Did Jesus Die For Nothing?
Another week another book launch.
Try the link below if the above doesn’t work, or go to your local market and search under my name – Orson Wedgwood:
https://mybook.to/DidJesusForNothing
This book really focuses on what NDEs mean for the Christian understanding of who goes to heaven. A few things to consider before you buy:
- The first half of the book is a condensed and an updated version of my NDE AWARE book. So if you bought that just be aware this is the case. I am planning on launching an abridged version in the New Year which just focuses on the religious side of it.
- The Kindle version is currently priced as low as possible to be able to take advantage of various deals. I have also heavily discounted the paperback price on Amazon to $5.99 US and £4.99 which means I literally make about 20 cents a sale! This will go up by a dollar or so once I have some reviews under my belt…so please post some reviews!
- This book is biased!! It is aimed at those who are already Christian or who are really interested in Christianity. It presents a case for what Jesus says about those who will go to heaven being true, in contrast to what many in the NDE community say. There is some really fresh thinking here on that topic. I do not for instance say that all non-Christian NDEs are demonic as some do. I believe my take on this is unique. Moreover, any position on this will be due to anyone’s bias since the data is contradictory, so I deliberately deploy Christian confirmation bias but provide a strong rationale for my final understanding. If you are hostile to Christian beliefs…do not bother buying this book, it will only annoy you!
- Lastly, if you still decide to buy it, I really hope you enjoy it. I delve into the nature of existence and the meaning of life…all for the price of a cup of coffee (and a Muffin if you buy the paperback). If you enjoy it, then please please review it and rate it
AwareofAware 
I enjoyed reading it
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The paperback appears to be currently unavailable
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Which market?
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just wondering are you the same orson wedgwood who has had two other books published, one called the elephant in the room? Cant remember the other one , but one of them was in 2009, I will be honest didnt read either of them
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I wonder how many Orson Wedgwood’s there are? 🙂
I published a novel called Deadly Medicine in 2009…did quite well. Published DNA: The Elephant in the Lab 2018. NDE: Near Death Experiences and the AWARE studies: Proof of the Soul and God? In 2021, and Unholy Spirit and Did Jesus Die for Nothing this year.
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I’ve updated the main link and added another link. Please refresh the blog page and try either of those to see if you have any luck. Also I was able to buy it in the UK through amazon.co.uk, but it should be available everywhere.
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I get your posts by email. I am not religious (I have a background in science) but want to leave here an experience my mom (now in her 80s) had with her brother (he was 3 years older) when they were 10 and 13, respectively, in Lithuania in 1951.
I HAVE MOVED THIS TO THE NEW PAGE ON NDES OF VISITORS
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10000….no matter what you have that at least.
think both reviews up anyhow
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I’m in Ireland so would use the UK one. Previous I had to get the nde book of yours via the Spanish Market. Oddly the Sci fi fantasy book is available via the UK website
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Hi Z, is it available in Ireland yet?
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HI Ben
Yes I got both.
Itvwas thought provoking the second book and the merger of ndes and theology philosophy is well argued. Though of course many will have different takes on it.
Holy unspirit a fun read too. And ones needs them too.
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Glad you enjoyed both…please post reviews or at the least ratings, would be very much appreciated.
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Thanks again for your support. Need it at the moment, only sold about 40 copies of each…bit depressing to be honest after all the work and expense. I did a podcast last week which airs next week, hopefully that will lift things abit.
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HI Ben
I shall leave a review now.
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If you have the time, for both please. All my books start out with slow sales, but as they build reviews, the sales tick up a bit. Then my mood picks up 🙂 writing is a thankful business, so your support is hugely appreciated.
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also 40 OK. It self published and that 40 individual s who brought the book.
If you had 40 at Christmas Dinner you be thinking that a lot of people to cook for (or some analogy akin to that perhaps)
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I know, it’s great to think that anyone else read my work…I just got spoiled when my first book sold 10,000 copies! Never repeated that success, but NDE has probably sold a few hundred now. You just dream about bigger things right.
