Goat wrote:
Azrael wrote:
Goat wrote:
I try and have respect for people, but these 'I had a calamity and now believe in lizard-men' sorta books inspire nothing but wrath. If god exists, and it takes a near-fatal accident to make you accept that, how shallow a person are you?
dunno, maybe it's takes an event like a near-death experience for one to start believing in a higher power. if you interpret survival in such an event as a miracle, it's just a step away from having outright faith in a god.
fortunately never having had a brush with death i can't say that i would know how i would feel.
I get why they do it, I just think a bit of logical thought would stop them from doing so...
I think it's probably the other way around. I've never been in such a situation before (and I've basically been a believer since childhood - sans a brief agnostic/skeptic period in high school), so may be I'm not the best reference. But many of these people probably found themselves going through a lot of pondering, "spiritual experiences", questioning, and even skepticism before deciding to accept God. In other words, finally accepting God was probably what ultimately seemed like the most logical thing for them to do after thinking carefully about the matter (as well as realizing their own mortality). I can certainly imagine recovery from such a traumatic experience being a pretty religious (or, at least, quasi-religious) experience. Especially for somebody who never thought much about religious faith or spirituality until then.
I think it probably depends on the person, really. Some people just naturally have an easier time accepting God than others (some scientists are even suggesting there may be biological factors associated with this, but that's still on the fence right now). For example, one of my favorite authors, Douglas Hofstadter (he writes mostly philosophical non-fiction, used a lot in theoretical computer science), had a wife who died of cancer about 15 years ago. During her death, he found himself starting to become more spiritual, but the inner skeptic in him kept him from becoming too wrapped up in the experience. So I think the individual's personality may also have a lot to do with it.
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