Today, while I was in the bathroom after going through a day of routine revision and doing my Biology practice questions I ponder about the occurrence and experience of death, partly probably because I've been exposed to pretty gory stuff on torture and sadism in the afternoon and another part unknown.
Verificationism is a philosophical concept that states that it is of without meaning to discuss something that has not been proven via scientific evidence or a discussion built on statements not proven by scientific evidence.
eg. I say that red is better; unless I could scientifically prove that upon exposure to the red (and red is a wavelength of a certain frequency on the visible spectrum) wavelength, biological pathways of organisms or reactions in materials causes them to benefit then it is a logical fallacy to say that red is better.
Such is one of the argument against the existence of religion. Proponents of religion says that you will only be able to experience a higher entity if you put much belief in it; or should I say faith, and in some extreme cases, blind faith. Yet this counter argument is one of the "Begging the Question" type of arguments where one's proposition to be true must first be assumed to be true. Now if this argument was to put into the context of my genitals, it will be liken to saying that "Leon has a vagina."
"Why?", questioned obviously confused people who by judging from the normal guy looking face that Leon has and that bulge in betweens his legs, their mind automatically relates to them that based on their experience, Leon has a penis, and a fucking big hairy one probably.
"Don't ask why. Just believe it, keep repeating to your mind that Leon has a pussy and try to communicate with his pussy, it will get back to you to prove to you it's real."
Now at this point the rather stumped people begin to visualise that probably the big bulge that they saw was probably a clitoris tumour or, with much resistance, that Leon could probably be as much a hermaphrodite as Lady Gaga until the moment where I pull down to reveal my 10m juicy big fat cock to scientifically prove to them in their awestruck face that I am after all, a male without a single trace of a vagina.
Now bring this analogy back to religion and you'll see similarities. Note that I said similarities, not that they are identical. This is because much of religion, if not, all of religion is derived from the ideas and discussion that is found in the religious text. Since Christianity is one of the popular religion in the country, let's discuss that in particular.
Note that I am not, in any instance, trying to arouse religious conflicts in the otherwise perfectly harmonious multi religion society of Singapore. I am proud to live with people with a variety of philosophical beliefs and these are just some of my thoughts. So government agents, please don't knock on my door the next minute I post this, if you ever believed in scientific progress.
Christianity is based on the Bible, no doubt and of course the idea that God sent his Son Jesus to die to atone for our sins so that we can go to Heaven after death. We are encouraged to communicate with God through prayer and to infuse our souls with the Holy Spirit. Note that all these ideas derived from the holy scriptures and often, if not all the time are these ideas defended with the text that it originated from.
Now there are a few problems with this line of reasoning.
One, how could you scientifically prove that the Bible, or, if not specifically, any other religious text, is non fictional? If you can, please discuss it with me. I'm gladly open to a friendly philosophical debate.
Second, now assuming that the Bible is indeed non fictional, how could you prove that the scribes who wrote the very first Bible wasn't scammed? Now that being said I introduce you to something I pondered about: Now, could Jesus have been a skillful illusionist of his time, much like David Blaine and David Copperfield of our time and that believers have exaggerated his illusion performances to pure God sent miracle?
Third, now assume that the Bible is non fiction and also that Jesus was indeed the Son of God so the religious scriptures were right, 100% of it. Now in English or Latin at that time, certain words have different meanings, and people have different perceptions of the meaning of a paragraph. Now anyone could have used the Bible, according to his own motives, twist the text to suit his argument and push forth his motive isn't it?
My argument of the fallacies of Religion being addressed, I still cannot deny the fact that one day we will face Death, as I pondered in my bathroom. Then I happened to research on cryonics after I came out of the bathroom because I read it before in Reader Digest or something.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryonics
It's a science where you get to preserve your body and brain immediately after cardiac arrest which happens during natural death. What makes natural death irreversible without Cryonics is that your brain gets damaged due to the lack of oxygen. The damage is mostly prevented (although there'll be still parts where it will be damaged, but technology is progressing to minimize this damage) when the body is supercooled using a cooling agent.
While the body is preserved at a stage of legal death, it could be possible in the near future that human cells could be restored back to living conditions, with DNA being repaired after accumulated mutations, genetic engineered back to youth and to restore the tissue damage done by supercooling then it will be possible that humans can be revived.
It is though, an irony that Religion forestalls this technology progress because of the fear of death. When you fear death, you grip something to believe in and this, coincidently becomes the fundamentals on which Religion is built on. Until science could progress to a level where death could be reversed then Religion can finally be debunked. Sadly, this progress won't be that quick because brainpower that could be used in this progress has been sapped away with the facade of Religion.
Let me know your views :)
