vaz02 said:
Belief is different to fact though. As it stands there is no god and there is no afterlife.
I see you refer to these NDE's a lot but maybe people turn to faith after these events because they dont want to risk it. These people are not atheists, these people were/are undecided.
Strange question but, why do all faiths differ ? surely if it was god will they all follow the same code of conduct ?
vaz02-
There have been a lot of good and bad athetists that have had Near Death Experiences.
You can't dismiss them with the "your brain was being deprive of oxygen rouine and you had a fantastic hallucination" routine.
If you're really interested probably one of the best books to read regarding this is George Ritchie's book written about 30 years ago what happen to him in the 1930s or 40s. He was about 20 years of age when it happened and was dying of pneumonia. He was ridiculed by many at first and then as more ppl had similar experiences people laugh and scoffed less. He later went on to become a MD.
The reason for so many churches is God allows man to have hthere free will in interpreation of His word. Everyone will have an eternity in paradise to figure things out and continue to grow.
Life really just begins in our next life people say, you have no infirmities, perfect bodies and all knowledge.
The religions that try to scare you in to being good with the threat of a never ending Hell are incorrect interpreatations of scripture.
Hell does exist, along with Satan however unlike most Orthodox Christians my belief is that a person's stay in Hell will not be infinite, but finite thru the Grace of God's Son, who paid for our mistakes based on what we did here in this life based on the knowledge and enviorment we were came from. This differs from most Churches which is why a lot of ppl are turned off. Nobody wants to be scared into being good.
You will find in the next life God will be much fairer than most people think He is. The crap that ppl have to put up with here-will be awarded for there, all inequity will be rewarded with equity a 100 fold more than we're allowed to understand here. The trick here is to live in the present the best way we can by helping our fellow man out with our time, love and resources. That I think is what a lot of athetists believe, which is a sense of fair play for everyone and pretty much The Golden Rule.
Oh, I posted a link to the book by Dr Ritchie before, here it is again:
http://www.amazon.com/Return-Tomorrow-George-G-Ritchie/dp/080078412X
I hope you decide to read it, it's fascinating.
dbs