In new film The Discovery, the knowledge that heaven exists leads to an epidemic of suicides. The co

steve001

Member
If I remember my history correctly suicide rose after the Catholic church made inroads into Europe preaching how wonderful the afterlife would be to the pagans if converted. Did anyone here see this movie?
  • By Sam Adams
24 January 2017
The question most important to good science fiction isn’t “What if?” but “What then?” The premise of Charlie McDowell’s The Discovery – what if we knew the afterlife was real? – has naturally been getting much of the attention devoted to the film at Sundance. But it’s the way McDowell follows through on that idea, and how it might, or might not, change the world we know that puts The Discovery to the test.

If there’s another world why not get there as soon as you can?

The Discovery, which, like McDowell’s debut, The One I Love, he co-wrote with Justin Lader, opens with a jarring but gimmicky prologue. Thomas Harbor (Robert Redford), the scientist who has provided proof that there is some form of life after death, is in the midst of defending his findings to a TV interviewer (a far-too-brief appearance by Mary Steenburgen), when a member of her crew interrupts to blow his brains out on the air. But in contrast with last year’s twin Sundance entries about the on-camera suicide of Florida newscaster Christine Chubbuck, his action isn’t a protest so much as an invitation: if there’s another world, it can’t be worse than this one, so why not get there as soon as you can?
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20...e-discovery-explores-the-idea-of-an-afterlife
 
I don't know about any particular religions, but knowledge of the afterlife based on empirical evidence deters suicide.

http://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2012/09/skepticism-big-lie-activist-skeptics.html
Lessons from the Light by Kenneth Ring and Evelyn Elsaesser. The link goes to a page in the book that describes how knowledge of Near Death Experiences deters suicide.

As far as I know, the first clinician to make use of NDE material in this context was a New York psychologist named John McDonagh. In 1979, he presented a paper at a psychological convention that described his success with several suicidal patients using a device he called "NDE bibliotherapy." His "technique" was actually little more than having his patients read some relevant passages from Raymond Moody's book, Reflections on Life after Life, after which the therapist and his patient would discuss its implicatins for the latter's own situation. McDonagh reports that such an approach was generally quite successful not only in reducing suicidal thoughts but also in preventing the deed altogether.

...

Since McDonagh's pioneering efforts, other clinicians knowledgeable about the NDE who have had the opportunity to counsel suicidal patients have also reported similar success. Perhaps the most notable of these therapists is Bruce Greyson, a psychiatrist now at the University of Virginia, whose specialty as a clinician has been suicidology. He is also the author of a classic paper on NDEs and suicide which the specialist may wish to consult for tis therapeutic implications. (14)

Quite apart form the clinicians who have developed this form of what we migh call "NDE-assisted therapy," I can draw upon my own personal experience here to provide additional evidence of how the NDE has helped to deter suicide. The following case ...​
 
Last edited:
Yet people believe in an afterlife for thousands of years and human civilization is still around....
Well give folks enough food to keep there bellies full and they react just like all the other animals, they procreate. Human population didn't start to grow faster until we invented agriculture.
 
Where did you get that conclusion. Agriculture allowed humans to increase their numbers. If your food deprived the first and last thing on your mind is food.

So what did the is whole thing about food have to do with my comment above?
 
So what did the is whole thing about food have to do with my comment above?
My point was, we breed faster once we have food which allows us to settle down to many places to create civilizations. I got the impression rightly or wrongly civilization was created from whole cloth. That's all I have to say.
 
My point was, we breed faster once we have food which allows us to settle down to many places to create civilizations. I got the impression rightly or wrongly civilization was created from whole cloth. That's all I have to say.

Hmmmm perhaps don't quote me if your reply is completely irrelevant to what I said?
 
Ah, yes, the weak. Aren't these the same people that Darwinism (assuming it is true) will find a way to take out of the gene pool as "unfit"?
 
Yet people believe in an afterlife for thousands of years and human civilization is still around....

Those dang NDErs should be committing suicide en masse instead of becoming happy go lucky people that just happen to be fearless before death, entertainment media can't possibly be wrong or have a ridiculous bias.
 
