Spirituality – Page 5 – Skeptiko – Science at the Tipping Point

Join Skeptiko host Alex Tsakiris for an interview with Gary Renard, author of, The Disappearance of the Universe, and Robert Perry, author of Signs: A New Approach to Coincidence, Synchronicity, Guidance, Life Purpose, and God's Plan. During the interview Mr. Tsakiris and Gary Renard discuss verification of his work:

Alex Tsakiris: One of the points in your book where I really had to stop and go -- wait a minute -- is when you say that you had these two beings, "ascended masters" show up in your living room. Amazing, amazing. But not unique in that other people have claimed similar kinds of things. So I'm not willing to dismiss that out-of-hand, but Gary, they showed up 17 times... you don't have a photograph? You don't have videotape? You don't have any kind of record of this?

Gary Renard: Well actually, they're still showing up today. We're going to do a fourth book together. They do show up and they said that for me to try to prove that they existed would be entirely missing the point. Yes, I could take pictures of them but what would prove, Alex, that those weren't two actors in the pictures? If I recorded them, what would prove that those weren't two actors speaking on the tape?

Gary Renard's website

Robert Perry's website

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Welcome to Skeptiko, where we explore controversial science with leading researchers, thinkers, and their critics. I'm your host, Alex Tsakiris. On this episode, I'm going to tell you why I'm a skeptic.

122. Reincarnation of Apostle Paul, Nick Bunick’s Claims Scrutinized

Alex Tsakiris

December 20, 2010July 25, 2017

Spirituality

Christianity, skepticism, spirituality

Popular author Nick Bunick claims past-life regression provided remembrances of Jesus, but biblical scholars have doubts.

Join Skeptiko host Alex Tsakiris for an interview with bestselling author of, Time For Truth, Nick Bunick. During the interview Mr. Bunick discusses how a chance visit to a psychic revealed his past, "Alex, I had no idea what he was talking about. Two thousand years ago I walked with the Master? I didn't even have a religion. I'd never read the Gospels. I did have a relationship with God; it was a spiritual relationship. But what happened to me then over the next six or seven years, I had affirmation after affirmation from other sources that indeed, my spirit and soul had manifested itself 2,000 years ago in the person we know as the Apostle Paul."

But, as Skeptiko host Alex Tsakiris explains during the interview, biblical scholars take exception with some of Mr. Bunick's claims, "I've tried to get a sense for biblical scholarship in general and it surprised how much we do know about the Bible. It is the most studied document in history. Millions of man-hours have been spent scouring the earth, finding every copy we can get our hands on. Scholars have gone through and scrutinized every word and every letter. I don't think these scholars would agree with your account. Secular scholars like Bart Ehrman and Robert Price, as well as Christian Biblical scholars don't find any support for your claim that the Bible used to support reincarnation."

According to Bunick transcripts of past-life regression sessions, "gave information about the life of Paul never before known before, as well as the life of Jesus never before known. And also, it conflicted in many places with what is written in the New Testament."

Nick Bunick

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Welcome to Skeptiko, where we explore controversial science with leading researchers, thinkers, and their critics. I'm your host, Alex Tsakiris, and I have to tell you that in preparing for this episode, in particular the introduction to this episode, I was really challenged. I was trying to figure out how to wrap my arms around what I wanted to say. And then I was going through the forum and I came across a video that one of our listeners had posted.

117. Spencer Burke’s Controversial, Long-Term View of Christianity

Alex Tsakiris

October 25, 2010July 25, 2017

Spirituality

Christianity, spirituality

Interview with author and influential thinker in the Emergent Church movement looks at Christianity 10,000 years from now.

Join Skeptiko host Alex Tsakiris for an interview with the author of, A Heretic's Guide to Eternity, Spencer Burke. During the interview Mr. Burke is asked about the future of Christianity in light of discoveries regarding the nature of consciousness, "I take a long view of history. So let's say 10,000 years from now the Christians look back at us in the early, nostalgic age of early Christianity in the year 2000. Think about all the understanding and knowledge they will have. This perspective gives us a little bit of freedom to hold things a bit loosely. If I say, 'what I have right now, if I lose it I lose who I am'... that's a difficult place to be. But if I say, 'here's who I am today', now I have the freedom and strength to continue to move forward without the fear or worry of discovering, learning, growing, evolving... whatever words you want to use... maturing in 'the way'... why are we so afraid of that?"

Mr. Burke also examines the future direction of the Emergent Church movement he helped found, "...you know the pendulum swung so hard in some ways with the Emerging Church, and I love that, but it's also got to find some reality and that's my quest. Like in my book, Making Sense of the Church, I was struggling with the idea of saying all evangelism is just evil. And I'm like, no, just evil evangelism is evil. Leadership's bad. No, bad leadership is bad. Isn't there good leadership? Good evangelism? And I think what Skeptiko is doing with this in a beautiful way is maybe creating that hybrid. I think that's what this next thing is."

Learn more about Spencer Burke

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Alex Tsakiris: Welcome to Skeptiko where we explore controversial science with leading researchers, thinkers, and their critics.

I'm your host, Alex Tsakiris, and for those of you who have been following this show for a while, you might realize that we've kind of been going down two tracks.