How does the exploration of near death experiences create a paradox within religious and scientific perspectives?
Since the last time I wrote about my research, I learned that religion and science have two completely different views on near death experiences. The scientific side believes that these events occur because our brain is reacting to what is being performed in our bodies while near death. I learned that I am capable of working fast and efficiently while under pressure. I also learned that I am not very good at working with others because I get easily stressed when none of us are able to figure out what to do. My group wants to draw to bodies on the trifold board (one for the scientific side of the board and one for the religious side), make one side of the board angels that show what religion thinks people see while experiencing this and making the other side heartbeat lines that represent the pace of the heart while nearing death. For our artistic piece of this project, we want to build a black tunnel big enough for people to walk through it. Once people get close to the end of the tunnel, we will divide it into two pieces: one side will be filled with light and peaceful sounds and the other will be a dark lonely place which scientists believe happens when you die. This will give people the opportunity to choose what side they believe is correct. In my next steps, I need to make sure I work hard on constructing the final parts of my project. I need to begin building my supplemental piece and writing down what I will say at the showcase. Our collaboration is going well so far. Our ideas and equal work is going just fine but our lack of communication is not going very good.
.Since the last time I wrote about my research, I found out that many scientists and religious people have the same thoughts on near death experiences. Our driving question and topic did not change after we decided to research more about these interesting experiences. Now that we are in the student led research part of the process, we chose to conduct an interview on experts on these topics. We chose to do an interview because we feel that it is the easiest way to get the information we need and it will also help us see from both perspectives; the science one and the religious one. Throughout the process, not very many things have been easy. It is difficult conducting research on a topic that doesn’t really change over the years. In our next steps, we need to make sure we successfully complete the info synthesis document because it is a running document that will constantly be changing as we get closer to the end of this project. Some of the things we need to do are meet with out mentors to help explain what it is we should have on our ISD. So far, our collaboration is going well. Our thoughts and ideas are going fine too but the work that should be evenly divided between us is not going too good.
Driving Question: How does the Exploration of Near Death Experiences create a paradox within religious and scientific perspectives? Multiple Perspectives In talking about near death experiences there are a number of different perspectives as to the reasons behind it are. Two of them would be the religious and the scientific perspectives. When a person has a near death experience, they usually have an event that follows where the person appears to be floating to the end of the tunnel towards a bright light. Religion might see this as a proof of God and heaven where science sees it as a result from the brain or a close encounter of death. Science:
Paradox What is Paradox? Paradox is the contradictory elements in an event or idea. Near death experiences stretch two ways. Science being one way and religion being the other. These two different ideas and the explanations in which both sides provide for Near Death Experiences are completely against each other. This has to do with one’s individual person beliefs. Thus the conclusions from both sides on why people have Near Death Experiences are contradicting each other rather than agreeing with one another. These two separate ideas contradict each other due to the fact that science believes that there is an explanation for everything while religion is about believing even without actually seeing. Changes Over Time
In the exploration of Near Death Experiences and their causes there seems to be a great pattern in the explanations for both religious and scientific perspectives. What is the sequence or order of events? The order of events seems to be based off on the experiments conducted by science. All of the experiments deal with the mind and what happens when a person has a near death experience. The conclusions drawn from the experiments seem to be the same.
Science:
Religion:
Rob Stein. (2013). Brains of Dying Rats Yield Clue About Near Death Experiences. Southern California, Public Radio. Nathalie Wolchover. (2012). NDEs are Lucid Dreams Experiment Finds. Live Science. Rebecca Morelle. (2013). Near Death Experiences are ‘Electrical Surge in Dying Brain.’ Michigan. BBC News. Marshall Connolly. (2013). Not so Fast: Scientists recreate Near Death Experiences in Rats, Atheists go Wild. California. Catholic Online. Ben Brumfield. (2013). ‘Afterlife Feels Even more Real than Real,’ Researcher Says. CNN. Dr. John Ankerberg & John Weldon. (2013). What is the Biblical View of the Afterlife?’. The John Ankerberg Show. Alex Lickerman (2011) The Neurology of Near-Death Experiences. Driving Question: How does the exploration of near death experiences create a paradox within religion and scientific perspectives? Names of student researchers: Ashley Guzman & Seleny Arroyo Grade level: 8th Mentor teacher: Park Special notes about handling and or placement or presentation space needed: We will need an extra table for our art piece. ENDING QUESTION Please write down the ending question in the box below. Refer to pages 93-98. You might also want to include the icon for “Unanswered questions” here too. Ending Question: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
STUDENT-LED RESEARCH PLAN Group members: Please write the names of your group members here (including their PARK ELA class period): Seleny Arroyo (1-2) Ashley Guzman (3-4) Driving Question: How does the exploration of Near Death Experiences create a paradox within religious and scientific perspectives? ------------------------------------------------- Interview: Pastor, & a scientist/doctor Name- Eduardo Perez, Pastor, Name- Donald Bamber, Researcher Specialist in Cognitive Science, [email protected] How are you going to contact them? Are they a family friend, someone you know, a relative, a friend’s parent, a teacher’s friend? A stranger? If so, how will you contact the stranger and what will you say? (If you are emailing, your mentor must approve the email and you must make sure your mentor is cc’d to the email. If you are meeting someone, you MUST be accompanied with an adult like a parent or older sibling who is 18 or older. If you are calling, you MUST have a mentor or adult in the room with you as you call.) This pastor is a family friend and well known by my parents and siblings. The Scientist will be contacted through email, I will plan on saying the reason for the research which is the Symposium Project along with the 5 questions. When do you plan on conducting the interview? Because this is a very busy person, I plan to conduct the interview on a weekend when he isn’t really worried about church and family things. I plan on conducting the interview as soon as possible due to the fact that it might take a while for the person to respond. What are the 5 questions that you will ask the person? Religious Perspective:
How do your interview questions help investigate the DRIVING QUESTION? My interview questions will help investigate the driving question because it will help us see from the religious perspective. It will let us see and understand why near death experiences happen according to religious people. The interview questions will help see how different the perspectives between the religious and scientific explanations for NDE’s. What are the limitations or possible flaws of your interview? The pastor will be biased in responding the questions because he is involved more with God than anything else. The possible flaws of the interview will be that the person might not respond or will respond however it will take a very long time. ------------------------------------------------- In each of the articles that we have found, it talks about science’s views on near death experiences, and some talk about religion’s views on it. The science side clearly states that the things people go through prior to death are “hallucinations” or “dreams”. The religious side thinks it is a way of God letting them know they have to change their lifestyle before it’s too late. These articles relate to our universal theme because this is all about exploring what others don’ t think about or know about. One article that we had was about an experiment scientists did on rats and they had to kill them to see if it what happened to them was similar to what happens to humans. This connects to the generalization “requires taking risks” because rats had to be killed. The generalizations “confronts the unknown” and “may result in new findings or the confirmation of old findings” also connect to our articles because we discovered that neither science or religion know the true cause of the things people see prior to death. In the exploration of our topic, we changed it a few times because we thought they were to vague. In my next steps, I hope to find out what people my age think of NDEs. Do they think it’s scientific or religious? My partner and I’s collaboration is going good. Our ideas are working well. I really hope that it continues to be like this because when our collaborations doesn’t go well, we both become frustrated.
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