IS THERE AN AFTERLIFE?

Do we have any extra-Biblical evidence for an afterlife? We do! One body of evidence comes from near-death (NDE) or after death experiences, in which the patients' vital signs cease and the patient, after reviving, reports having left their body. In some instances, they are able to accurately report what had transpired in other locations.

In this regard, Professor Gary Habermas, Liberty University, has reported:

• In dozens of NDE accounts, the dying person claims that, precisely during their emergency, they actually observed events that were subsequently confirmed. These observations may have occurred in the emergency room when the individual was in no condition to be observing what was going on around them. Sometimes the data are reported from a distance away from the scene and actually may not have been observable from the individual’s location even if they had been healthy, with the normal use of their senses.

• In more evidential cases, the dying person reported their observations during extended periods of time without any heartbeat. On rare occasions, no brain activity was present in the individual either. Further, blind persons have also given accurate descriptions of their surroundings, even when they had never seen anything either before or since. (“Evidence for GOD: 50 Arguments for Faith from the Bible, History, Philosophy, and Science”)

Besides the evidence that comes from NDEs, there is a wealth of evidence of extra-bodily existence. For example, I have had encounters with malevolent spirit beings through the Ouiji Board. Others have encountered spirit beings through seances, meditation, and other spiritistic practices.

Those who come from spiritistic cultures also have tons of accounts of the reality of spirit beings. Meanwhile, every major religion attests to the reality of these beings.

For those whose worldview will not allow them to acknowledge their possibility, consider this. Our sight is fine-tuned to only perceive a remarkably narrow range of light. Our ears are similarly limited to detect only a narrow range of waves. Speed is also a limiting factor. While we can perceive the second hand of a clock moving, we cannot perceive movement in the hour hand. Besides, if the second we’re moving one thousand times faster, we would not even be able to see it.

Therefore, what we perceive is very limited. Meanwhile, our cat can hear and see things that we cannot dream of. Birds can navigate by magnetic waves. Dolphins make use of sonar, snakes of infrared waves.

Reality is bigger than we are. In view of our sensory limitations, we shouldn’t be too quick to reject the many evidences of extra-material life. It would be like the man born blind who rejects the possibility that others can see, simply because he will not or cannot conceive of it.