jack Larsen.”
Now, the father had both the name of the boat and one crew member. Doing some sleuthing, the father came in contact with a veteran of the Natoma Bay. To his astonishment, the man confirmed there was a Jack Larson aboard. However, the veteran explained Larson flew off one day and never returned.
James’s father still wanted to dig deeper, so he actually went to a reunion of Natoma Bay veterans. The University’s report explains he discovered that during the Battle of Iwo Jima, the one pilot from the ship lost was a 21-year old from Pennsylvania named James M. Huston, Jr.”
Notice the “Jr.” makes him the second James II, which makes our young boy the third James, or “James 3.”
James’ mother used census records to look up the sister of James Huston II, who is still alive.
Over a phone call, the young James confirmed private details about the family, including how another sister named Ruth was “mortified” when their mother took a job as a maid for a wealthy family.
The parents, now convinced that their son was once James Huston II, decided to try to find closure for their afflicted child.
They travelled with their son to the very place he remembers getting shot down in the Pacific. A home video of the event shows the tearful young James throwing a bouquet of flowers into the sea, sobbing as he wishes his former self goodbye.
After that, the nightmares stopped. James found closure and is living a normal life now, saying the memories have faded as he’s gotten older but he doesn’t doubt their authenticity for a moment.
He later said, “I just made that spiritual release from James Huston.”
Side note: Dr. Tucker says that when the family isn’t raised to believe in reincarnation, like the Leiningers who are Christian, it adds credibility to the case. It is interesting to note however that 25% of Christians believe in past lives and in scripture the prophet Elijah is said to have returned as John the Baptist.
Conclusions so far…
As incredible as James Leininger’s account is, it’s just one of thousands that have been studied by the University of Virginia. More than half have been corroborated and substantiated as powerfully as any courtroom verdict today.
But atheism leaves no room for the story of James or the thousands of other cases where children reveal details that are impossible to know from their current life.
?? Exhibit 2 ??
Near-Death Experiences
The number of near death experiences where people travel out of their body and witness things impossible to see from their current brain-dead state are plentiful, though often ignored.
In studying many of these, I noticed the common threads are that the person is deemed dead, but their consciousness rises from their physical body so that they’re able to look down and listen to what’s going on around them.
Many travel up through the tunnel of light and meet ancestors or spiritual masters, only to be told it’s not their time yet, and so they return.
But these aren’t going to convince an atheist, because they’ll just say they are hallucinations from a brain in trauma (even if doctors say that’s impossible in many of these cases).
But what cannot be explained is when a patient is completely unconscious (if not “dead”) and when they come back to consciousness, they can explain details of things happening not only in the room, but in the hospital and even in remote locations.
The accounts of these are too many to mention, and there are plenty of books on them as a simple search will reveal.
We want more Physical Proof, From Another Doctor
Western medical doctors actually have something to lose by talking of mystical events, rather than a spiritual person who has something to gain. That’s why it’s even more compelling when an MD speaks up.
Dr. Lloyd Rudy, a pioneer in cardiac surgery, recounts how patients have come back to life after declared dead, but what’s even more amazing is what they have recalled while they were “out.”
Dr. Rudy spoke of a man who was down for days, but then recovered and described in perfect detail what was happening while the doctors operated on him, how they folded their arms, even down to the Post It notes a nurse kept sticking on a monitor to remind the head surgeon to return phone calls later.
The patient wasn’t conscious, in fact he was declared dead, yet still described the events of the surgery as if his consciousness remained intact, set free.
Dr. Rudy presented the findings to 13 other cardiac surgeons, and they began to tell similar stories. You see, the problem isn’t that these events don’t happen, it’s that people are afraid of discussing them for fear of loss of reputation. But that’s finally changing.
It Happens to (Former) Atheist Doctors Too
One Harvard neurosurgeon, Dr. Eben Alexander III, dismissed “near-death revelations of God and heaven as explainable by the hard-wiring of the human brain”
That was, until he experienced his own near-death journey. While in a coma from a rare bacterial meningitis-encephalitis, he met a deceased sister he never knew existed (they were both adopted, she later died in a car crash).
