religion
Posts about religion, skepticism, and how it fits into the scientific world.
Reincarnation
Many people accept reincarnation to be a fact. Dr. Jim Tucker at the University of Virginia has studied over 2,500 children who had memories of past lives. Most of these children were living in families that did not embrace reincarnation but were Christian, Catholic, or Jewish and believed in heaven and hell. These children reported memories that included historical facts, as well as other people and former family members from their past life that could be found in records and photos. Many cases were verified by documents that proved what the children were remembering actually took place. The children were carefully monitored to be sure they had never been exposed to anything that would have given them knowledge of the things they reportedly remembered from their past lives. After studying so many children with memories of past lives and confirming facts associated with those lives, Dr. Jim Tucker concluded that reincarnation was real.
By Hyapatia Lee9 years ago in Futurism
Divine Sentience
Sentience involves more than mere reaction to stimuli, it involves awareness of existence, but once aware, the sentient entity may be either passive, a voyeur of sorts, or volitional, in the latter case evolving a will and a desire to impose it. Humans are generally sentient in a range between passive and volitional but what about the divine, either as a singularity or as a class of entities? Assuming divinity in fact exists.
By Guillermo Calvo9 years ago in Futurism
The Matrix and Gnosticism
The Walchowski's Matrix Trilogy stands out as one of the classics of modern sci-fi storytelling. Not only does it powerfully present the hero's journey in a similar manner to other epic tales like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, but this incredibly complex series also incorporates various philosophical, Buddhist, Christian, and science fictional elements. Most of all, it serves as a modern re-visioning of the ancient religion of Gnosticism, an obscure theological-cosmological system that describes a dualistic cosmos, in which spiritual sparks have become trapped in matter but can be released through saving knowledge, or "Gnosis." Whether or not the Walchowskis were aware of the teachings of Gnosticism, they are basically telling a very similar story.
By M Alan Kazlev9 years ago in Futurism
Miraculous Escape
It all started with running and climbing and scrambling. The sheer trauma of what she had witnessed was enough to send anyone into shock but with the coldness now biting at her extremities the process began to escalate. The fear and adrenaline of escaping from the Red Skull had provided her with the energy and drive she needed to save herself and her son. She had observed the cataract of water cascading over the cliff edge as they had been herded onto the ice with the tens of thousands of refugees displaced by the war with the Red Skull. Bethulia had been in a period of extensive peace until the day the Immortal Remes marched upon their peaceful land. She sat and watched the powerful flow of water beside her as she hid in the crevice of the cliff hoping they would not see her, hoping they would move on before the cold gripped her beyond what she could cope. The fall dropped into rapids, she considered the possibility of jumping into this and surviving if all other options were removed. It had several layers or steps, it was not a plunge pool. Survival would be unlikely. One pool was half frozen and only remained unfrozen due to the constant turmoil of the water flowing into it. She heard noises from below, it was the troopers searching for her. She couldn't be that important, surely they would give up their search soon. She looked over the edge it was a five hundred foot drop all the way down. Her foot slipped on the ice, her son reached out and held her, helping her to regain her balance. She would wait patiently until the troops left. The old wire rope she had used to climb down was still there, to climb back again.
By Allan Marshall9 years ago in Futurism
Death and Burials
If there is one thing we all have in common, no matter what culture we live in or what our religious beliefs are, it is death. We all die some time and we all have lost some one. One of my favorite quotes from a movie is Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan where Captain Kirk tells a young cadet that “How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life, wouldn’t you say?” Cultures all around the globe and all throughout history deal with death and burial in a variety of different ways.
By Kevin Bailey9 years ago in Futurism
Comes A Horseman
On a night as black as pitch comes the Horseman. It is said that all through-out history man has been tormented by the constant struggle between good and evil. Where good intentions are swept away by selfish desires. These selfish desires are now embedded in the conscious thoughts of man coursed by the temptations that the Horseman offers.
By Dr. Williams9 years ago in Futurism
Antimatter: X-mas Files Edition
Sure. Sure. The Christmas season is full of crass commercialism. Materialist dogma -- of all varieties -- are on display everywhere. But the season has traditionally been regarded as a time of supernatural activity and high strangeness, as this edition of Antimatter shows.
By Matt Swayne9 years ago in Futurism
Antimatter: Better Brains, Demon Detectors and Mystical Neanderthals
The following is another issue of my somewhat regular tribute to the cool stuff that used to appear in Omni Magazine’s Antimatter column. In this issue, we have stories about billionaires building brains, Neanderthals who may have been religious, showing ghosts the door, and more...
By Matt Swayne9 years ago in Futurism
Philip K. Dick's VALIS Analyzes Religious Destiny
If you really think about it, the story of Jesus is a work of science fiction. He's a man with superpowers that include turning water to wine, healing others, and coming back from the dead. All jokes aside, religion and science fiction truly go hand in hand although people often try to separate the two. Some of the religious themes that permeate sci-fi stories include the idea of the afterlife, reincarnation, original sin, fictional religions, Messianism, and many other themes that can be found in the works of Philip K. Dick. As a science fiction writer, Dick wrote 44 novels and 121 short stories including Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,A Scanner Darkly, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, VALIS, and many others. Some of the films that have been adapted from these stories include Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, The Adjustment Bureau, and Impostor. Throughout his lifetime, he won several awards including three Hugo Awards, five Nebula Awards, one British Science Fiction Association Award, and many others. There is even a Philip K. Dick Award that was established in 1983 which honors the previous year's best science fiction paperback original published in the US. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series. The writer died in 1982 after suffering two strokes at the age of 53, but his legacy lives on today in his stories such as VALIS.
By Mackenzie Lu9 years ago in Futurism
