The dead walk among us

I'm not going to reference an article today. Today I'm going to give an example of where theists go wrong. We have a small discussion group at work. One of the topics given today was something in the news that I hadn't read and still haven't read. The topic discussed memories from being reincarnated. One of my coworkers brought up the topic after having read something online. The coworker gave the headline which was something along the lines of, "Study shows evidence of former life memories gives credence to past life experiences!" (w/ a reference to reincarnation which I can't recall at this point, sorry)

Keep in mind, I haven't read either the article or the study. My coworker brings up this article and immediately afterward another coworker exclaims, "And you say you don't believe in God."

My immediate reply afterward was, "What? Why would you bring God into this?"

The coworker was incredulous. He wondered why an atheist would reference an article which gave the idea that reincarnation was possible.

The fact was that he was so wrapped up in his own worldview that he didn't catch that the person who referenced the article was still skeptical regarding the results.

The reality was that the article, whether valid or not, was giving a reason why people claim to have past life experiences. That is why my coworker was pegged about whether or not he believed in God.

Whether or not the study was valid, the godder here is in the wrong. He (or She) automatically presumed a supernatural entity made the historical memory of a past relative possible.

Keep in mind, I am not an archeologist, a biologist, or someone who is an expert in evolutionary biology. In fact, I have no "ist's" attributed to any titles near my name. However, when a claim is made, I still require information to back up the claim that's made. In this case, the claim is that an ancestors memory is included in a human's genetic code. As I pointed out to my coworker earlier today, there's no reason to presume that God, if indeed these memories are valid, is involved. Instead, studies and tests should be conducted to see if indeed the genetic memory has any relevance to actual history...This shouldn't be a hard claim to test. Nor, is it, in my opinion, outside of the scope of reality. We already know, through dozens of studies, that some behaviors are passed through the genetic code. Our offspring behave in a certain way, not because they have been taught to behave that way, but because their genes tell them to behave in that manner. An example? My wife is pregnant so this example is relevant to my current situation. When the fetus' feet come in contact w/ the uterine wall will automatically push off towards the vaginal opening during labor to assist the mother. This is just on example w/in the human species. There are lots more outside of our genus.

The point is that people can still be full of wonder with out being too credulous. Keep an open mind with the information you recieve, but apply the scientific method.