Parnia Opens the Box

For years, atheistic scientists such as Dawkins have been advancing a scientific model that claimed that all of the universe's secrets could be discovered given enough time. The human mind has such great ability we could actually learn everything about this vast universe. It is interesting to see when the world of science comes full circle and sees that they may not have all the answers.

This morning's Yahoo News story written by M.J. Stephey is entitled "What Happens When We Die?" Stephey interviews one the world's "leading experts on the scientific study of death", Dr. Sam Parnia.

Parnia explains that due to the advances of medical technology, the line of demarcation between life and death may not be as sharp as once was.

"Nowadays, we have technology that's improved so that we can bring people back to life. In fact, there are drugs being developed right now - who knows if they'll ever make it to the market - that may actually slow down the process of brain-cell injury and death."

This leads to obvious questions when people who have been technically dead or at least unconscious from our perspective are able to give information about events that took place during that time. Parnia plans to use the scientific method to verify that consciousness is still in effect after the brain is shut down. He says,

"So the key thing here is, Are these real, or is it some sort of illusion? So the only way to tell is to have pictures only visible from the ceiling and nowhere else, because they claim they can see everything from the ceiling. So if we then get a series of 200 or 300 people who all were clinically dead, and yet they're able to come back and tell us what we were doing and were able see those pictures, that confirms consciousness really was continuing even though the brain wasn't functioning."

Parnia is doing more than just using the current scientific method. He is challenging the current framework of science by using the current methods of science to do so! When asked why there is such resistance to his studies he replies,

"Because we're pushing through the boundaries of science, working against assumptions and perceptions that have been fixed."

Parnia may be very well opening the proverbial Pandora's Box. It is a terrifying thing to discover that the world is truly greater than your mind would allow.

The God of Scripture is coming out of Pandora's Box. Advancing science and technology will not allow us to shut the lid. If men would just start with what the Creator has revealed to us, perhaps we would have a healthy sense of fear of the one with whom all men must face.