Do Atheists Believe in the Supernatural?

[Jazzykatt]

I would really like to hear what others think about ghosts, hauntings and things that go bump in the night. I personally have never experienced such phenomenon; although I may have convined myself that I saw or heard something when I was a teenager with a ouija board and an overactive imagination.

That would a "no" on ghosts. It seems to me that if one leaves open the possibility that ghosts exist, or any other supernatural phenomena, then it's not much of a leap to then suppose that souls, the afterlife, and finally, god, exists. So believing in ghosts seems to open a Pandora's box of other possible spiritual entities. Occam's razor, once again, provides the most logical path. If you've personally experienced such "ghosts," then your own mind is the likely creator.

I completely agree with the mind being a powerful tool that will probably never be used to its full potential. I think, as minimalist said, that we humans are notorious for scaring the crap out of ourselves. If someone does hear, see or feel something "supernatural' then who is to say that they aren't creating it themselves. Just a theory. One I believe more than the theory of an afterlife.

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We have a number of senses but there are no certainties. We could all be imagining all this. We could all be suffering from hallucinations. Unless you know of another way of perceiving that is more reliable than our senses.
Faith won't cut it I'm afraid. That can also be wrong.

We observe, test, test again, study, measure and gather data from all these. This is how we learn, this is how we advance in knowledge. But no matter what we do or how we go about it. There can be no 100% certainty.


how can you be 100% certain that it is not possible to be 100% certain?

Who knows. Maybe we are all living in the Matrix!

[Welsh cake]

I would really like to hear what others think about ghosts, hauntings and things that go bump in the night. I personally have never experienced such phenomenon; although I may have convined myself that I saw or heard something when I was a teenager with a ouija board and an overactive imagination.

As I've mentioned in a previous post in another thread somewhere the supernatural is a meaningless word primarily because there's never been a universal definition for 'natural', adding the prefix "super" to it is therefore unnecessary.

I believe in ghosts, vampires and werewolves as concepts. Do I think they actually exist in reality objectively? Of course not, they are products of fiction.

i don't find it valid that you are making a logical conclusion that you yourself know can not be right. cause it cant be 100% true.
I don't have anymore time to spend with you.

You're free to argue that it is all subjective, but absolute knowledge is a complete waste of time, as Ace has mentioned before, you can't know anything for sure. At least as close to practical knowledge, meaningful knowledge is concerned there is no demonstrably real God-like being/entity proven to exist, and the Biblical God concept we can refute outright as a non-answer for natural phenomena and existence of the universe because it’s riddled from head to toe with logical impossibilities and contradictions.

There's a lack of evidence for supernatural entities therefore we're left with no reason to believe there’s any such thing. As agnostic free-thinkers who care about epistemology the only thing that will change our positions on this is evidence and sound reasoning, both of which you pitifully lack.

So as a closing i would like to respond to your signature. with out a God you would not have anything that you speak of. I pray that all of you who read this will come to repent of your sin and Trust in Jesus Christ as your savior as he is he only way to heaven and eternal Life. God Bless you i hope i have represented my Savior well, and if i haven's i would ask for your forgiveness.

Awww, is that the burn of cognitive dissonance we're feeling today? Nevermind here's a video clip that'll make your user-name's sake "Can't stop a truck" feel a lot better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQJonaGNF-E

[Captain Scarlet]

how do you account for laws of logic? these laws are universal, immaterial, and unchanging how does a strictly natural or material world create these laws? or are these laws man-made?

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observation depends on our senses and how do you know your sense are right?

The argument for god from the laws of logic (TAG) is refuted. Not only does it beg the question, it is also an argument from incredulity and also commits the fallacy of the floating abstraction. Logic is a result of humans imposing an abstract structure on the world materially instatatiated around us. As such laws of logic do not really exist except in the framework of logic itself and at the scale of the universe that makes sense to us. This is the same for similar arguments like morality, maths or any abstraction. Even if you were to accept the laws of logic are imposed by an agency, how do you get to a god, or even Yahweh?

We have to trust our sense, and you of course do like us all. Evolution has tailored the best results for us in our current context. Our senses will of course improve against our environment as we contiues to evolve, but it may mean one is reduced in favour of some other in a trade off that is better for our survival. They are however imperfect and easily fooled, which is why we need independent verification through scientifc processes. Our senses cannot get at ultimate truths however becuase they are limited to the world at our scale. The very big and very small cannot be comprehended by them without the aid of technology. But in all our endeavours we have never found a god, nor any traces of one. The only time a god has been 'found' is in the absence of seeking knoweldge itself. And to turn this around; if you sensed god but didn't beleive you could trust your senses - where would that leave your personal experience?