Rhea

(edited to make title more generic. Was: Amie & Mad Kally & others - Resurrection Question)

In a thread in BC&A, a discussion of the reliability of the ressurection is addressed.

This made me think. If I recall correctly, both of you have experienced being proclaimed dead and having been revived. (If my memory is wrong here, just correct me and carry on as if it's about others who have undergone this)

Anyway.

So someone is proclaimed dead. A sheet is placed over their face, and they spontaneously or through the efforts of medical personal come back to life.

Two of many explanations come to mind...

1. You weren't actually _dead_, since some energy or synapse firing was enough to jumpstart the processes that we call life, e.g. heart and brain activity. In which case, what's so crazy about a similar thing happening in antiquity?

2. You _were_ actually dead, and a supernatural being gave BACK you life. In which case, Jesus wasn't so unique at all.

What are your thoughts on these possibilities - or do you have others ways of looking at it?

kctan

Since none so far can get a fix on what makes living things, living things, it's quite impossible to proclaim that some one is really fully dead until quite some time after all activities which so far we knew indicated signs of life have all ceased.

IOW all proclaimation of death are actually quite subjective & there's no way we can safely say that someone had a post-death experience. Unless someone had his/her head blown off, stay in this state for a few days, blood is pumped into the body, the head get attached back & the person became alive again. That would be a miracle & most likely would give a real account of post death experience.

How come the late jebus never did the above trick ? If he were to be born chinese & got executed (it's off with the head in the old days), he could have shown off this feat & I don't think alot of people are going to denouce such an act as not being miraculous. Guess such thing only happens in AD&D games. Level 7 clerical spell - Resurrection, don't leave home without it.

Rhea

Chuckle.

Well they say, "Isn't it interesting when you go to the places of miracles and you see strewn everywhere crutches and slings and wheelchairs and canes - but not one single prosthetic limb, nor one single glass eye..."

Shake

LOL Rhea!

Clinically dead and actually dead probably differ by some slight degree, and as kctan pointed out, proclaiming someone clinically dead is somewhat subjective (of course there are exceptions, but no need to go into those, I hope).

In the not-so-good ol' days, it wasn't that uncommon for folks to be buried while still alive. I've heard that bells were put up in new graves in case of such a mistake, and someone working the "graveyard shift" was there in case someone came to in the coffin!

Philosoft

Well, as it turned out, Kally was only mostly dead...