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10000 some number
I left both reviews up anyhow
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I think you are the first author ever to explicitly state your bias and tell a segment of the population NOT to buy your book! 🙂 As I’ve mentioned before, I’m agnostic and I’m not hostile to any particular religious beliefs; my only hostility is towards those who heavy handedly proselytize and/or who judge/condemn others who have beliefs different than their own. My own bias is that if God does exist, I suspect we have anthropomorphized Him/Her/It. But I do believe in Christ’s message of loving our neighbors as ourselves, doing unto others what we want done to us, not judging others, and forgiving others. (I wish more “Christians” would actually DO that!) I also recognize that those teachings are not original to Jesus, as Buddha also taught them. I find it interesting you said that the “data is contradictory.” I think you were referring to the assertion that non-Christian NDE’s are demonic? Also, you said, “It (your book) presents a case for what Jesus says about those who will go to heaven being true.” I don’t doubt that Jesus lived and he was a teacher in the Jewish tradition. But I have difficulty knowing for sure what he actually said, given the fairly long time period between the time of his death, and when the first Gospel (Mark) was written. While it may be open to interpretation, it seems to me that the last Gospel of John, most likely written at least a couple of generations after Mark, seems to present different ideas of the path to Heaven than the Synoptic Gospels. As a psychologist, I’m very interested in oral histories and how they change over time. I’ve relied heavily on the work of Bart Ehrman, a widely recognized expert scholar of the NT, for understanding what is actually known about the NT (link below). Warning: don’t read it if you are hostile to NT scholarship! 🙂 Anyway, your book sounds like a good story regardless of one’s beliefs, and I wish you luck with it.
https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Before-Gospels-Christians-Remembered/dp/006228522X/ref=pd_lpo_d_sccl_4/142-7935239-7007765?pd_rd_w=y1rBZ&content-id=amzn1.sym.4c8c52db-06f8-4e42-8e56-912796f2ea6c&pf_rd_p=4c8c52db-06f8-4e42-8e56-912796f2ea6c&pf_rd_r=2VKKC3CV4PJSEJ1B1A39&pd_rd_wg=37bhc&pd_rd_r=8c45a708-32a3-472f-8bd3-43aea32e1233&pd_rd_i=006228522X&psc=1
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Hi Shawn. You wrote…..wish more “Christians” would actually DO that!
I’m inclined to agree.
And…..those teachings are not original to Jesus, as Buddha also taught them
One for the pot. Maybe Jesus and Buddha are one and the same – just in human form with different identities?
Paul
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Being an agnostic, I’m open to the idea, but I suspect that most Buddhists and most Christians are not, for the reasons in this article. While they taught many of the same lessons, their ultimate philosophy/theology are quite different. My current view of consciousness is highly informed by analytic idealism, especially Bernardo Kastrup. He would probably say that they are the same, as we all are, in the sense that we are all disassociated alters of a Universal Consciousness.
https://jashow.org/articles/buddhism-and-jesus-christ/
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I actually specific address idealism. I admit that it is completely impossible to disprove, and that it is a choice whether to believe in the kind of proposal that Kastrup makes and a slightly different explanation which aligns with the Christian understanding, but which is none the less related to the idea that we all come from the same consiousness, but are not “alters”. Neither are proveable, and it all boils down to a form of Pascal’s wager 🙂
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Ben, as usual, I’m confused about which “Reply” button to use so I’m just posting this as new and not a reply, but it’s a response to your comment about Bernardo Kastrup and it boiling down to “a form of Pascal’s wager.” I agree that neither is provable, and I don’t have “faith” that Kastrup’s ideas are true. I’m as agnostic on them as I am on Christianity or any form of religion, but at least I now have reason to give credence to the idea that materialism is incorrect and we might actually survive death. Beyond that, extending your Pascal’s wager terminology, “all bets are off,” IMO. I don’t know if your religious faith is actually based on Pascal’s wager, but if it is, I’m not exactly sure where that places you in Fowler’s stages of religious development! (Link #1 – as you may recall, I’m a shrink who has studied developmental stages in both cognition and morality, and Fowler based his stages on those models.) I found a website with some very interesting comments from readers with various perspectives on Pascal’s wager expressed better than I could (link #2). I’ll quote one of my favorites: “It gets…complicated when it comes to beliefs and practices specific to different religions and denominations…Which one do you bet on? Catholic sacraments or the Mormon endowment? Muslim or Jewish orthodoxy? It’s not at all clear to me that Pascal’s Wager is any safer than just trying to be the best person I can be, which means treating others with kindness and dignity, alleviating suffering if possible but at least not contributing to it. And then hoping (betting?) that if there is a god, that that will be enough.” I resonate with that because I can’t control my beliefs very well, but I can control my actions (at least sometimes and my control improves with practice). Since beliefs follow actions, it’s also a way to influence my (often unconscious) beliefs, so I find it most helpful to just focus on my actions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_W._Fowler
https://wheatandtares.org/2022/03/13/pascals-wager/
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I think that for some, especially those on the fence, Pascal’s Wager is a starting point to help one get off the fence. If your faith after many years is still based on Pascal’s Wager, then God will see straight through it. My faith is not based on this, but on my experience of following the Christian walk for nearly 40 years now.
