Alex Tsakiris interviewed Lisa Miller, religion editor for Newsweek, regarding her recent book on Heaven. Notice how evasive Miller is. Tsakiris provides specific evidence against Miller's position, with names and other details, while Miller is far more vague and unreasonably dismisses scholars who specialize in the study of near-death experiences. Yes, specialists can be wrong, but Miller doesn't give us good reason to think they're wrong in this case. Notice, also, how she keeps saying that we aren't "sure" of particular conclusions, either ignoring the category of probability or acting as if probability is insufficient. Imagine if we approached other areas of science, or research in general, the way Miller approaches near-death studies. And notice how impatient she is, how poorly she reacts when challenged.
Neither Tsakiris nor Miller is a Christian, and I have some significant disagreements with Tsakiris. I've discussed my view of near-death experiences in previous threads, and I've cited some of Tsakiris' material and responded to it. But there's a lot that I agree with him about, and much of it comes out in this interview. I largely agree with him about the importance of the afterlife, the significance of seeking evidence for it, and the fact that we do have some evidence in near-death studies and some other fields of paranormal research.
Miller isn't representative of all journalists. They range across a spectrum. Some are at the other end. They aren't critical enough of near-death claims. But Miller is an example of the sort of media bias we get on the overly critical side.
Alex Tsakiris: I guess that’s my point. To me, you’re not setting that all aside. You’re really making that front and center of the debate. To me, the interesting thing is what is the spiritual experience?
ReplyDeleteIn your book, Heaven, you talk about a visitation that you had from your Jewish grandfather before your wedding. Then you quickly kind of brush that off as well, I don’t know if that’s real or not. Do you believe there’s such a thing as a genuine spiritual experience? Do you believe the encounter you had with your grandfather was, in fact, real?
Lisa Miller: I think you’re asking the wrong question. I don’t think that religious experience and transcendent experience and spiritual experience can be measured empirically. I just don’t. Otherwise, we would know for a fact what Heaven looks like and where it is and whether it exists or not and who is there. And we don’t know those things. We just simply don’t know them. So I can’t measure whether this visit I had from what seemed to be the spirit of my grandfather was real, whether it was more real than a dream…
Alex Tsakiris: Why can’t you? I mean, I think that’s such a copout. We measure these things all the time. This is the whole basis of psychology. Open up Newsweek Magazine and every article on psychology asks, “Do you like this more or this? Was this experience dream-like? Was it illusionary?”
These are questions we ask people scientifically all the time. Why can’t we ask you about that experience and whether you think it was real, whether you think it was a hallucination, what you think it was. Doesn’t your experience matter?
Lisa Miller: Um, yes. It matters very much. And it felt real to me, as I said in the book. Do I actually believe that my grandfather came down to Earth from some other place in a physical form? No. Do I believe I saw or felt something like him in that moment? Yes.
Alex Tsakiris: So why do you believe that he did not come down in some kind of physical or spiritual form that was able to interact with you?
Lisa Miller: Because I don’t believe that people come back to life. I say that very clearly in my book.
Classic.
She state belief about something about "people coming back to life", but not about something she herself experienced that contradicts what she's willing to go on record about.