Last edited:
Those dang NDErs should be committing suicide en masse instead of becoming happy go lucky people that just happen to be fearless before death, entertainment media can't possibly be wrong or have a ridiculous bias.

The most amusing part to me is the "skeptic" refrain that the world would be better if we could convince everyone materialism - where there is no free will and no objecting morality - is true.

"Skeptics" have sought to engage in one of the most faith-based social engineering experiments in human history, one that goes against the very foundations of how our ideas of achievement and justice work.

Thankfully the whole project seems to be collapsing further and further into failure - one more dead cult...
 
That is the interesting thing. A lot of people report not wanting to return to their body at the end of their NDE, but very few go on to commit suicide to get back ahead of time!

David

I've posted this a few times, but it's relevant to your post.

 
Did anyone here see this movie?

I have not, but the Media ignoring thousands of years of hard thinking by smart people on this subject is pretty typical.

It seems odd that a movie so concerned with life after death should make so little reference to the thousands of years of religious and philosophical thought on the subject.

This is Not Odd to me because I'm a Conspiracy Theorist.

I theorize that the Oligarchs who own these media corporations actively dissuade the public from thinking about Philosophy and Epistemology because it serves the Oligarchs' best interests to do so.
 
I have not, but the Media ignoring thousands of years of hard thinking by smart people on this subject is pretty typical.



This is Not Odd to me because I'm a Conspiracy Theorist.

I theorize that the Oligarchs who own these media corporations actively dissuade the public from thinking about Philosophy and Epistemology because it serves the Oligarchs' best interests to do so.
I would say the reason most people you know don't think about philosophy... is do to life presenting more urgently pragmatic concerns.
 
Well give folks enough food to keep there bellies full and they react just like all the other animals, they procreate. Human population didn't start to grow faster until we invented agriculture.

Early humans, however, even hunter gatherers still held to some sort of belief though. Theirs was a more universal, animist view, where everything was sentient to some degree, and they themselves were animals and part of the cosmic order. However, this is a far cry from the hard materialist view of today. Furthermore, AFAIK, humans have had burial rituals long before civilisation sprung up as we might more commonly view it.
 
That is the interesting thing. A lot of people report not wanting to return to their body at the end of their NDE, but very few go on to commit suicide to get back ahead of time!

David
Relatively few, but some do. "In my research base of 3,000 adult experiencers, a little less than 4 percent admitted they had attempted suicide after their episode. Some tried it right away, others within five or twelve years. When I asked why, all of them said Earth life was just too tough. They knew the other side was better than this one, so they resolved to go back." (PMH Atwater, The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences, 2007, Hampton Roads, p. 76.)
 
Early humans, however, even hunter gatherers still held to some sort of belief though. Theirs was a more universal, animist view, where everything was sentient to some degree, and they themselves were animals and part of the cosmic order. However, this is a far cry from the hard materialist view of today. Furthermore, AFAIK, humans have had burial rituals long before civilisation sprung up as we might more commonly view it.
If my memory serves, the oldest known religion was dated to 70000 years ago.

I also read a short article of what appear to be stone monoliths in I think Southern Africa dated to 250000 years ago.

I refreshed my memory about the stone monoliths. Age dates vary, but the age estimates are still very old. Look up: Adam's Calendar".
 
Last edited:
The most amusing part to me is the "skeptic" refrain that the world would be better if we could convince everyone materialism - where there is no free will and no objecting morality - is true.

"Skeptics" have sought to engage in one of the most faith-based social engineering experiments in human history, one that goes against the very foundations of how our ideas of achievement and justice work.

Thankfully the whole project seems to be collapsing further and further into failure - one more dead cult...

In my time, they used hedonism as a nice tool to promote the wonders of a morally relativistic -yet pointless- materialistic reality. Nowadays they have shifted to some angsty teenager "arguments", like the supposedly "metaphysical" fluff that is this film's premise. Usually such demagogue is cited as a last resort (see desperate politicians), so you may be right when you suggest that it is all coming down.
 
Back
Top