ニューズウィークの英語版に、インド系アメリカ人の死後の生命の存在を論じた本の書評が出ていました。
http://www.newsweek.com/id/220296
毎日訪れている英語道創始者の松本道弘先生のブログのコメント欄に、この記事の紹介がありましたので、さっそく、その記事を読んでみましたが、これはなかなか面白い本のようですね。
これは是非英語版を購入して読んでみたい。
英語もそんなにむずかしくないようです。
第一章の一部が読めるので読んでみましたが、日本人でもそんなに苦労しないで読める、地球語としての英語的な、明快な英語ですね。
たとえば、次のような箇所。
Death is the great wrecking ball that destroys everything. Everything that we have done, everything we are doing now, and all our plans for the future are completely and irrevocably destroyed when we die.
We cannot be indifferent to the question of whether there is life beyond the grave. If there is life after death, we have grounds for hope; if not, we must be reconciled to our plight of hoplessness and despair.
著者は死後の生命の存在の疑問は、「the ultimate question」だと述べているが、確かにそのとおりで、オウムも、かつて、「ベストリアリアライゼーション 絶対最勝の悟りの道 死後の世界か存在するか？」というビデオを出していて、この問題は人類最大のテーマと謳っていました。そう、死後の生命の問題は、人類最大のテーマなんですね。
たしかに、オウムはセンスが良かったんですね。
そうでなければ、あれだけの人は集められなかったということでしょう。
このインド系アメリカ人と同じ問題意識を共有している。
この著者はアメリカの保守の思想家として、ベストセラーも出しており、かなりの影響力を持っているようです。
今後、いろいろなメディアで取り上げられることでしょう。
フォックステレビにもこの著者は出ていて、この本の内容や自分の考え方を語っています。
Dinesh D'Souza - Life After Death (11.4.09)
Proof of 'Life After Death'
Thursday , November 05, 2009
ADVERTISEMENTThis is a rush transcript from "On the Record," November 4, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Is there life after death? Can you prove it? Our next guest says he can. Dinesh D'Souza joins us. He is the author of a brand new book, "Life after Death: The Evidence." It's nice to see you.
DINESH D'SOUZA, AUTHOR, "LIFE AFTER DEATH: THE EVIDENCE": It's a pleasure.
VAN SUSTEREN: And I love the words "The Evidence," which is another word for proof. Is there life after death?
D'SOUZA: I think there is. And I've always believed on the basis of faith, but in this book I set that aside and I say let's look at empirical evidence, let's look at historical, philosophical, scientific evidence, and that is the good line, that when you look at modern science, at modern philosophy, there is surprising proof that there is life after death.
VAN SUSTEREN: Like what?
D'SOUZA: Shakespeare called death "the undiscovered country," and it's true that you can't go to the other side of the curtain. I do not claim to have interviewed dead people or any of that.
There are near-death experiences, and that is thousands of people who have been very close to death, they have been declared clinically dead or in some cases no brain function, and they report all over the world a surprisingly uniform experience.
They say "I feel like I am being pulled through a tunnel." "I see a bright light." "I feel in the presence of a celestial being." "And then I come across an impassible barrier, and I cannot go through it, and I am back on the operating table."
These near-death experiences, which are now the subject of quite detailed study -- the atheists are very worried about them and are trying to say no, it is like if you take hallucinogenic drugs or maybe the brain in the process of dying generates this kind of special effects. But those theories have their own problems.
VAN SUSTEREN: How do you know that it isn't that? I'm zeroing in on the whole issue of proof. I realize these people, these near-death- experiences, there are similarities, but where is your level of certainty?
D'SOUZA: Remember, this is only one part of the argument. I think the way you look at life after death is you are kind of like a detective and you come upon a crime scene. There is no eyewitness. We cannot talk to dead people.
But there is a lot of clues and a lot of evidence. Each single pieces by itself will not make a case, but then you put them together.
For example, take the atheists idea that this is just a dying brain. Many of us know people with Alzheimer's where the body and brain are breaking down, you know what that is like. You have faded recollections, you have a dimness of perception, you have disorientation.
And then you look at the near-death experience, and it is the opposite. It is extreme clarity and a sense of vividness.
Besides, if these are people whose brains are dying, what are they walking around? The people with near-death experiences are -- they have jobs, they have families. So their brain would have had to die and essentially come back to life which is a little hard to believe.
VAN SUSTEREN: So you believed this from faith before you started writing the book. You then did research and you look at it from a scientific point of view. Is that right?
D'SOUZA: The thing is we believe a lot of things on faith, but we are living in a secular culture. And so in some senses fate doesn't cut it when you are talking to somebody who doesn't share your faith. I think it's important to look at see what modern evidence has to show.
And so I look at physics, I look at biology, and most importantly the science of the brain, because there have been tremendous advances in neuroscience.
And in a sense what we are looking at here is the mind and the brain same thing? Because, if they are, then the brain dies, we don't deny that, so then the mind goes with it. But if the mind is not the same thing as the brain, then it opens up the possibility that the brain my die but the mind might live on.
VAN SUSTEREN: Is mind synonymous with soul?
D'SOUZA: Soul is tricky term. Usually the religious tradition, the soul is the moral faculty, the ability to tell right from wrong. That's the soul.
The mind is the much wider repertoire of thoughts and feelings, emotions, ideas, the whole immaterial side of us.
Now, 2,500 years Socrates, of all people, made an argument for life after death, which I think is still relevant. He said we as human beings, we have a physical side, our bodies, and we have a mental side, our thoughts, our feeling, our ideas, and our bodies may die, but the immaterial part of us could live on.
VAN SUSTEREN: Great new book, "Life After Death: [The] Evidence" is the word. Thank you, nice to see you.
D'SOUZA: It's been a pleasure.