Serious question - do you guys believe in ghosts?

[Asthaloth]

I am an atheist to the absolute. I only believe in what can be proven, and the existence of ghosts has not been proven. Ghosts

(However, I do believe in life in space, simply because it is ridiculous, not to mention arrogant, to assume that in a huge universe with trillions of planets, there is only one with life. In fact, I consider this assumption to be "something that cannot be proven", rather than the other way around.)

Why so?
The existence of life on Earth is down to some right out insane coincidences, the Impactor, the super nova, for all of it to occure have chances in the Trillions.
But, a form of energy (Bearing in mind that which law of thermodynamics states that nothing can be destroyed, only altered) which has some semblance to human life is beyond reason?

[Tymaporer]

I just don't believe that this combination of coincidences is entirely unique. Either that, or there could be other ways it could happen. There is a lot we don't know about these things, and the amount that is unknown to us could be a lot more than some people think. (Some people would try to turn this around on me and say this could mean ghosts exist, but this is more of a science-related belief than a religion-based* one, and science, unlike religion, is concrete and definitely exists.)

*I use the word "religion" more loosely, because I know that not everyone would say ghosts are related to religion.

[Asthaloth]

Some people would try to turn this around on me and say this could mean ghosts exist, but this is more of a science-related belief than a religion-based* one, and science, unlike religion, is concrete and definitely exists.

You know me too well
Skirting round that for the moment though, Why is Religion better than science?
Science cannot prove to me that Grass is green (Or rather, that my green is the same as your green) Science cannot prove gravity (Two seperate theories being required for local and celestial levels of Gravity) nor can it prove to me that Gravity even exists (The invisible, undetectable particles do it... Oooookay then)

Ofcourse, this isn't to say that I don't believe science, just that, with a bit of common sense, it can stand hand in hand with Theology.

[.neko.]

Some people think water has the ability to "remember" things. Well it remembers what it has come into contact with.

What? Where did you learn this? Can I please see it?

They say you can add some medicine to water. Then you take the water and dilute it halfway. Then you take some of that water and dilute it with more water. Then you take some of that and dilute it with more. You keep doing that until you are supposed to have "pure" water. But somehow the water "remembers" that it once had medicine in it.

That is just ridiculous. If you keep diluting a solution with water it isn't going to become just water. It is always going to retain some of the original solution. You will never get pure water.

No offence but I'm going to laugh for eternity about this.

---

Back on the subject of ghosts though, I am still on the fence. I have heard some very interesting first hand encounters but I've never seen or experienced any ghostly activity. Im not sure if it is just the imagination or if some people really do sense things.

[Christopher]

Some people think water has the ability to "remember" things. Well it remembers what it has come into contact with.

What? Where did you learn this? Can I please see it?

They say you can add some medicine to water. Then you take the water and dilute it halfway. Then you take some of that water and dilute it with more water. Then you take some of that and dilute it with more. You keep doing that until you are supposed to have "pure" water. But somehow the water "remembers" that it once had medicine in it.

That is just ridiculous. If you keep diluting a solution with water it isn't going to become just water. It is always going to retain some of the original solution. You will never get pure water.

No offence but I'm going to laugh for eternity about this.

---

I remember this crap. They also said that if you establish a telephone or internet link between some water and a solution that the 'water' will remember and change itself back to the solution.

[Sigh]

I believe in ghosts. It's impossible to visit my friends apartment and NOT.
She has had a ghost lock her out of her house... she went outside to water the plants, and when she went to open her sliding glass door to go back inside she saw and heard it lock.
Also, I was alone in her apartment watching tv on her couch and i had a vivid, half-asleep, half-awake, "dream" in which a woman sat next to me on the couch and told me the story of how she drowned her child in the apartments bath tub.
Let me tell you, I have never run out of a front door faster than when i regained consciousness from that little episode.

[hikaru_dream]

I'm open to the possibility.
I just try not to think about it much since I cannot hear, or see them, and can do nothing to help them at the moment.

One of my senpai (a upper grade student) apparently can see ghosts all the time, and the often stick to him and all.

[Blake]

Yes, I believe in ghosts. I've seen them move around baby toys and things like that before. Not actually seeing the ghosts, but I definitely don't think the wind drafts are that smart.

[Xandra]

No, not particularly.

Coming face-to-face with one would either result in my thinking that a) ghosts were real, b) I was hallucinating due to some horrible injury unknown to me or something, or c) someone had slipped me drugs.

I tend to not believe in things that don't really make sense to me. (I'm not an atheist, though (agnostic), because there are things that, to me, do have some sort of evidence to there existing a higher being- but even so, the entire deal with religion and God and whatnot just confuses me anyway, so I'm staying an agnostic for now)

I just don't believe that this combination of coincidences is entirely unique.

Titan (one of the many moons of Saturn) definitely could have/may become similar to Earth- its atmosphere is very similar to that of early Earth's- but can't really do anything, as it's basically a ball of ice, due to being so far from the sun... *rambles*

[Pink]

I don't believe in ghosts per sey, but I do believe in the paranormal.