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Pascal’s wager! I’ll be honest and say that it’s an interesting concept which I know nothing about. Basic stuff but Wikipedia steps in here.
Paul
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_wager
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If somebody were on the fence, I would tell them to focus on right actions, and beliefs will follow (research shows actions are crucial in forming beliefs). Granted, there are no guarantees those beliefs will result in a belief that Jesus died for our sins, but they are likely to lead to believing the MESSAGE of Christ as found in the Synoptic Gospels (John is a whole different story). It sounds like you place a lot of emphasis on ACTION, same as I do, and with the same values. But you also place importance on BELIEF, so that makes me think of a few questions regarding the ticket to heaven:
https://ehrmanblog.org/how-theologians-and-historians-approach-the-same-bible-differently-guest-post-by-daniel-kohanski/
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I refer you to my book for the answer to that question 🙂
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You are really good at promoting your book, even if you tell some people not to read it! 🙂 I’m going to buy it now, and I hope EVERY one of my questions is answered, including whether your approach to the NT is theological or historical! The problem is finding the time to read the book right now. I’ve got lots going on and also some health issues that drain energy. Not to mention I get distracted into blogs like this! Writing is very time consuming! You said you were a bit lazy in your other comment, but I doubt that! Perhaps you have a bit of a Puritanical self-judgment? Anyway, I’ll probably stay away from here for awhile so I have time to read your book for all the answers! I probably won’t finish it for awhile, so no quick reviews online, but that might be a good thing, depending on what I might say! 🙂
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Nothing puritanical about me mate. Cigars, wine, and wotnot…all permitted under my roof. I am genuinely lazy or distracted…I could have written a hundred books by now if I got my finger out of my derriere. All I would ask is that if you do review my book, please consider that despite my laziness, I did actually put a lot of effort into it (for a lazy person anyway) I also invested money in editors and designers (best part of $1500 which I am unlikely to ever see again(. Bad reviews are amplified much more than good ones. I’m not sure it will satisfy your intellectual position, but it is an explanation of my position. I have two things that underpin my position. 1. My own “experience” and then 2. my living experience of trying to walk according to the NT.
