RE: I Do Not Believe in God(s) - Why do you?
It's a rabbit hole. I know scientifically that we all began as a single atom bursting forth to create this known universe.
I believe we are all still one with everything and if there is a god, that is it. The oneness of the universe. We are all energy and energy is never destroyed only transformed. I believe that eventually our energy is transformed partially or completely back into matter within the uni-verse. One verse, One song.
There have been children who could tell you where they died and how and when checked out the facts matched. How does this happen if not for reincarnation?
I believe that every speck of this universe is a localized viewpoint of the verse perceiving itself.
So, I am you and you are me, as John Lennon said. And together.....
Maybe we should have started with a definition of God. smiley face.
Hehehe, indeed. Have you looked up "ignostic" ? =) You might find you'd fit quite nicely into what I used to call myself: a "spiritually inclined ignostic".
Yes, we are all energy and it is never destroyed or created, only transformed, quite right. The question is the arrangement of the energy. Complexity is the key. Our brain is the most complex thing in the known universe, and consciousness emerges as a property because of this complexity. When we die, our brains deteriorate and all that complexity dissolves... The relatively small amount of electrical energy that is required to run the brain dissipates and the biochemical reactions of our physical cells/atoms release energy in various forms as the body shuts down and begins to decompose. No energy is destroyed.
So that's the crux: You seem to see consciousness itself as some form of energy, when there's no evidence for this. What consciousness IS, is a famously hard question, but it might not be any thing at all. Just, like I said, an emergent property of complexity. It's like asking "What is red?" .. We all know the colour red when we see it but we know from science that things don't actually have colour. Or rather, colours aren't things that are somehow attached to their corresponding objects. Colours are a property of how our eyes interpret wavelengths of light.
As for the children remembering past lives, two things come to mind: Anecdotal evidence combined with confirmation bias.
Here's two paragraphs from this article:
But here's the thing: If reincarnation in some form is true, then science will possibly one day be able to explain it. But to simply believe in it because one likes the idea is, to me, silly.
I'm not just silly. I'm card carrying crazy. I only believe in past lives because I have seen a few of my own. Some not even on this planet. One before there was mass. It was the happiest memory I have. But, I'm crazy, so nothing I say qualifies as evidence. You believe the disembodied voices I hear are in my imagination (In which case I have one hell of an imagination) I believe they are energy beings operating without a body on a vibrational level that we usually can't perceive. I'm pretty sure of it, in fact. We are more like the matrix than people care to believe.
Oh, I never meant to call you silly! I meant that, I actually really like the idea of reincarnation, but I can't believe something just because I like it. This would be silly! =) ... About the energy beings... We'll just have to agree to disagree on that one... But do remember, if you can manage to capture evidence of any of them, to contact James Randy immediately! ;)
No evidence will ever convince you or him. I don't know that you would credit your own experience.
We have some highly sensitive scientific equipment that has recorded anomalous energy readings all over our haunted house, with no physical explanations.
We've been featured on national TV twice. There is something going on there.
And many people have entered Hill House Manor as skeptics or naysayers, only there to appease a spouse or relative, and left with an experience that caused them to re-examine their own data. Ultimately personal experience is the best evidence I can offer to anyone. You should really come to Texas for a visit. See some longhorns, hear some ghosts, get scratched through your boot sitting in a chair in an old haunted house. ;) wink wink
If I could afford it, I'd gladly take you up on that offer! =) Though of course, for it to be a clean experiment, you'd have to show such anomolies to exist outside of your home establishment ;P ... James Randy would simply say that any strange happening in your home could easily be yourself having set up certain things... smoke and mirrors etc... ;P (I'm NOT saying you do this, but from a skeptic's point of view, it is simply more likely than ghosts/spirits).
Here's the thing though: Evidence exists to convince me. But then once it becomes evidence (i.e. repeatably verifiable) then it automatically becomes less mysterious.
This has happened throughout the ages. Once, we didn't understand where the rain came from. So we had rain gods. Now we understand the process entirely. No more rain gods.
So someday when it is scientifically explained that human beings set up energy barriers so as not to perceive the paranormal, you will accept that spirits exist everywhere and are only shut down by the presense of humans? :)