Do you believe in ghosts?

[Othraerir]

you bastard Frank, i fell for that MJ one

[tj119]

Never seen anything to make me believe in ghosts...now demons, that's a whole new discussion.

[Dezerte]

It is hard to call someone a lunatic and then expect it not to be considered an insult.

One need not be a lunatic to experience hallucinations, hell you don't even need to be using drugs. Our brains can do just fine on it's own, making things up for you.

[Revi]

No. Basic rules of scientific fields are consistency correct in all other aspects of my and everyone elses life, I can't just convince myself that they seize to exist when it comes to ghosts.

[Dawon]

No, cuz they don't exists and are only a mind-fuck if you "see" one... Easy, that concludes this case!

[Vash The Stampede]

Never seen anything to make me believe in ghosts...now demons, that's a whole new discussion.

Why demons? Been playing Doom a lot lately?

[Deleted]

I believe there's "something". Maybe it's not dead people, maybe it's a form of energy that "lives" beyond us. Anyhow, I'm 24 now, but when I was 14 and 16 I had things happening. The one that got me to really change my mind into believing in something was when I was walking alone in the cellar of a castle in Sweden. It was a prison chamber aswell, as I walked by the stone corridor (alone) I suddenly felt a hand on my left shoulder. All people who work and maintain this castle have met a "ghost" woman there, it seems haunted and that hand happening to me was real. Really I do think there's something, but I wouldn't unless I had this experience.

[Deleted]

I'd like to know of all those whom stated ghosts don't exist if they follow any religion?

Me personally, I'm a very sober type of person. I don't specifically believe in ghosts, neither will I claim they don't exist. I have experienced somewhat strange happenings in my life more than once that I simply cannot provide any logical explanation for.

[Macaquerie]

Given just how much people want ghosts to be real, if there was any credible evidence for their existence whatsoever then we would all already be in agreement about it. This pretty much goes for anything supernatural or conspiracy related that people claim on the internet.

[Exerionx]

have had many experiences myself. And also seems to run through my family as well.

Don't mind people being skeptics, but I am not one of them.

[Dezerte]

have had many experiences myself. And also seems to run through my family as well.

Don't mind people being skeptics, but I am not one of them.

I think everyone (skeptic or believer) has had these experiences. But with differing reactions and conclusions of course.

[Exerionx]

I think everyone (skeptic or believer) has had these experiences. But with differing reactions and conclusions of course.

Perhaps, yeah. I've been left speechless from a few of my experiences, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't come to a logical explanation.

I think the whole discussion can be very interesting though.

[mannenabo]

I believe in the paranormal. Evidence or not I refuse to believe there's nothing after death.

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or out of the corner of your eye.

do you also believe you are a demon before you are born, and enter the sperm to take control of a baby?

[tj119]

Why demons? Been playing Doom a lot lately?

Never played Doom, period. Just strange personal experiences that cannot really be given a normal explanation.

[Powerogue]

The ghost-atheist problem here is actually a problem in philosophy of science, if you will.

Experience ("evidence") is able to be interpreted in many different ways, particularly in cases where causal relationships are undetermined. As you can see in this thread, the ghost-atheist can always find an alternative explanation for anything. (This is also contributed-to by the Problem of Theory Underdetermination by Evidence).

However, those who have had personal experiences - especially particularly convincing ones - are seldom swayed by appeals to psychology or dream accusations. There's very much an "I KNOW what I saw" sentiment. I don't think it's wrong.

These forums are filled with materialists and naturalists. Overlooking the myriad of philosophical potholes which have been shown to undermine these systems of thought since the beginning of philosophy, I must say it's quite boring and annoying. These people are more like magicians than the scientists they worship, since their aim is to manipulate and control nature; they scoff at anything they can't dominatingly contain in a test tube. (As if test tubes never lie!)

Anyhow, yes, I believe in spirits (I happen to be Catholic). My bigger point, though, is that this thread could use a whole lot more Thomas Kuhn and a lot less Daniel Dennett...

I prefer systems of logic that work. If I went the other direction, and simply believed things because of personal experience, taking my sensory input at 100% face value, I would, as mentioned before, probably believe in tea leaf reading. (as the black dog is an omen of death. Admittedly I only know this from Harry Potter. Considering I'd have already thrown away any need for my beliefs to have rational justification, that'd probably be enough for me.)

Actually yeah, if I went far enough there, I could tie this together. I had a dream once where I was being hunted by Voldemort. Clearly another sign. Put it all together and I'd be absolutely convinced Harry Potter was real. After all, it's written down in these books! Books can't lie!

Do you see how following what you want to think is true, backed only by subjective personal experiences, can lead you to wildly different conclusions than following what you have good reason to think is true?

[Dread Pirate Phayde]

I think it's possible, I also think that we can't prove it because science hasn't developed the right test for it yet, there's more that we don't know than what we do know.

[Acelius]

I'd like to know of all those whom stated ghosts don't exist if they follow any religion?

Me personally, I'm a very sober type of person. I don't specifically believe in ghosts, neither will I claim they don't exist. I have experienced somewhat strange happenings in my life more than once that I simply cannot provide any logical explanation for.

Do tell.

OT: I don't have any reason to believe in ghosts.

[Deleted]

I dont for one very simple reason.

Lets assume ghosts were real for a moment. It would mean there are 40k+ years of human ghosts alone floating around.. as well as dinosaur ghosts, bug ghosts, hell, bacteria ghosts. Awfully crowded, isnt it?

[Garnier Fructis]

I dont for one very simple reason.

Lets assume ghosts were real for a moment. It would mean there are 40k+ years of human ghosts alone floating around.. as well as dinosaur ghosts, bug ghosts, hell, bacteria ghosts. Awfully crowded, isnt it?

These are only problems if a bunch of extra metaphysical assumptions are added, like everything leaving behind a ghost, all ghosts 'living' in the same 'world', etc.

A simple counting argument doesn't mean much when, even if ghosts exist, we know next to nothing about their nature.

[Deleted]

These are only problems if a bunch of extra metaphysical assumptions are added, like everything leaving behind a ghost, all ghosts 'living' in the same 'world', etc.

A simple counting argument doesn't mean much when, even if ghosts exist, we know next to nothing about their nature.

There is no reason to assume they do exist though aside from theyre not really ghosts as in spirits of dead humans but something else entirely.. say like parallel dimensions leaking through.