Argument # 26: Paranormal beliefs are childish fantasies for dealing with a cold uncaring world.

 

This is another biased statement of belief.  Most psychic experiences don’t come as fantasies or wishful thinking, but as firsthand direct experiences.  Often the experiencer doesn’t even choose to have them in the first place, as in the accounts of those who have sudden NDE’s or OBE’s.  Mature adults who are not childish in attitude or behavior have had paranormal or psychic experiences.  There are also many rational, down-to-earth people (both mentally and physically) who believe in God too.  In addition, even if a belief or religion is used to cope with life, that doesn’t mean that the belief or religion is totally false. If it works, then there is something real to it, one way or another, on this plane or another. (See similar rebuttal in Argument # 14)

 

Also, consider this. Belief in God is innate, as these studies show.

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6823229.ece

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2008/nov/25/religion-children-god-belief

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/3512686/Children-are-born-believers-in-God-academic-claims.html

 

We are born with a natural belief in God and the spiritual, and are more prone as children to believing in “fantasies”. When we become adults, some of us turn into Atheists, yes. But in old age, most people end up concluding after a whole lifetime of experiences, that there is “something out there” beyond the physical, some guiding consciousness, and that “everything happens for a reason”.

 

One might argue that they are just looking for a reason to believe in life after death as they near the end of it. But fear is never sustainable as a prime motivator in any belief. These folks are basing their conclusions on a bigger picture view of life they’ve obtained after connecting so many dots in the events of their lives. Plus it could be that as one approaches death, one becomes more attuned with the “metaphysical realm” that they originally came from, as they did when they were children coming out of it, and so move toward a different consciousness again. This might explain why children and elderly adults tend to be less uptight and more easy going than young to middle age adults.

 

Either way, we should be focusing on the experiences and evidence of these many people, rather than trying to ridicule and judge them with biased accusatory terms which contribute nothing in the search for truth.

 

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