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"Life After Death: Why scientist declared ‘there IS an afterlife – Memories are separate!’"

The problem is that he has no science behind it and nothing supports his belief except supposition. No big surprise.

[express.co.uk]

RussRAB 8 Sep 1
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19 comments

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1

If you ever read "scientists declare", it's probably bullshit.

Marz Level 7 Sep 4, 2019
2

Wow, this site was unreadable due to the ads. Literslly had to download an ad block browser to read it. Even then, a giant ad every two lines. Classy site, this.

Any this religious philosopher claim its completely ridiculous that memories reside in the brain.

Someone should inform him of the hundred of drugs that affect memory formation through brain chemistry.

Or how about memory loss through brain damage? Or memory enhancement?

Someone get him a book by oliver sacks, stat.

How is this guy a professor at an accredited university. He doesn't even know the basis of memory formation in the brain. Aren't philosopher s supposed to consider without bias.

The article says Dr. Moreland is a "professor at Talbot School of Theology at Biola University". His ideas are comp,etely condistent with the Christian apologetics he promotes, but without scientific evidence which is completely missing, he may as well be selling snake oil. Several posters here have shown that the evidence refutes Dr. Moreland's claims. Still, Christians are likely to site his claims because it fits with what they want to believe even after they have been presented with true evidence to the contrary.

He can be as biased as he likes, so long as his hypothesis can berigidly defended and supported by provable evidence, whilst disproving any opposing evidence or arguments. All he has done is provided an opinion, which is not fact.

1

My scepticism over this article in the comic newspaper The Daily Express was confirmed by the first few lines, with absolutely no proof being offered, just an opinion.

Given the way that his opinion was dressed up as evidence, I am surprised how he managed to get any qualifications at all.

Just how easy is it t get a degree and a doctorate in America?

Depends on the field. Hard sciences, Engineering, and medical field has reasonably tough peer reviewed research.

This guy got a PhD in philosophy...not sure how tough the peer review is for journals that have a low impact factors.

Well he teaches at Biola univ, a school that literally has no hard science or engineering or medical research accreditation apart from nursing education. And who knows what they teach in those programs.

He is teaching in the right place. 🙂

@MakeItGood I have studied executive management at post-graduate level, hardly a hard science by any means, I can safely say that I would have failed if I presented evidence in the same vein as he did.
I wonder if I could gain a professorship, if I approached Biola?It would seem that it would be a very low bar to pass!

I did post Dr. Moreland's educaton credentials. He has his undergrad degree in Chemistry (his claim to being a scientist?) But his post grad degrees are in philosophy and theology. He is listed as being an apologist consistent with his claims in the article. I would think his post grad work more or less counters/invalidates his science undergrad degree.

1

So the interviewer accepted his shady claim to be a Scientist. More bad reporting. That's the kind of insidious error that causes lots of misery.

1

What scientist and which science is that?? 😊😊😊

2

Just wow...now "alternate facts" are being spewed by self-proclaimed "scientists".....

@OwlInASack oh, like Fox, but on paper...sad about the trees......

2

The source is the express, a right wing british tabloid that has no credibility, see this report from the fact check ste:

I imagine that the Daily Mail would be off the scale, just behind The Sun. Out of interest, do you know which broadsheet comes up as the most credible?

@Magister The Independent is not too bad, I don’t know about The Times anymore as I’ve not looked for it for about 20 years or so.

@Geoffrey51 I've found the Independent to be blatantly left-wing, at times, as the Times can be right-wing, although The Times does seem to be better researched and less biased in it's articles, other than its commentary columns.
I used to read the Guardian for mny years, but it seems to have been overtaken by extreme anti-British and anti-Royalist commentators, such as Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. Her rantings about white privilege are ironic, considering her privileged background
I live in a city where the white working class are disadvantaged by every measure, and commentary such as hers only service to fuel racial tensions. Fighting against inequality should be inclusive, not divise.

1

Maddening. 😠

5

Hint: Scientists don’t declare things. They present evidence in science journals to be peer reviewed, questioned and inspected for flaws. The idea is then, perhaps accepted tentatively.

3

Well right off the bat,. The author, James Porter Morland is a philosopher, theologian, and Christian apologist, not a Scientist. and it goes down hill from there. A grain of salt, and an eye roll, are pretty much my responses. Just saying.

Yeah, yours is probably the most appropriate response.

1

Memories are separate from what? Does anybody have a clue?

