CATHOLICS AND NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES

Some report almost dying and meeting some kind of being and experiencing a taste of the afterlife.  Then they are "sent" back.  These are not evidence of an afterlife for the person is only near death but not dead.

Chapter 10 of The Handbook of Christian Apologetics discusses the evidence for life after death.

Near-death experiences (NDE) are put down as evidence - though rather cautiously because nobody can be proved to have had an experience after dying and because they contradict Christian theology. No NDE without brain activity has ever been verified. If that happened the person would count as a resurrected person!

Not all believers in the paranormal think you need a soul leaving the body to explain the experience.  Telepathy and other abilities have been hauled in as possible explanations.
 
The argument that an experience you have when you are not dead yet proves you live on is an odd one. It proves nothing more than that you have had an experience. And not all who have the experience are really dying though they may think they are. Not all near-death experiences really are anywhere near death. Drinkers who think they are dying in the gutter can have them regularly.
 
The authors say they accept near death experiences as evidences for life after death but with caution for they contradict Christian doctrine for they give no reason to think that repentance is important. The fact that the experience occurs when no drugs have been administered, that things are seen when out of the body that have been later verified, the agreement between people having this experience, their not seeing thinks like angels with wings and halos and golden streets like the stereotype of Heaven that most believers have supposedly makes them probably authentic.
 
The fact that the authors would use an essentially non-Christian miracle, which usually involves meeting a being of light who does not care about your sins, smacks of sheer desperation and is an alarming lapse of logic. That miracle, if miracle it is, refutes the core doctrine of Christianity which is that repentance or forgiveness is necessary and is what religion should be all about. Even the resurrection of Jesus cannot be true if repentance is immaterial for it is about expressing and incarnating the principle of mercy.

Evidence from history that Jesus rose is superseded by evidence that there is a being of light who does not judge and who is certainly not Jesus! Testimony from people you can talk to always supersedes even similar testimony from those who are no longer with us.  Unlike the resurrection accounts, the being is glorious.  Christianity's core doctrine that the resurrection of Jesus does not mean a return to life but an exaltation to eternal life and glory is granted no evidence at all even in the Bible.  Jesus could have risen for all we know and died later and his revival from death is not the only one that is claimed in history.
 
The handbook's treatment of near death experiences violates the assertion of the handbook and the Christian Church and the Bible that miracles are signs of the truth and tell us truths about God, religious truths. Here miracles that contradict the Church are downplayed though recognised as satisfying the conditions for deserving to be believed.  
 
Also, it is believed that not everybody who has such experiences talks about them so maybe that is why there are no tales of the angels with wings and halos? And there would be stories of that kind that were never taken seriously.
 
The authors only cherrypick what tales they want to pay heed to. And what about visions had by people who were not on their deathbeds but which reported the heavenly and angelic stereotype?
 
What about this one? Fr Steven Scheier had an NDE in a traffic accident in 1985. Jesus told him he was going to Hell. But then Mary said, "Son, will you please spare his life and his eternal soul?" Jesus challenged her, "Mother, he's been a priest for twelve years for himself and not for me, let him reap the punishment he deserves." She argued that if he got graces he might be different and Jesus relented and let him live. This experience is evidence that it is all in the mind. Catholic doctrine says that Mary does not challenge Jesus and Jesus does not and cannot revoke a damnation sentence.
 
Gloria Polo was another one who claimed she got her sentence of damnation reversed and got another chance.
 
The Bible says there is only one death and one judgement.
 
If that is true then Scheier and Polo are doing the Devil's work by giving false hope. And also they contradict the doctrine that you damn yourself and even God cannot do anything about it. They present a God who does send people to Hell.
 
Near death experiences do not really support spirituality or religion. They support the idea that the brain has the power to create experiences and credible visions and to deceive. As believable as they are the experiences are not real. If the brain can do all that when somebody is very ill what is it up to the rest of the time? They could well be the strongest evidence that religion is about some subliminal need and not really about God or Jesus though that may not be apparent.