Do you believe in ghosts?
- Thread starter Murky
- Start date
I think that saying "ghosts don't exist" and "there is undoubtedly a scientific explanation for ghosts" are not the same thing. I don't believe in the word "supernatural" - or anyways, not that it has any real meaning. Everything can be explained in scientific terms, and is part of "nature", even if it is currently beyond our capacity to observe or quantify.
Abaddon
Deity
nope see no logic to it
LucyDuke
staring at the clock
Probably not, simply because there are so many ghost stories centered around hitchhikers. The Rehoboth phantom isn't a terribly unique story in that sense.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Including God?
Yes, including God - but we currently lack the capacity to observe or quantify Him or His power.
EdwardTking
Deity
I believe in ghosts, and apart from the Holy Ghost.
But I am not convinced that they are surviving spirits of the dead;
merely echoes of the living that have reflected back through
contracted dimensions or other multiverses or something like that.
BTW there are two major spurious anti-ghost arguments.
(1) It does not exist because we don't have an
agreed scientific explanation for it.
People were correct to believe in the sun for thousand years,
even though they had no ideas as to how it shines.
(2) Assuming that ghosts do not exist as an axiom,
and that all reports are therefore delusional or falsified.
This is called deciding on the answer and then selecting
the evidence to fit that pre-decision.
But I am not convinced that they are surviving spirits of the dead;
merely echoes of the living that have reflected back through
contracted dimensions or other multiverses or something like that.
BTW there are two major spurious anti-ghost arguments.
(1) It does not exist because we don't have an
agreed scientific explanation for it.
People were correct to believe in the sun for thousand years,
even though they had no ideas as to how it shines.
(2) Assuming that ghosts do not exist as an axiom,
and that all reports are therefore delusional or falsified.
This is called deciding on the answer and then selecting
the evidence to fit that pre-decision.
Abaddon
Deity
Does anyone know what culture it originates in?
EconomistBR
King
I don't believe ghosts, but I wish they existed
Ziggy Stardust
Absolutely Sane
The difference being you could look up and there it was. Ghosts, not so easy.
And "it does not exist" or "there is no evidence supporting it, so I decide not to take into account the existance of ghosts" are two different things.
Maybe this would be remedied when the countless reports of people seeing ghosts was once supported by evidence.
Something that is around in such abundant manner should have more going for it than anecdotal evidence. I assume there are no ghosts as null-hypothesis. It's again the remarkable claim that warrants evidence. Just as it is in the case of religion. I am not spending any time trying to disprove either concept, the concept has to be proven to me.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Now that sounds entirely plausible
Mirc
Not mIRC!!!
No. And I don't believe in aliens either.
lovett
Deity
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2007
- Messages
- 2,570
Realistically, how is that more plausible then the traditional view?
If anything, It means that we have to make even more unbased assumtions about the physical world. I bet Friar Williams turning in his grave
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Realistically, how is that more plausible then the traditional view?
If anything, It means that we have to make even more unbased assumtions about the physical world. I bet Friar Williams turning in his grave
I was being sarcastic.
The person I was responding to is obviously insane.
I had a friend and his dad (both super anal Christians, aka non-liars) tell me they were sitting watching television one night, and his dad, a smoker, blew out a cloud of smoke that seemed to float around a human figure. They both freaked.
Mirc
Not mIRC!!!
That was the weirdest reply I got recently. I believe it is sad for humanity that in this day people will look strange at you when claiming you don't believe in aliens.
That's a rather strict definition. Supposing that it was true that people had seen what they claimed to have seen - but rather than "soul of the dead", it was some undiscovered phenomenon, possibly even a psychic effect. It would still be reasonable to say ghosts exist after all.
I mean, if someone says "Hey, I just saw a floaty scary thing", we're primarily concerned about whether he really did see that thing. What caused it - whether it's really a soul, or something else we don't know about, is another matter.
I once believed in ghosts - but not that they were souls of dead people. Now I see no evidence that there's anything in it at all, beyond people being mistaken, psychological effects, and urban legends.
