Agnostic.com

41 3

So, leaving religion out of it...do you believe in anything "supernatural"?

Dida 7 Jan 25
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

41 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

0

Absolutely, categorically, unequivocally, emphatically NO. There is no such thing as supernaturalism/magic. Everything has a cause and reason. Look into the International group the Brights. Their premise that a Bright (noun) is one who takes a naturalistic stance. One who looks to supernaturalism is called a 'super'. No one on this site should be a 'super'.

@Dida I don't believe they are real yet but they could be someday, if we survive long enough.
My idea of supernatural is something outside the realm of nature so technically the word could be used. Maybe we need to find something else without religious or magical connotations.

1

No. That's what skeptic means, and that's what I am. It also means I piss off my lefty friends when I question their belief in unsubstantiated or even debunked stuff like reiki, feng shui, etc etc ad nauseam.

and Astrology, Palmistry, Ghosts, bla bla

@Dida That's an important observation. If you haven't read it, check out Carl Sagan's "Demon-Haunted World". There a lot in there about why we can't depend on our own senses.

0

Supernatural by definition is something that is beyond the natural world, therefore there is no way to detect it. Since the Supernatural cannot be detected there's no reason to believe that there could possibly be something Supernatural because once that thing that is claimed to be Supernatural is detected then it is no longer Supernatural, it then becomes part of the natural. There is absolutely no reason at all to believe that anyting Supernatural does or could possibly exist. The term Supernatural is nothing more than a bucket filled with things we don't know.

2

su·per·nat·u·ral
?so?op?r?naCH(?)r?l/Submit
adjective

  1. (of a manifestation or event) attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature,.i.e. the laws of the universe.

If we agree on this definition then, if it occurs it is within the laws of nature! We may not understand it, but that is not a requirement for the universe to function!

Dida, No, If they are actually real events that cannot be explained by current knowledge, it only indicates our limits at the current time!

4

As I'm a man of science, what some may call supernatural, may just be more science. Like the saying goes, to a person from ancient earth, any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic.

Yes. Telepathy comes with evolution. Teleportation is science(has actually been done).

0

Short answer, no.

What makes up a ghost? "Energy..." What? Like electricity? We know what electricity is. Can detect / use it. Can't do that with spook energy.

Anyway, believers in the paranormal don't seem to question themselves, their beliefs.

I think God / ghosts / afterlife is a way to deal with "the scariness of oblivion."

okay. No, but I wish.

Through what kind of medium do these occur?

The brain seems to be a closed box that can't influence it's surroundings ---- if these powers were real, we'd all have them...

We can tell a lot about people when we look at them, but that's a mirror effect, not magic...

0

no. my idea of a divine power is actually nature, mother nature; no super required 🙂

@Dida, i had two experiences i clearly remember, that would come into that category i suppose. one was the light body of an old woman that had hung herself in the place she then returned to. the other was a series of happenings that had the tenant before me keep a machete under his bed: things moving, mainly electrical appliances turning on without anyone moving a switch. i learned later that the site used to be a bloody battlefield to aboriginal tribes. so, my answer will have to be yes, if we achieve a single-mindedness of such strength, we can.

0

There is so much we think we know and we don't know... concepts not yet laid out in our heads because is beyond our paygrade. I believe ghosts are possible because I don't know... the rest of the story.

1

Nope... James Randi....helped me.

James Randi is badass!!!

2

Nope.

I believe that some things commonly thought to be "supernatural" like telepathy, levitation, astral projection, etc. MAY turn out to be completely "natural" human capabilities attained by a vanishingly small elite few (e.g. "siddhis" attained by advanced swamis)--but I'd have to see some evidence, first.

1

Sometimes I believe in luck. One particular time springs to mind. It was the solar eclipse in 1999. My friend was fanatical to see it but his partner could not get time off to travel to Germany (the best chance). My brother agreed to drive him as he could not drive. Well anyway after about 2 days in a small compact car (my bro is a large 6er) they get to the top of this hill and all they can see is clouds. It is about an hour before the event and it looks like theyve come all this was for nothing. People are leaving or listening to car radios, wondering what to do. My brother says " See that guy over there. He looks like a winner ". Now the guy was a living advertisement for his car (a brand new Mercedes), two lovely kids and a beautiful wife. My bro says " anywhere is as good as anywhere else to try and see this thing. Lets follow the guy who looks like hes lucky! ". Wouldnt yer know it they drive behind this chap to the top of another hill and it was the only place in the region that a lucky break in the clouds.

4

Absolutely positively 100% without-a-doubt, no.

I had to gently explain to my sister the other day when she was suggesting a book on "what our souls want" and other mumbo jumbo, that I don't even believe in souls -- in the supernatural sense. I believe I have a personality -- a drive, a joy for life...that kind of the thing is the only thing I would mean if I were to refer to "my soul."

Not karma, not crystals, not walking under ladders, not psychics, not gods, not angels, not spirit guides, not heaven, not prayer, not hell, not ghosts, not Tarot cards, not witches, not spells, nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

But I LOVE magic! (Even though I know it's just tricks, it mesmerizes me.)

6

By definition, "supernatural" means anything outside of nature. If it is determined that things like "ghosts" for example are real, that means they are very much natural, not supernatural, and there will be a way of measuring and monitoring. I do not think that anything can exist outside of nature.

0

Believing in the spiritual 'realm' would be believing in supernatural occurrences I guess. How can anything that is 'spiritual' have any effect on the physical (corporeal) world. If something is supposedly from the 'spiritual realm' that we could see/feel/ or smell that would indicate that it's very much exists in the physical realm. That is not to say that there isn't a 'spiritual' dimension. It's that we who exist in the corporeal world would be totally unaware of it''s presence. But then, we do have our fertile imaginations don't we.

0

I'm an atheist, but I have experienced unusual event in my life that make me believe that something outside the "known" exists. Since I am convinced that religion is a man-made institution for the control of the masses, my personal conclusion lies in the realm of Quantum Physics.

1

Well, At night I dress up in a giant red arachnoid suit and fight crime

0

If there is no evidence, facts or data for somethings existence, it does not exist (IMHO)

4

Nope. At least not when I'm sober.

0

yes, understanding rather than judgement is supernatural i guess

5

Maybe in a way. We used to see earthquakes, lightning and fire as supernatural, then we understood it and it became natural. After that sickness, famine, and demonic possession, which turned into microbiology, agriculture, and psychology/neurology. Supernatural seems to be a word for nature we don't understand rather than anything mystical. In terms of ghosts, magical powers, or intelligent invisible forces affecting people, I'd love to see some evidence, but I have yet to see any. I guess my answer is I believe any "supernatural" thing we find will eventually cease to be super once we understand it.

3

No.

I write about supernatural things from time to time, but I have no belief in any of it. So why do I write about it? Hey, it's fun and it sells.

0
0
0

Believe? No. But I also don’t discount them out of hand.

1

Myself and others I know have had some experiences that you could describe as "supernatural", but I think their explanation defies us at this point because their cause is yet undiscovered. And they will remain so for some time, as science tends to spend time on research funded by governments and corporations.

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:18188
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.