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God and Ghosts

Can one be Agnostic/Atheist and still believe in Ghosts? OR is it only Agnostics/Atheists who do?

Sorceress 4 Mar 14
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26 comments

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11

Last night I was visited by the ghost of Gloria Gaynor - At first I was afraid, I was petrified.

This is killer! Love it!

5

I say to each his/her own. I personally don't believe in ghosts but if I did, they'd be in the same category with cats, a bunch of jerks. Think about it, only cats and ghosts are always involved in some hijinks always at night when you're trying to sleep, they purposely knock over stuff and they're always downstairs making doors open and floors creak. Oh no, what if the noises I've been hearing wasn't Buttons at all and it was Grandpa Donald?

5

There are a few people on this site who believe ghosts may or do exist, and there's no reason lack of belief in god would prevent someone believing in ghosts.

Personally, I think gods and ghosts are complete tripe.

Jnei Level 8 Mar 14, 2018
5

I don't believe in god, or ghosts.
I'm not going to speak for anyone else.

5

If you can find Arthur C. Clarke video debunking ghost you will never have doubts about the validity of apparitions again.

or video of the Amazing Randy or Darren Brown debunking psychics and ghost hunters

I know better though...

@Gilda Like Osteen and Graham?

@Sorceress - which is exactly what every religious person says.

4

I have had an experience, and a friend of mine, a very no nonsense gentleman, had a couple of experiences that keep me from completely dismissing the idea. The universe is a very mysterious place.

4

I don't think a lack of belief in a supreme being automatically discounts a belief in an aferlife or ghosts.

I don't believe in them myself, but s long as the belif causes no harm to anyone, I have no problem with those who do.

4

Ive seen things but I couldnt say it was a ghost.

Like what? Tell me please, cuz I have "seen things" too!

in my mums old living room years ago I had fallen asleep on the couch and all my mates had left. I kind of woke up aware that someone/thing was next to me. I thought it was our girl lodger that was going through my mum's things so sneaked up to the light the other end of the room to catch her out.turned on the light and there was nothing there. its then I realised it had been pitch black so this humanoid was glowing. I couldn't say what that was but I sore it for sure.

your turn lol

3

I see ghosts all the time ... maybe its about time I bought a new telly .

I see dead people...

@Leafhead Isn't that the film Titanic ?

3

You can be anything and beleive in anything. The mind is a terrible thing to train. But once it is trained, the mind is terrible!

Ahhahahahahaha!

3

Having had a personal experience with what, for lack of a better term, might be called a ghost - I definitely entertain the possibilities ...

3

All one needs to do to be an atheist is not believe in any gods. You can believe in ghosts, leprechauns, or invisible time-traveling refrigerators and still be an atheist.

All one needs to be an agnostic with respect to god is to see no way to arrive at a defensible knowledge claim about the existence of a god. Even though this is a logical line of reasoning that applies equally well to anything supernatural, and even though to do so would be logically inconsistent (using one epistemology for one thing, another for the other), you can be agnostic about god and gnostic about ghosts.

2

I don't believe in God or gods, but I've seen and heard things.

2

If you're worried about ghosts, don't be.

2

No rules. Anarchy of belief is key. It's hard to deny what you have actually experienced.

Except you probably haven't.

2

Being an athiest just means you don't believe in a god. Other than that you're good.

I wouldn't say it was "good" - anything supernatural is in the same category as god for me.

That's you though.

1

I saw some really weird things living in a house down in Florida with a recent widow. I don't know if it was a ghost or the widow's energy making that shit happen, but my mind doesn't make up what I saw in that house.
I also went on Astral trips in my sleep in my younger days. I could later retrace my route a day or two later and confirm what I saw on my trip.
No drugs, no kidding

Actually, It was your mind. It played tricks on you. Many people think they see things when they are really asleep. It is possible that we can sometime sleep with out eyes open. My little collies do it all the time.

1

It's not about "believing," it's about finding evidence. At the moment, there isn't evidence... in fact, Brian Cox once said that if ghosts existed, we would have found evidence in the Hadron Collider.
[futurism.com]

1

You can be anything you want to be and still believe in ghosts. My only problem is that as an atheist I do not believe in anything supernatural.

1

Ghosts exist in the minds of people who search for answers where none exist. As the latest Cosmos series mentioned, before there was universal night lighting, people pondered the stars, dreaming up stories of gods. Not knowing the answers does not make these dreams true.

There is more than one way something can be true.

Alternative facts, I assume?

And you are SURE of this? Amazing!

1

I think we have to assume the "null" position until we can find verifyable evidence of such things. That doesn't mean we can't play with the ideas, and look at their posibilities, but I would say that we're still looking for some sort of verifiable data.

Perhaps not everyone sees them all the time. Easy to pontificate on what you think rather than what you know.

1

Do or don't? OR I cannot make sense of this.

1

"Can. . ." Yes.

Do I think atheists, are less likely to believe in ghosts then those who accept a faith based claim of a supernatural god? Yes.

There was a time when I was very young and had figured out the entire god concept was baseless but for a brief time I entertained other supernatural beliefs (ghosts). Luckily, I encountered a repeatable and testable scenario with a ghost manifestation and was able to demonstrate that the ghost I encountered existed only in my mind, not in reality so ghosts, the ones I encountered, were a product of my imagination.

So how do you define "believe"? I believe I believe Lord Voldemort exists in the literary realm of Harry Potter. Likewise, I believe ghosts exists in the realm of the imaginary.

You're patently wrong, but we can discuss that another time.

You're patently right.

@GoldenDoll Thanks for your observation. I based my argument on the premise that many religions, for instance Christianity, (although not the only religion) is dependent on believing in ghost such as their (Jesus) "holy spirit" so by definition believing in a ghost is a requirement of being a Christians. Likewise, I am aware of no atheist that base their lack of belief in the supernatural that believes in ghosts. I found the opening question of this tread most annoying as it (mistakenly?) commits the loaded question fallacy " . . . OR is it only Atheists/Agnostics who do" (still believe in ghosts) implying theist do not believe in ghosts. face - palm

@NoMagicCookie - Sometimes I despair of people on here who claim to be non-religious but manifest all the delusions they do.

0

Our minds would be pretty lame if they were never able to fool us. Humans evolved to need reasons for what happens, Even when something is not true, if we believe it is true, we can continue on with our lives without worrying about it. For a great example of how a marathon bicycle racer thought he was abducted by aliens, read Michael Shermer's account of it in his book, "Why People Believe Strange (or Weird?) Things". He founded Skeptic Magazine, writes for Scientific American, and is a professor, but was still fooled by his exhausted mind. This fantasy allowed him to complete his race.

0

I have seen things that I could have described as ghostly activity, but I prefer to file the experiences in my WTF file. I love scary movies, but I know better than to watch them while alone at night because I know I have a very active imagination. I'm pretty skeptical, but if Marley ever comes into the bedroom rattling some chains, I'll re-think my stance.

Deb57 Level 8 Mar 18, 2018
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