[smudgeoffudge]

I think we as humans can never come to an absolute truth. There are some things that we just can't see or understand. We can only understand what we as humans can understand. We can't see every color that exists, but there are some colors which do in fact exist, only our eyes can not see them. There are some sounds we can't hear.
As we advance in science, we develop machines which can detect some things we are unable to detect, such as new colors, low frequency sounds, different kinds of waves like gamma waves, ect. We have learned about things that exist that we can not even see. If we had tried to explain some of the things we know today to people of the past, they might think we were crazy, unless we could somehow prove it. People want to see things to believe they exist. We have to see things and touch things, experiment on things before we really believe it. After we run countless experiments with the same results, then and only then do we think something is factual.
Then sometimes something unexplainable happens and it throws all our theories out and we have to start over. What we once counted on as true, is not so true anymore. Sometimes even science is at a loss.


The more we learn about the universe the more questions we will have. That is why I believe that no one can say for sure that something does or does not exist. We find new species all the time. We learn new things every day. In fact, even if we as humans knew everything about everything that we as humans can know, I still think that would leave like 99% more stuff that we can't know.

[Shakira_Shoyru]

Ok well, yes I believe in ghosts, absolutely.
And some of you might think I am really ridiculous, but I'm going to be honest, I happen to see ghosts.
You know, maybe it's only my imagination, I dunno.. but I believe what I see from my own eyes..

Last edited by Shakira_Shoyru on Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[SpiraLethe]

I'm a naturalist. I don't put much stock in the supernatural.

I think we as humans can never come to an absolute truth. There are some things that we just can't see or understand. We can only understand what we as humans can understand. We can't see every color that exists, but there are some colors which do in fact exist, only our eyes can not see them. There are some sounds we can't hear.
As we advance in science, we develop machines which can detect some things we are unable to detect, such as new colors, low frequency sounds, different kinds of waves like gamma waves, ect. We have learned about things that exist that we can not even see. If we had tried to explain some of the things we know today to people of the past, they might think we were crazy, unless we could somehow prove it. People want to see things to believe they exist. We have to see things and touch things, experiment on things before we really believe it. After we run countless experiments with the same results, then and only then do we think something is factual.
Then sometimes something unexplainable happens and it throws all our theories out and we have to start over. What we once counted on as true, is not so true anymore. Sometimes even science is at a loss.

I do agree that there are things we might not be able to understand from our human vantage point. However, we can't function if we used this philosophy in every day life. We must act and think as if we can understand everything and or we'd get nowhere. Our science and technology didn't develop because we thought we were limited by our humanity.

The more we learn about the universe the more questions we will have. That is why I believe that no one can say for sure that something does or does not exist. We find new species all the time. We learn new things every day. In fact, even if we as humans knew everything about everything that we as humans can know, I still think that would leave like 99% more stuff that we can't know.

I find that to be a poor logic to live by. I hate being so reductionist all the time, but I have to side with Occam's Razor on this. Since we can't absolutely prove anything to not exist, then that leaves room for an infinite number of things. The more logical and practical way of thinking is that we shouldn't believe something to exist unless there's evidence.

[mazil]

I am an atheist to the absolute. I only believe in what can be proven, and the existence of ghosts has not been proven.

Hmm, me too... I'm a complete atheist, a great believer in science and a general disbeliever when it comes to supernatural things. I'm confused about my position on ghosts, however.

My family and I were staying at a "shack" (old holiday house, in Aussie) with some family friends, and late at night we were getting ready to go to bed, and I happened to look out the window. I thought I saw a person standing outside the window, looking up into the room next to ours, which happened to have a light on. I drew back from the window quickly with an "eep" and covered my eyes, because I wasn't expecting anyone to be out there. When I got up the courage the look out again, no-one was there.

The creepy thing is, I can remember most things about the event quite distinctly, but the person seems... indistinct. I got the impression it was a lady, but that's it. And oh, it sounds too tacky to be true, but in my memory, she/it seems like a white blur. I remember the light spilling out of the room next to ours, onto the ground... and that figure standing there.

I was youngish, but old enough to not be making up stories (15 or so?), and I really can remember it in pretty good detail now. The place was an old hospital, and I can't remember whether I knew that (or whether I was creeped out by the fact) before the event, so that could've made me jumpy. I certainly was nervous about the place from then on, though!

So yes, I'm mostly cynical about such things. But there is a tiny bit of doubt in my mind, now, about this one

[Mongrel]

I don't believe in the traditional idea of ghosts, but I do believe in ghosts. Sometimes I think they're called up from our own minds, or memories from the place where they happened. Sometimes I think they're products of our own belief, and the more we become convinced they exist, the more they exist. Sometimes I think they're like guardians(not angels), and on occasion they try to either tell us something important or just remind us that they're around.

The only thing I come close to completely believing in, though, is human fallibility. Eventually, most of what we have believed has been proved wrong at some point or other. Maybe in two weeks we'll discover I don't exist.