Separate from the brain. Dr. Moreland's claim is that the brain doesn't store memories; but he would be mistaken. See VictoriaNotes comment and link below.

@RussRAB actually, memories are stored in the gall bladder, and mine was removed, explaining my forgetfulness Completely! Yeah, that's the ticket!

2

That is just funny, and even funnier that he admits that you have to already believe in god in order to accept his "science".

5

My late wife 'died' several times throughout the time we were together. Her view on it - it was pleasant, peaceful but ultimately nothing. I feel sure she took some perverted pleasure in scaring doctors as they pronounced life extinct then snapping back to life!
She said that all that is happening are memories flashing by as the brain shuts down while the O2 levels in the blood diminish.
She was a veterinary surgeon, and had seen plenty of deaths in her time. So if there was life after death, I'm sure she'd have seen something to support that and told me.
So in the end, dead yer dead. In the mean time, enjoy what you have and carry out random acts of kindness as often as you can - just in case...

Having died twice, I totally agree with her reporting.....

3

How is he a scientist with a degree in Philosophy?

It is likely that it came from a (fake) religious school.

I would be wrong. Here are his credentials from Wikipedia:

"Moreland specializes in metaphysics, philosophy of mind, chemistry, and Christian Philosophy[2]having had his work published in journals such as Metaphilosophy and the American Philosophical Quarterly. He has also had his work published by presses such as Intervarsity Press, NavPress, Zondervan, Oxford University Press, Routledge, Rutgers University Press, and Prometheus.[3]

"Moreland earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with honors from the University of Missouri and a Master of Arts in Philosophy with highest honors from the University of California, Riverside. He received his Th.M. in Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary.[4] In 1985, he received a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Southern California. His dissertation was "Universals and the Qualities of Things: A defense of Realism.""

This doesn't change the fact that he has no facts behind his claims.

4

Factually speaking, there is little science in anything printed by the Express. As student of Social Sciences we are not allowed to use their sources as they have all to often not had reality in their journalism. Same goes for the Sun, Star and Daily Mail newspapers.
I can only assume that these papers reporters publish comments overheard down the pub and take all drunken banter as the truth.

3

I love it how this site has "UFO siting on google maps" and "Nostradamus 2019 predicted trump" If anyone takes this site seriously their is no hope for them. They don't even care to close out quotes or put a period after the Dr in Dr. Morland.

2

He’s a Professor Of Philosophy at a Theology college.

It’s his job to speculate and argue for such matters.

Clever click bait article. The clues are ‘scientist’ and ‘life after death’.

I agree. The wording seems to imply that it is more than one guy's pontificating and maximizing the use of the term "scientist".

An EVANGELICAL school........

3

No evidence.
No credibility.

Next.

1

No one knows, or could possibly know, anything about what happens after one dies.

At some point we all find out, and then it's too late!

@Sofabeast Yes, but no one lives to tell about it. Unless you give any credibility to NDEs, which I do not.

@Sofabeast Actually, I don't think we find out anything. We just cease to exist. There is no reason to think that the dead know that they are dead.

@Joanne Absolutely and I totally agree. When you're dead you are dead. End of story.

@jlynn37 - When we die - really die, not near death - I won't say say we absolutely cease to exist, although that makes the most sense to me. But who knows? It is a subject like God that we have no perspective on - no point of reference.

@RussRAB I guess no one is 100% certain of anything.

All I can tell you is that once the body no longer lives then bacteria, etc, etc, take over and the corporeal body starts to rot and dissolve away, eventually leaving little more than the skeleton after many, many years, the rest just becomes nutrients in the surrounding soil after it seeps through the planks/materials that make up the casket/coffin, etc, UNLESS, of course, you are cremated and have you ashes scattered, instead of having them stored in an Urn and placed on some Mantle-piece, then the nutrients quickly mix in with soil and the plants utilize them to grow, flower and produce seeds, etc., but still you WILL know NOTHING about it anyway.

@Triphid Pretty well sums up what we actually know about what happens after one dies, and as you said, "you WILL know NOTHING about it anyway."

@jlynn37 Of course IF you are eaten by some nasty, big carnivorous animal then chances are that you WILL come back BUT as mere animal droppings at best.
Often, when I hear Ministers, etc, at Funerals say the words, " In the sure and certain hope...…." I think quietly to myself, " Utterly ridiculous those words are since there really IS no certainty or surety in HOPE, because HOPE is merely one who is living actually thinking that circumstance/s WILL change for the better but neither sure or certain that they will."

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