Mr. Stossel moved from skepticism about silly things like Astrology to dismiss everything that he called "supernatural" - by which he seemed to mean all divine reality.

And he did this, of course, by ignoring the evidence.

In his negative look at Near Death Experiences he was careful to focus on the experiences of inarticulate little children, and to ignore the vast amount of compelling evidence.

So - deal with this one, John:

The doctors began the frantic work of resuscitation, for the man's heart had stopped. He lay dead on the gurney. The pastor watched and prayed.

After several minutes the doctors succeeded in restoring a heartbeat, and the patient was wheeled into CCU. He was awake and alert.

His pastor went in to see him.

"Do you want to hear a strange story?" said the man to his pastor, who replied that he would be very interested.

"Was I dead?" asked the man?

"Yes, for several minutes," said the minister.

"I thought so," said the patient. He went on to describe his experience - at first seeing the doctors working on him - then being "whooshed" through a dark, spiraling tunnel into another world.

"I found myself in the most beautiful green pasture, just glorious with color," he said. "Across it was a low stone fence - and just beyond the fence was my father, who died last year. As I approached the fence, my father said, 'Not yet, son.' And when he said that, I was whooshed right back through that tunnel and was hovering over my body there in emergency.

"I begged the doctors to leave me alone. I had never known such joy and peace. I didn't want to come back. But they couldn't hear me. "By the way - did you hurt your hand very badly?"

The minister was startled by the question. In the excitement, while his church member had been "dead," he had cut his hand on a sharp object in the emergency room.

"I saw you cut your hand," the patient said, "and I heard you cry out in pain."

Get to church somewhere this weekend. Unlike Mr. Stossel, we try to look at all the evidence.