Do you believe in ghosts?

[smoknn]

....in china.....

 

[Trident1]

Why?
To be blunt, it comes down to not only intelligence, but gullibility.

How incredibly arrogant, wrong, and presumptuous of you.

 

[Will E Worm]

It's something I've noticed, as well. Even here in "real life" - and mind you, this is from my own observations - despite a little bit of research, I have not found a whole lot to back this up.
I've noticed religious people are more apt to believe in ghosts than those who do not believe in any gods. Granted, depending on the person, their definition of what a ghost is (a spirit, demon, time playbacks, dead relatives visiting us, etc) and what its objectives are (one last visit, unresolved issues, pure evil, fool good people into wandering off the path, etc) can change dramatically - yet the belief remains.
Why?
To be blunt, it comes down to not only intelligence, but gullibility. Those who believe that the loose and very poor translated stories of a group of wandering tribes are the words of some great being that created everything - and is constantly pissed that things are not working out the way it wants - are also apt to believe loved ones will forgo their trips to paradise or eternal damnation so they can pop on in here and say "hello".

Meanwhile, I've never had a conversation discussing relativity, singularities, dinosaurs nor global warming interrupted with "Hey, by the way, my dead aunt came by last night. I couldn't see her clearly or anything, but I felt her brush my shoulder just when I was about to go to sleep."
Ah! "Just about to go to sleep!" I see this a lot (along with the "didn't see it clearly, therefor it has to be a ghost" argument).
This is where, once again, Carl Sagan's The Demon Haunted World comes into play. In this book, he points out that many ghost/spiritual/Jesus visits/alien visitations happen when the person is either at that moment between being partially awake and being asleep, or when the person IS asleep.
Quite a few things happen to me when I am at that moment of time. Quite a bit, I get a feeling of falling (this is simply because my body is becoming extremely relaxed, and my still quite active subconscious mind is telling me "Oh...the body is completely relaxed...we MUST be falling), very rarely a feeling of being suffocated (a form of sleep paralysis), hear voices (sometimes, it will simply be a voice outside, other times it will be my subconsciousness beginning it's dream state), and, yes, ghostly visitations. However, my mind is also complete enough to understand that these are not actual ghost visitations, but simply my subconsciousness beginning to tell a tale.

:drama:

Self-righteousness

Carl Sagan, Dawkins and their ilk are all self-righteous, megalomaniacs.


There's a lot of things that cannot be explained.
That's a fact, like it or not.

How incredibly arrogant, wrong, and presumptuous of you.

Agreed, you forgot self-righteous.

 

[STDiva]

There's a lot of things that cannot be explained.
That's a fact, like it or not.

True. So why do you try to explain them with ghosts, god, mythical creatures, etc?

 

[Will E Worm]

True. So why do you try to explain them with ghosts, god, mythical creatures, etc?

I don't.

God :nono:

How would you explain someone being awakened by someone they can't see strangling them or actually seeing an apparition?

I believe in ghosts. One tried to strangle me while I was having a great nap.

 

[STDiva]

I don't.

God :nono:

How would you explain someone being awakened by someone they can't see strangling them or actually seeing an apparition?

Sounds like a nightmare, or a classic case of sleep paralysis. Why is it, when something weird happens, the first things people blame are ghosts? There isn't one shred of evidence in human history besides shady pictures and testimonials that prove their existence. Is something with no proof really more likely an explanation than a nightmare? If you answe yes to that question, StanScratch was absolutely right when questioning peoples intelligence and gullibility.

 

[mrtrebus]

How would you explain someone being awakened by someone they can't see strangling them or actually seeing an apparition?

I would explain that they are a liar/drunk/mentally disturbed/a combination of all 3. :hatsoff:

 

[Will E Worm]

Sounds like a nightmare, or a classic case of sleep paralysis. Why is it, when something weird happens, the first things people blame are ghosts? There isn't one shred of evidence in human history besides shady pictures and testimonials that prove their existence. Is something with no proof really more likely an explanation than a nightmare?

