What does everyone think of this?

[GodsProxy]

…the real shocker came when Colton told his mother, “Mommy, I have two sisters.” Sonja told her son that he had to be referring to his oldest sister, Cassie, and his cousin Traci, but he responded: “No — I have two sisters. You had a baby die in your tummy, didn’t you?”

Yes, the age old fight between evidence and faith. Ether2, you are correct. SomeRandom, don't you see the irony of his question? You are forever demanding evidence from him yet you are providing no evidence for us.
Here is a quote from one of the responses to the website you mention, Lexy:

My Faith tells me there is a Heaven. My religion tells me how to get there. Can I prove that Heaven exists? No. But Faith is believing in what I can’t prove and when my time comes I will face my Maker and know for sure. But in the mean time I try to live a good life and be a good Christian and that in itself is reward enough for me.

Here is the fundamental problem with this reality: since no proof seems to be possible one has to assume the worst. Both Hawkins and Christians have made exactly the same fatal mistake: not having found evidence to support either side, both are using blind faith to excuse them from looking any further. This is an unacceptable risk, IMHO.

[ether2]

Evidence please? Coming from you....?

Oh the irony 

pick my posts apart...man
obviously i don't expect ya to go about the gay thing as that discussion seemed to have ended

good luck

love all

[Summerlander]

ether2, if you even knew the meaning of the word, you'd agree with my post instead of asking for evidence.

[GodsProxy]

People always seem to think that this is a choice between atheism and theism, between various beliefs, as if it is a life choice, such as whether to drink sugar in your tea.
Life is not.
Pascal made a good attempt at verifying the choices at hand in Pascal's Wager. He said, "Bet on God, you cannot lose": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_Wager. If God didn't exist then you lost nothing.
However, he was incorrect in the assumption that Father God was in charge and not the devil. This could prove to be a critical mistake, when putting your wager on god, when god could in fact turn out to be satan, or any one of a number of another possibilities. Thus if you are an atheist or a Christian or a Moslem your fate is the same.
The ongoing discussion on Lexi's link is quite interesting , see especially the comments:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/is-heaven-for-real-12-year-old-colton-burpo-vs-famed-scientist-stephen-hawking/comment-page-15

[Adepto]

I have to admit, coming to these forums is the only thing that really makes me question the past few years of experiences I've had.

Some of you really do come across as loonies without a clue, and then I ask myself, am I making excrement up as well?

Xanth as a CIA agent, and the CIA dominating the stars? Really? The funny thing about Americans and their new world order conspiracies is that they show total ignorance about how the world works, and thus, doesn't give the people who speak them much credibility or sanity.

Any intelligent 'agent' of a new world order would be happy with the current economic and political set-up in the world, because it can easily be manipulated from the shadows. Anyone who thinks there's some shadowy cabal trying to bring about mass authoritarianism just goes to show what limited imagination they themselves possess - it just doesn't make sense in any context. Fat chance having some showy American Illuminati fellow going to Iran or China and trying to unite those countries under a one world government. Fat chance indeed.

And frankly, even if there was a new world order conspiracy, it would probably be for the best, because the only hope for humanity is if we stop killing one another over imaginary things like countries and religions.

I'm afraid hatred of what Hawking said is a dead-give away pointing to your own fears about death - if you were 100% sure that you would survive death, you really wouldn't care what Hawking said. You only care because it threatens your belief system. The same reason radical Christians hate anyone who oppose their beliefs.

[Astral316]

I'm afraid hatred of what Hawking said is a dead-give away pointing to your own fears about death - if you were 100% sure that you would survive death, you really wouldn't care what Hawking said. You only care because it threatens your belief system. The same reason radical Christians hate anyone who oppose their beliefs.

You're taking the action of caring about Hawking's belief and jumping to an illogical conclusion. Caring doesn't equate with fear. Disagreement doesn't equate with hatred. This is a forum where it's commonplace to state an opinion, debate, converse, etc. Using your logic, you're fearful for caring about the afterlife since you're here posting. But that isn't the case, right? Motivation comes in many forms... insecurity is but one.

[Adepto]

You're taking the action of caring about Hawking's belief and jumping to an illogical conclusion. Caring doesn't equate with fear. Disagreement doesn't equate with hatred. This is a forum where it's commonplace to state an opinion, debate, converse, etc. Using your logic, you're fearful for caring about the afterlife since you're here posting. But that isn't the case, right? Motivation comes in many forms... insecurity is but one.

Actually, it is the case that there's a part of me which fears death. I don't think that's surprising - despite personal experience, there's always that part of me which reminds me I can never really know for sure, not logically, at least.

The reason I posted here was emotionally driven (as are any actions by any people emotionally driven, and people who argue otherwise are deluding themselves, else they would not be driven to argue in the first place, which is an emotional action); I got angry because I see so many people taking certain stances that seem scarily silly. And I can worked up about it, because my personal stake in this is that if one person says crazy things and believes them, then for all I know, what I believe is equally crazy.

I hope I've explained myself properly. Don't mistake my frustration for an attempt at being confrontational - but I do hope that I can understand better why some people champion causes which seem so obviously baseless and ill-informed. Personal experience is the key to everything, of course, and logic can't substitute that experience - but conspiracy theories seem to be leaps of logic, not judgements derived of informed personal experience.

[Astral316]

I get what you're saying. On forums like these you'll often find people pushing mind-numbing beliefs as ultimate truth "direct from the astral planes." Interestingly I notice these people are difficult to relate to from a communicative standpoint. They speak from "What I know" and not "What I've experienced" and draw crazy conclusions from random observations. However in forums like these it's protocol to have an open mind and respect all beliefs so this stuff isn't going away anytime soon. I recommend taking these ideas with a pinch of salt. If it doesn't make sense, fall back on your own intuition and discard it.

[Astir]

I like him.  I think people tend to take everything he says to heart because he is such a brilliant authority.  He is not an authority on death, nor is anyone who is alive.  His theories are quantifiable...his disbelief in the afterlife is likely gut feeling...which is just a thing that is personal.

[Stillwater]

Here is the fundamental problem with this reality: since no proof seems to be possible one has to assume the worst. Both Hawkins and Christians have made exactly the same fatal mistake: not having found evidence to support either side, both are using blind faith to excuse them from looking any further. This is an unacceptable risk, IMHO.

Yes, Godsproxy, excusing yourself from the obligation of giving rigorous evidence to bold claims like this is culpable regardless of position.

[the8reader]

i dont get how some one that cant even move has not yet had an obe or sp i mean he is parilized or whatever but you think that would make it easy for him to get out of his body... i read a book about a kid that was like him but had seziers. when he would have one it would pop him out of body and he go run around... his dad killed him while he was out. it was a good book.