Who Ya Gonna Call?

[Paul the Human]

Out of curiosity, I would like to hear what the rest of you think about things that can be classified as ‘Supernatural’ or ‘Paranormal’. As we all know, atheism only encompasses the existence of deities, not necessarily all things ‘mystical’. Do any of my fellow atheists believe in psychic energy, for example? Or perhaps… Karma?

Personally, I do not believe in the existence of anything ‘supernatural’, but I would like to. What I mean is that I think it would be awesome (like totally) if psionic abilities actually existed, for example. I know that there has been “scientific” research into many areas of the ‘paranormal’, but I have never seen or heard anything convincing.

Does anyone believe in any of these things? If so, do you have any compelling evidence to back up that belief?

Don’t even get me started on ‘ultra-science’ (my term), like teleportation or time travel.

[AtheistPhil]

I think I can reasonnably say that most atheists on the forum don't believe in such things, including myself. But there might be a few exceptions.
If you don't believe in the sky-daddy because you don't find any scientific evidence for his existence, the same logic applies to any supernatural claim.

[Paul the Human]

Yes, I agree. I have known atheists, though, that believe that psychic energy can be validated scientifically and that it is responsible for "psychic echoes", which are mistaken for hauntings... or that telekinesis and/or telepathy can be scientifically supported. I do not believe that myself, but I was wondering if anyone else here (not all of which are strictly atheists) believed in such things. I was curious to know if there is any supporting evidence out there that I am not aware of.

Conversation Starter Fail. -_-

[Tiberius]

GHOSTBUSTERS!!!

Oh sorry...was I meant to read the first post? Shit...

[leo-rcc]

I know atheists who are knee-deep in woo. Some believe in past lives, aura's, one even dowses. They never get into a discussion with me about it, because they know that I regard those beliefs just as silly a believing in deities.

[Violet]

GHOSTBUSTERS!!!

Oh sorry...was I meant to read the first post? Shit...

Paul, how could you set us up with "Who Ya Gonna Call?" and NOT imply something about Ghostbusters?! HOW COULD YOU?!

[Paul the Human]

Paul, how could you set us up with "Who Ya Gonna Call?" and NOT imply something about Ghostbusters?! HOW COULD YOU?!

The subject line, "Who Ya Gonna Call?", was to imply something about Ghostbusters! It even worked. You all knew what I meant! Haha! I tend to like giving threads rather odd subject lines. It amuses me.

[Violet]

Paul, how could you set us up with "Who Ya Gonna Call?" and NOT imply something about Ghostbusters?! HOW COULD YOU?!

The subject line, "Who Ya Gonna Call?", was to imply something about Ghostbusters! It even worked. You all knew what I meant! Haha! I tend to like giving threads rather odd subject lines. It amuses me.

.... Bastard....

Fine then! I'll read the OP now

[EggSpurt]

I've been debating a friend about this stuff for a couple of weeks now. We keep going back and forth over email about random things related to this topic. I am very much a skeptic, half James Randi, half Carl Sagan. He's a martial artist who's heavily into meditation and various hallucinogenic substances who believes that anything is possible. His ideas are funky and quite out there. He believes that since in quantum physics the outcome of some experiments is determined by the observation of the outcome, then that means that all reality is possibly created by our perception and consequently we have the power of manipulating reality by force of will. To give you an example: Don't like the thought of dying? No problem. Just believe you are immortal and it will be true.
Now naturally he won't stand behind his claims to the fullest. When he's pressed to address the glaring holes his claims present he usually just says "i'm not saying that this DOES happen, i'm simply saying it's possible that it MAY happen". Typical dodging.
Debating things like this with him I've noticed a striking similarity between his method of argument and the methods of argument presented by theists. It's the same cliches! Whether it's calling the other side closed-minded, or shifting the burden of proof, or completely dropping one argument in the middle of debating it to bring up another one, the same arguments are brought forth by theists. The names and topics change, but the way they think and approach the topics is the same: irrationally.

Anyway, to answer your question, I can't think of any paranormal practice or phenomenon that should rightly be considered scientifically debatable. I guess that's why they're called paranormal. Because they have no grounding in physical reality.

[KichigaiNeko]

Like I have said in another post ...

"..me an my Family have experienced some 'weird shit' ' that is unexplained by scientce. So as I have said before...the jury is still out.

Believe or not believe?? I don't think that is an option but reincarnation is a front runner and 'auric' fields is up there to, for further investigation.