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You can have a Puritanical work ethic and still drink and smoke! 🙂 It sounds like you believe you are an underachiever. I won’t try to analyze you, but since you yourself said, “distracted,” it’s never too late to add Ritalin to your list of things to enjoy! 🙂 I know how much work goes into a book. I didn’t write one, I only edited one (a lengthy textbook), and that was bad enough! I’m too nice to say anything really bad. I would probably just say nothing at all, but might give you my critique here on the blog. I just downloaded it and may skip the first part about NDE’s (at least for now) so I can get to the answers to my questions! 🙂
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I have a Ph.D. earn a very good wage, have been to over 50 countries, have created books. I could achieved more, but I am happy with what I have achieved. It is enough…I’m just saying that if I had worked harder I would have wrote more, earned more bla bla bla, but I am content with where I am at, and not totally uncomfortable with my work ethic. I see a psychologist and keep her busy with other issues, no drugs for me though 😉
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Thanks for the clarification, and I’m happy you’re happy! 🙂
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Hi Shawn, I thought I was replying to Ben (see below) but I’ll leave it intact as I agree with all that you said.Ah, okay, I was wrong there: I too was raised a Christian. It was only after my NDE that I saw that Jesus was one of many masters – a very high spiritual being but it was people who made him into a God. However what difference does it make? His teaching is what conts, and although as you say yo (and all of us) fail sometimes we are not judged on that. The point is that we strive ever to be a better person, I might add we are not judged at all after death based on what I observed. But there is a kind of self judgement in that we review our lives with our guides and teachers to see what lessons we learned and which ones we failed to learn and have yet to learn. The from there we go to whichever level of consciousness we have reached at that point. But for most people it will be a very pleasant surprise, they will find that life goes on much as before, but without all the problems of the physical world, People live in dwellings, have interests, can study new things, great halls of learning, music art literature, Beautiful landscapes, no sickness or aging since we are in spirit bodies, real and solid to each other but invisible to earth dwellers. Our pets are there too as are all animals, children of course who have passed away. They will mature as here. All our relatives of course and friends who preceded us. Even churches I think of the different denominations. But if a friend or relative was an atheist they will be there too. However if you have reached a high spiritual status you may go to the higher more heavenly levels, perhaps even where Jesus resides, but don’t expect to be greeted by Jesus upon your death, or to see God. If you do you will be very disappointed. Being saved has nothing to do with ritual or belief system Heaven is not a private club with a sign outside that says Christians only, No Jews allowed. What kind of a God would that be to allow such a thing. That is something only a degenerate human would create.
could comeup with.
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Hi Robert,
I agree that this blog site is very confusing when it comes to where to “Reply!” What’s more, I can’t even read your reply to me on the website, only in the email notification. I’ve encouraged Ben to move to Substack, as many bloggers have, because it’s so much clearer where to reply. Anyway… thanks for sharing your NDE experience. Since I’m agnostic, I don’t have any expectations about being greeted by Jesus, although a loving warm light would be nice! 🙂 I find it interesting that Ben’s purpose here is purportedly to prove NDE’s are real, but when somebody like you reports an NDE that doesn’t fit neatly with his Christian beliefs, it seems like his explanations become a bit twisted like a pretzel. To be fair, I should probably read his book to confirm but that’s been my impression from the blog. I think either NDE’s are real or they aren’t, and you can’t cherry pick only those consistent with your religious beliefs to support their validity. He’s been promising to reveal why atheists, including murderers, have positive NDE’s in his book. I guess he doesn’t want to spoil the secret, but I fear pretzel logic so I may just read the synopsis! Anyway, to be perfectly honest, the part of your NDE that gave me the most joy is your experience that our pets are there. (Not that I don’t want to see beloved people, but I was kind of expecting that). I have a dog that I love so much that whenever I think about his passing soon, I turn into a puddle. To me the most persuasive argument for a loving God is that we humans can fall so completely in love with a different species! That dog has taught me more valuable lessons than any human! The biggest obstacle to my faith is the natural suffering of innocent people, including children. The “free will” argument doesn’t explain it, since natural suffering is caused by nature and not by man (e.g., illness, floods, weather catastrophes, etc. ) If you have any insight on why a loving God would allow that, please share. The Bible has a lot to say about suffering, but nothing about natural suffering other than God’s vengeance, but that makes no sense given that most of the victims are innocents. Thanks!
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I hate the way the blog works…drives me potty. Sorting it out is on my to do list. I was looking into creating a forum out of the blog today which would make it a lot better to use I think. I would need to convert my subscription to a business subscription and I can’t justify that at the moment.
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What if we all chipped in a little towards the cost? A forum would be a great idea – some are free to set up. Paul
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That would be great. the best way people can chip in is to buy one of my books. With WordPress forums aren’t free. I must admit I would like a forum and let people get on with whatever they want to talk about and not put myself in the firing line 🙂
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I’m not sure what platform you are thinking of using for a forum, but with Substack, you can offer content totally for free, totally for pay, or a variety of both. Comments can be open to paid subscribers only, or open to all subscribers, including the free ones. It’s totally flexible and up to the Substack author.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/entertainment/article/what-is-substack/
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I already have a substack account for other views that I like sharing of a completely different nature. I should look into shifting my blog over there. As you say I can create some content people pay for…maybe special articles etc. I do find it even more clunky than wordpress as a writer though!