Four months after returning to consciousness, he was able to confirm he had a biological sister, and when he saw her picture, he recognized her face as the “guardian angel” who guided him on the other side.
“It changes your life completely; it changes everything. But most people don’t talk about it,” he said. “It’s very powerful, realizing the eternity of the soul. It makes sense of a world where there is so much suffering and tragedy, understanding how an all-loving God allows us to learn and to teach others through a string of lifetimes.”
Can Quantum Physics Shed Light on This?
All these accounts call to mind the concept of consciousness, something scientists are becoming more interested in studying through quantum physics. In fact, many are asking “Do quantum effects play a role in consciousness?”
This question is only being taken this seriously only after scientists have observed “quantum phenomena that seem to defy our classical imaginations, such as superposition states, coherence, tunnelling and entanglement.”
The last one, entanglement, was called “spooky action at a distance” by Albert Einstein. It’s the idea that the state of particles are linked to each other even when they’re separated by long distances (perhaps much like our souls?).
Conclusions so far…
Among the many near-death experiences, the ones where people actually gain knowledge about their life here on earth that they otherwise would never know makes for strong evidence and witnesses.
?? Exhibit 3 ??
Death-bed Observations of Hospice Nurses
Nurses who care for the sick and dying often recount what they witness when people are about to pass to the other side. Generally, ancestors will appear just before the final breaths.
One hospice nurse spoke out about how common these accounts are, and how the nurses could better tell when someone was about to die than the doctors, simply based on visions of the patients.
The University of Virginia finds the evidence so compelling they are looking for witnesses for help researching this phenomena:
“Such experiences include deathbed visions of the dying person, apparent after-death communications to bereaved family and friends, and an unexpected revival of mental clarity among dying persons who have organic brain damage caused by dementia or other diseases.”
“Despite numerous reports from family members and healthcare workers alike, little systematic research has been done in this area.” — University of Virginia, Division of Perceptual Studies
?? Exhibit 4??
After-death Encounters
Within the last few months alone, I spoke with people who lost loved ones and simply asked, “Have you see any signs?”
In both cases, their eyes widened as if relieved someone finally asked the question. An outpouring stories filled with synchronicities and even sheer miracles followed.
I’m sure I could find plenty of books and scholarly websites to quote, but I will just quote one of the people I know who recently lost someone dear to them. After all, we are all witnesses. Anyone of us could be called to a trial and required to bear testimony. Our word is as valid as anyone else’s.
The young man had just lost a girlfriend he cared deeply about. Vibrant and in her twenties, nobody knew this young woman was about to die.
Before she passed, she was having trouble sleeping, and so was he. Then, for the first time in his life, he saw a vision: an apparition of a figure appearing in the doorway, the figure came near him and brought a feeling of comfort to him. Suddenly serene, he fell asleep.
His girlfriend passed not long after. And as for the figure, he wondered if it could have been her mother who also passed at a young age. Did she appear to comfort him and also assist her passage?
This witness says, “Yes.”
?? Exhibit 5 ??
You
Every time you experience something unexplainable by our “modern” scientific models, you are a witness to the opening of the “veil of illusion” now happening in our lifetime.
As more people come forth with their stories, perhaps more scientists and medical professionals will have the courage to research these happenings. May the truth finally come out.
Circling Back to Love
As Tina Turner once asked, “What’s love got to do with it?“
The binding force that connects us in life to others and ourselves, from our physical bodies to cosmic dimensions we’ve yet to study, is love.
It’s love that would make us meet a sister from another life, or another sibling from this life we never knew existed.
It’s love that allows us to travel the cosmos and then return to our bodies to be back with the people we cherish, or for those same people to visit us after they pass.
Or maybe we’ve passed, and it’s love that moves us to remind them we still care, we still love them.
Within all of this phenomena, love is entangled, binding, beyond all physical and mental capacities. Love alone is the fuel for the soul, for consciousness, which never dies.
As incredible as our lives are here, with our abilities to think and feel and reason and meditate and explore the heavens, the journey of our consciousness here and on the other side is unimaginable.
“Oh, wow.”
“Oh, wow!”
“Oh … wow…”
— Steve Job’s last words.
https://medium.com/soul-mission/whats-your-soul-mission-5cedc54bc7e7