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If you don't believe in gods, can you believe in ghosts?

Alimacbean 7 Mar 23
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In my world anything supernatural takes in gods and spirits. This means I cannot except ghosts either. But if you read the scriptures you find spirit animals and horses in them, and people of the time also believed in ghosts. Strange to me that modern Christians both except and deny this at the same time.
Am I saying we have not had "experiences" that are ghostly or supernatural as human beings? Of course not. We have all had experiences. The problem is in not knowing how to properly interpret them. This is why we have ghosts and spirits.

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I assume you're asking whether it would be inconsistent, and that would depend on your reasons for not believing in gods. Merely to say "There are no gods, but there are ghosts" is not logically problematic, unless you think ghosts are gods. But if you say "If don't believe in gods because X" and X also implies that ghosts don't exist, then you have problem.

Many people are under the impression that people become atheists only because they're more rational than theists. That just isn't so, no matter how much atheists themselves wish it were so.

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Sure. Ghosts and spirits were acknowledged as real before religions decided to purposfully squash the notion. I don't see it as having anything to do with being created by any god anymore than the earth being created by one.

AmyLF Level 7 Mar 24, 2018
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Yes... though I would ask why. There are several nontheistic religions that still have spirits or other supernatural beliefs. Animism comes to mind.

Though I do have to ask. Why would you believe (or want to believe) that ghosts exist?

I don't necessarily believe, but in a weird way, I'd more accept believing in ghosts than a god.

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It is not logically consistent, but atheism isn't a religion or an organization or an ideology or a worldview -- so it's not forbidden to believe or not believe whatever. All atheism is a label, defining a person who does not believe in any gods. If you want to believe in ghosts, leprechauns, or time-traveling refrigerators, you can do that and still be an atheist.

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You can believe anything you like , doesnt have to make any sense what a person believes ....can lead to a bit of ridicule though .

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If you apply the same critical thinking to ghosts as you do to god(s) I'm not sure you can, at least I can't 🙂

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