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Oh, I didn’t know that. I have only read other people’s Substacks and commented. Well, hopefully you’ll figure it out! 🙂
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I will be honest Shawn, I am a bit of a lazy bastard, so don’t count on it happening anytime soon 🙂
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Congratulations on the releases Ben!
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Not sure what that means!! Hope all is good with you mate. PM me.
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Hi Ben. I think Rob means when he passes.
Enjoy your weekend Ben and Rob.
Paul
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You too!
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I meant the release of your books
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Wh
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Well, I’m afraid my NDE would not be acceptable as truth to at least fundamentalist Christians, since my experience indicated that to get to the heavenly realms you have to earn your way – no shortcuts. As it says in the bible, By your works you shall be known. Faith without works is as tinkling bells.I wrote the following to a friend: (Oh by the way John Cleese moderated a wonderful program on the subject when he interviewed Doctors Bruce Greyson and a host of other from the Perceptual Studies group at the University of Virginia. You can google it as om Youtube.
From Orson (aka Ben) – I will put your NDE in the new section I am creating for NDEs. It is great, but too long for this section. Thank you.
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Hi Robert,
Thanks for your great post. I will move it into a separate folder that I will be creating a later for people to post their own experiences (Loepold also posted one yesterday which will join it). This chat is not meant for NDE testimonies as it quickly makes it impossible to navigate. It is meant really to discuss the evidence around NDEs, and in this instance I have used it to promote my book and maybe discuss ideas in it, but not huge essays 🙂
As an aside I discuss faith without works in my book, and agree completely that this is not what God has in mind for us. Neither do I believe that you can earn your place in heaven through good deeds alone. Moreover, on other aspects of what you wrote, after years of going through NDEs I have started to come to a different understanding of the “truths” that they reveal. There is far too much variation between accounts and this points to something else going on. All in the book.
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Hi Ben, Thanks for your kind words, also I must apolof gise I see now you have an open mind which to me is a sign of high intelligence, I misread part of what you wrote as possibly having fixed religious ideas, but I see that is not the case, you are open to all points of view as they relate to NDE experiences. You are right absolute truth is hard to find. We don’t have a King Solomon to ask what is true and what is not true. Many people take the egotistical approach of stating their beliefs as facts, but they are merely beliefs usually based on someone else’s belifs. For example, the bible was written by men over a long period of time. The church fathers didn’t like some parts and removed them, other parts they agreed with in part so revised them to fit their own preconceived notions. I don’t know if true or not, but I read reincarnation was widely believed at the time of Jesus, that he didn’t say you must be born again to enter the Kingdom of Heaven but rather you must be born again and again and again, as one short life is not long enough to make much spiritual progress. And supposedly since the kingdom of heaven is within, not without that makes sense. We take the state of our mind and soul with us when we die. There is no sudden enlightenment, which is why I said we must earn every step of the way. No shortcuts such as mere beliefs. You said you felt that works alone are not sufficient: I’d like to know more about that.Did you mean being kind, patient, slow to anger, compassionate, etc., if so I agree because that’s what spirituality is all about. I’d say that some Christians are Christian in name only. They smile and nod at each other on sundays and listen to the sermon then forget the words of the minister the moment they leave the church, then all through the week they may be very unkind, perhaps short on integrity and honesty, yelling at employees, or at service reps on the phone, mean tippers – very stingy,even if rich, being inconsiderate in traffic, verbally abusive to family, make hateful angry remarks about people of opposing political views etc. ( Can think of one lady in politics in particular) Also they may appear to be paragons of virtue in public but quietly indulge in not so admirable behaviour when hidden from view. Some can be exceedingly hateful. They have to be very unhappy people. You can’t hate someone and feel good inside at the same time. (I could write a book on how to not get into heaven 🙂 By the way, you inspired me to start my own blog. I will mention you and your book, which I will now download to my kindle. Oh, the blog is (I thought I was being original by the way “Much Ado About Nothing 8”
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I’m not sure what I said that made you think I have an “open mind”. In my mind and heart I am 100% certain that Jesus is who the gospels say he is. Christians who are unkind etc need to understand Jesus’ teachings on what happens to those who know the commands of the master yet fail to do them. I confess, I am guilty of this, but seek daily God’s forgiveness, and where appropriate those I have hurt, and to improve.
