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General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: bigsky on May 26, 2014, 08:07:02 PM

Title: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: bigsky on May 26, 2014, 08:07:02 PM
just wondering
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: skorpx1 on May 26, 2014, 08:12:02 PM
Nope.

IN.
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: GScholz on May 26, 2014, 08:19:41 PM
Define "ghost"...
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: Rogue9Volt on May 26, 2014, 08:45:11 PM
Ok, I'll bite...

Personally, and technically, no.  The technical part would this:  energy can't be created or destroyed, only transferred or something to that effect.  The human brain (I.E. Your conscious mind) is electrical signals.  When you die, who knows where that energy goes, or what it does.  It is unlikely that it simply ceases to exist... 

That being said.  I don't believe in spirits, persay..  However, who knows what happens when energy interacts with other energy, etc.  Just because someone does not believe in a deity, does not mean they don't believe in some sort of existence in an afterlife.

Just my opinion.
<S>
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: FLS on May 26, 2014, 08:58:02 PM
Logically the circle of people believing in ghosts and the circle of people who are atheists would have some overlap.  If you are looking for a connection you have too much faith in rationality.  :devil
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: Karnak on May 26, 2014, 09:04:15 PM
This atheist does not, for the same reasons I don't believe in gods.

Can't speak for any of the other atheists.
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: Serenity on May 26, 2014, 09:46:27 PM
As an atheist, I do not believe in ghosts in the traditional fashion. However, the energy aspect is interesting, though I know I could never know the truth beyond a doubt. However, I'm always up for being proven wrong!
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: Coalcat1 on May 26, 2014, 09:47:48 PM
I can see this getting rule 14ed soon...
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: MrRiplEy[H] on May 26, 2014, 09:51:24 PM
Atheism is a religion so they might as well believe in ghosts. Agnostics then again prefer logical reasoning so they'll believe in Gods or ghosts when they get solid proof, but untill that they doubt their existence.
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: bigsky on May 26, 2014, 10:04:52 PM
I thought atheism is a total lack of religion.
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: FLS on May 26, 2014, 10:15:46 PM
I thought atheism is a total lack of religion.

Wiki can help you with that.
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: Karnak on May 26, 2014, 10:26:31 PM
Atheism is a religion so they might as well believe in ghosts. Agnostics then again prefer logical reasoning so they'll believe in Gods or ghosts when they get solid proof, but until that they doubt their existence.
Strong atheism you could make that argument for.  Not so much weak atheism.  Strong atheism is the declarative "There is no god" whereas weak atheism is the "I don't believe in gods because no evidence of any gods has been produced.  If such evidence is produced I will evaluate it again."

Agnostics are of the "I don't know because I don't think about that kind of stuff, dude." variety.  Also a way for weak atheists to avoid getting pilloried by friends/family/coworkers by claiming to be agnostic when they are actually a weak atheist.

Before I became aware of those terms, which I dislike, I call the strong atheist position "irrational atheism" and the weak atheist position "rational atheism".  I think you can guess which I am.
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: BoilerDown on May 27, 2014, 12:22:09 AM
Not saying I'm an atheist per se, but I chalk ghosts up to things like aliens, yeti, and other things X-Files which were made up by man.  By now, if such things existed, someone's cell phone camera would have the proof.  The only way to still believe in them is to reconstruct them with special powers they didn't have in any of their initial descriptions, to make them invisible to cameras but visible to our eyes.  Which is impossible, in reality.
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: LCADolby on May 27, 2014, 12:37:21 AM
I must not be a pure atheist... I don't believe in the existence of a all powerful deity, but ghosts and things freak the bjebus out of me.
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: bigsky on May 27, 2014, 12:59:40 AM
I must not be a pure atheist... I don't believe in the existence of a all powerful deity, but ghosts and things freak the bjebus out of me.
things like thishttps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=783398955020101 (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=783398955020101)
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: danny76 on May 27, 2014, 01:58:28 AM
It's all gibberish :old:

To believe that you say something in your head to some omniscient entity to save you/your dog/your friend, and believe it helps when thousands of the most religious people on Earth get washed away by a tidal wave :headscratch:

Mysterious ways? I should say so :bhead
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: jimson on May 27, 2014, 02:09:41 AM
Do agnostic dyslexic insomniacs lay awake at night wondering if there is a dog?
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: Charge on May 27, 2014, 02:58:30 AM
Oh dear doG!

However, I wonder if believers believe in ghosts? I mean if believers go to heaven and all others, including the believers of other gods, go straight to hell, where do ghosts come from? Did they miss the train?

-C+
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: danny76 on May 27, 2014, 03:11:28 AM
Oh dear doG!

However, I wonder if believers believe in ghosts? I mean if believers go to heaven and all others, including the believers of other gods, go straight to hell, where do ghosts come from? Did they miss the train?

-C+

Interesting thought, makes me wonder if the Pygmy dude in some remote tribe in a rainforest somewhere, who has never heard of doG or the bibbull, goes straight down to the hot place too. Seems a trifle unsportsmanlike considering Hitler could have repented and really meant it, and be sat on a cloud strumming away as we speak :headscratch:
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: Charge on May 27, 2014, 04:20:24 AM
But technically even if he repented while still in this world Hitly made the ultimate sin by pulling the trigger on himself. Doesn't that still make him a sure roast?

Oh, those poor pygmys. It must suck to live outside the civilized world. No videos, no candies and on a highway to hell.

-C+
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: cpxxx on May 27, 2014, 06:03:39 AM
I don't like the term atheist, it sort of implies you're a sort of card carrying member of a club. Although in fact there are groups of atheists. Which is silly as it's not a belief system. It's the absence of belief. What do they do? Sit around discussing the fact there's no God.

It would be more accurate to ask religious people if they believe in ghosts as the conventional notion that ghosts are the souls of dead people wandering the Earth somehow flies in the face of nearly all religious beliefs.

If you are religious you therefore by definition cannot believe in ghosts. Yet you still believe in an afterlife and an all seeing deity?

However like many people I know there are no Gods and no afterlife. Call me an atheist if you like. But I do believe in the possibility that there is a phenomenon which we know of as ghosts. Not least because I experienced one as did other members of my family and friends at my sister's former house in London. Everyone had the same or similar experience. Someone or something came into a the room in the middle of the night and walked through a wall where presumably there once was a door or corridor. We all experienced it separately and none of us knew until much later.

Also I know other people who will quite pragmatically tell you about their experiences. Often the 'ghost' repeats the performance regularly and people who share houses with them never lose a moment's sleep about it.

So what's going on? Conservation of energy was mentioned earlier. Many ghost sightings follow the same pattern. They're like a replay of an event and are repeated like the one me and my relatives experienced. So is there some form of natural conditions that allow a form of replay of past events?

The classic ghost story involves a dark night, thunderstorms perhaps or fog and old building or somewhere that has remained unchanged since the event? Is there a possible scientific explanation? After all we are quite happy to watch TV or cinema knowing full well that the people on the screen are not there are all and that all we're experiencing is a form of energy which produces images.

Is there a form of natural energy which does the same?

One thing I do know is that ghosts are not the souls of dead people.
Title: Re: Do atheists believe in ghosts?
Post by: Skuzzy on May 27, 2014, 07:00:35 AM
Locked for violation of forum posting rule #14.