To Ascend Spiritually We Should Strive for Simplicity of Habits

I’m tired of this.

http://www.sillybeliefs.com/spirituality.html#heading-1rc

http://www.sillybeliefs.com/index.html

This John Ateo vehemently attacks anyone who dares question or look beyond the materialistic worldview. And he cries about people like Roger Nelson or Gary Schwartz and the like because “they accept that consciousness beyond the brain might be possible. That’s supernatural pseudoscience disguised as science and skepticism”.
I’ve followed him in the first place, because the role of his website says “Skepticism”. Meaning questioning EVERYTHING. But he only seems to question everything that doesn’t fit his worldview. A few commenters told him about their own personal experiences ( OBEs, lucid dreams, NDEs, etc ). And he writes lengthy replies that dismisses all of them as delusions, hallucinations, wishful thinking, misinterpretation, and mental illnesses. And he also tells them to read certain books that ‘debunks’ the experiences, and tells them to look at science, not “silly paranormal/supernatural beliefs”. And that science will explain it all.
He’s made it clear that he’s a passionate atheist and a huge Dawkins fan. I vow not to follow him anymore because he’s made up his mind. The mind is completely brain based, and anyone who disagrees or says otherwise is stupid, mentally ill, delusional, poorly educated, fantasy prone, naive/gullible, and afraid of death and reality. It doesn’t matter if the person is a former skeptic, former atheist, agnostic ( me ), even an atheist that disagrees with Dawkins.
And contrary to what he says, agnosticism is not ‘weak-atheism’. He just doesn’t like when someone doesn’t fully agree with his materialistic worldview. But don’t take my word for it. Find out for yourself.

I’m agnostic about these things. Sometimes I’m convinced of paranormal phenomena, other times not as much, depending on the evidence and how strong it is. Healthy skepticism is good to learn, grow, and get out of one’s comfort zone. Otherwise you’re in a boring, nonproductive echo chamber, and you’ll get nowhere. But I can tell when someone is being a healthy skeptic, and when someone is just dismissing everything that doesn’t fit one’s worldview. John Ateo does the latter, not the former.
You can’t just throw the words pseudoscience, bogus, delusional, and woo, every time something or someone disagrees with or contradicts materialism.

Do I find the idea of an afterlife and that there’s no death a comforting idea? Yes. Does the idea of there being a greater reality than the physical get me out of bed in the morning? Yes. Would I still believe in any of it if there were ZERO evidence, just because it makes me feel better? No. I would accept that reality no matter how depressing. But that’s not the case. And I’ve had my own personal experiences ( OBEs ) too many times to say the mind is brain based. If it only happened once, I would’ve called it a fluke. But it happened way more than once. I’ve been judging, dismissing, and denying my experiences long enough, and now I want to stop. I’m tired of dismissing them as a result of a ‘sick brain’ or mental illness, when I’m really okay.
The homepage of his site says “start thinking for yourself!” Well John, that’s exactly what I’m doing. You’d think he’d be happy. But perhaps I’m not doing it properly, because I’m open to a world beyond the physical.

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