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A very interesting post Robert – thanks for sharing. Regards Paul.
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.Ah, okay, I was wrong there: I too was raised a Christian. It was only after my NDE that I saw that Jesus was one of many masters – a very high spiritual being but it was people who made him into a God. However what difference does it make? His teaching is what conts, and although as you say yo (and all of us) fail sometimes we are not judged on that. The point is that we strive ever to be a better person, I might add we are not judged at all after death based on what I observed. But there is a kind of self judgement in that we review our lives with our guides and teachers to see what lessons we learned and which ones we failed to learn and have yet to learn. The from there we go to whichever level of consciousness we have reached at that point. But for most people it will be a very pleasant surprise, they will find that life goes on much as before, but without all the problems of the physical world, People live in dwellings, have interests, can study new things, great halls of learning, music art literature, Beautiful landscapes, no sickness or aging since we are in spirit bodies, real and solid to each other but invisible to earth dwellers. Our pets are there too as are all animals, children of course who have passed away. They will mature as here. All our relatives of course and friends who preceded us. Even churches I think of the different denominations. But if a friend or relative was an atheist they will be there too. However if you have reached a high spiritual status you may go to the higher more heavenly levels, perhaps even where Jesus resides, but don’t expect to be greeted by Jesus upon your death, or to see God. If you do you will be very disappointed. Being saved has nothing to do with ritual or belief system Heaven is not a private club with a sign outside that says Christians only, No Jews allowed. What kind of a God would that be to allow such a thing. That is something only a degenerate human would create.
could comeup with.
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Reply ↓
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In my book I discuss my changed view of the significance we should ascribe to what people report from NDEs.
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Impossible to leave my comment on this blog
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Is that for logistical reasons or because you are angry?
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Something to do with wordpress… it refused to let me post several times… asking me to login… when I was logged in… but then let me post that comment… showing that I was indeed logged in.
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It is my intention to sort all this out one day. Apologies for the frustrations you experienced.
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I had tried to post this…
I’d class myself as agnostic, no real contact with religion – my parents never bothered to have me christened – although we lived next door to an Anglican church whilst I was growing up in England – and loved playing in the grave yard – sometimes having to escape over the wall from the Vicar who lived over the road.
I’m certainly a believer in a man called Jesus, and that he seems to have been an extremely clever Jewish guy, and probably brought up in a Greek influenced community.My closest friend (a then practicing Methodist) introduced me to The Gospel of Thomas around 20 odd years ago, and my initial interpretation of the various translations of the sayings shocked him at the time.My ideas from GoT subsequently altered his view of the Bible, whilst the GoT has in turn, also had a very big impact on myself over the years, as I’ve come to know it better.Taken together with my own anomalous experiences and research, the GoT has been a great help to me (as has the translation of the Hymn of Pearl), it contains very deep wisdom on the nature of Experience, and I’m extremely grateful to have been introduced to it.LikeLike
Hi Max,
I recently tried to read the “gospel of Thomas”, and the moment I started reading anything that was attributed to Jesus I got the sense of a completely different “character” behind the voice or writing to one I encounter across the 4 gospels in the New Testament, and the one I encounter in times of personal corporate prayer and worship. To me it felt fraudulent, that is nothing to do with the theological arguments about its authenticity and the fact it was most likely written over a hundred years after the death of Jesus by gnostics. It was more a spiritual response…spiritual alarm bells going off in my head! So I stopped reading it.
Personally, from own experience and understanding, I am certain that Jesus was exactly who the New Testament gospels say he was.
That is all I am going to say since you raised this subject. In general, I try to keep specific religious discussions off here (although obviously my recent book is very much about that, but I put a massive warning that it is biased!). The odd comment is fine, but we could literally spend thousands of pages discussing theology, the gospel of Thomas etc etc, and I would prefer to avoid that. If I get round to creating a forum, there will be threads for that type of discussion, but my books need to be a lot more successful than they have been for me to spend that kind of money and time.
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