From: suzych@swcp.com   
      
   In article ,   
   KimbaWLion_aol.com@127.0.0.1 wrote:   
      
   > epochii@aol.com (Epoch II) wrote:   
   >   
   > > if the NDE is hardwired into our brain after years of   
   > >evolution to provide comfort and ease to those who are dying...   
   >   
   > Going further than the flaw in that idea that you pointed out, the most   
   > basic flaw in that concept is that it goes against the concept of   
   > evolution. There is absolutely no evolutionary pressure to preserve a   
   > mechanism to comfort the dying. Evolution is about surviving--if a   
   > characteristic is to be selected by evolution, it must be passed on to the   
   > next generation. Something that only appears when dying has absolutely   
   > nothing to do with increasing its chances of being passed on.   
   >   
   > So the idea that an NDE is a "hardwired" function of the brain also   
   > requires the belief that it spontaneously appears in the exact same form   
   > in brains throughout the population.   
      
   Well put.  If it has absolutely no survival/breeding value, what the   
   heck is it doing there?  These harebrained "explanations" are, as has   
   been pointed out, reactions born out of the fear of loss of control   
   that seems to motivate so many science-minded, materialistic people   
   at deep levels.  I first realized this when Watson, I think, of the   
   Watson and Crick team that cracked the DNA code, went on to "explain"   
   dreaming as the mind's way of emptying the day's garbage of meaningless   
   and useless thoughts, impressions, etc. while we sleep.  Only someone   
   half paralyzed with terror could come up with such a simple-minded,   
   dismissive piece of nonsense in the face of all the work that has been   
   done on the extremely varied functions of dreaming.  This was a proven   
   scientist of the first water who couldn't cope with a function that   
   doesn't "simplify" along any single line of explanation satisfactorily,   
   so it declares it to be nothing more than "tossing out the garbage",   
   and everybody is supposed to just stop bothering about their dreams   
   or wondering or noticing what dreams do.  So yes, fear makes bad   
   science, and it even makes good scientists do bad science.   
      
   C.   
   --   
   Crow   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)