Who said people always blame a ghost?

There's not any evidence for evolution either and you know...

If you answe yes to that question, StanScratch was absolutely right when questioning peoples intelligence and gullibility.

No, he was wrong.

I would explain that they are a liar/drunk/mentally disturbed/a combination of all 3. :hatsoff:

 

[mrtrebus]

There's not any evidence for evolution either and you know...

Yes there is & please do NOT go off topic if you want to start a debate about evolution start a thread for it.

PS - there are no ghosts, apart from the "Ghost Who Walks"!

 

[Will E Worm]

Yes there is & please do NOT go off topic if you want to start a debate about evolution start a thread for it.

PS - there are no ghosts, apart from the "Ghost Who Walks"!

:sarcasm::drama::noway:


No, there's not.

You are just too scared to say you believe in ghosts. :elaugh:

 

[mrtrebus]

:sarcasm::drama::noway:


No, there's not.

You just are too scared to say you believe in ghosts. :elaugh:

Er no. I'm not scared of something I do not believe in. . .

 

[Will E Worm]

Er no. I'm not scared of something I do not believe in. . .

:elaugh:

 

[mrtrebus]

:elaugh:

:thefinger

 

[STDiva]

Who said people always blame a ghost?

There's not any evidence for evolution either and you know...

I'm refering to people in this thread. You knew what I meant, but you're just dodging like you always do. So why don't you answer the question.

And there is no evidence of evolution? Thats irrelevant anyway. I wasn't claiming to be choked in the middle of a nap by evolution.

 

[Will E Worm]

Atheists: Refuse to see the truth

I'm refering to people in this thread. You knew what I meant, but you're just dodging like you always do. So why don't you answer the question.

And there is no evidence of evolution? Thats irrelevant anyway. I wasn't claiming to be choked in the middle of a nap by evolution.

Stan did not just mean people in this thread. He's wrong anyway.

Correct. There's no evidence for evolution. There's more for ghosts. :hatsoff:

 

[STDiva]

Atheists: Refuse to see the truth



Stan did not just mean people in this thread. He's wrong anyway.

Correct. There's no evidence for evolution. There's more for ghosts. :hatsoff:

I'd like to see that proof. Open my eyes William.

 

[Ace Boobtoucher]

When I was five my family moved into a Victorian era house on the south side of Omaha. My mother swears when she was doing some maintenance alone in the house someone pushed her off a ladder. My oldest sister was waking up from a nap and the decor of the room had changed from contemporary to Victorian; floral wallpaper; gas light lamps, etc. and she heard a voice saying "This is wear she hanged herself."

On March 15th I was awakened by a voice saying something like "Everything is going to be alright." When I opened my eyes, there was a slight, balding, middle aged man standing next to my bed. My younger brother woke up and saw him too. When I ran to my parents' room and told my mom what had occurred, she went into the room and no one was there and when I talked a little more about it, the description of the person was similar to my grandfather, who had died fifteen years before I was born. And his appearance was on the anniversary of his death.

There were several other events that I've forgotten over time but everything stopped when Rev. Jim Tiegs blessed the house. Incidentally, he was one of the inspirations for William Blatty's "The Exorcist." Later, he went to Calcutta to help with Mother Teresa's mission. Nice guy.

So yes, yes I believe in ghosts.

 

[24 Grams]

Whenever someone doesn't believe in something they usually claim it's because there's no "proof".

Here's something...you don't believe what you see, you see what you believe.

Truth is atheists are no different to religious people after all they "believe" in something...everybody does.

 

[The Grasshopper]

Things appear, but are they ghosts... I've seen apparition types of images and have reliable friends and family who like to share stories of their personal sightings. Could be any number of things already mentioned, spirits or the like, whatever.

As for that ghost car vid I posted earlier I just thought the vid would fit the thread. I have no idea as to the second part of the vid. I'll check it out sometime.

 

[STDiva]

You'd think something "witnessed" by so many people would have some tangible evidence of it's existence.