Should i lower my guard against a haunting if it's said that ghosts don't exist?

[Iron Maiden]

You really don't understand the scientific method.
You have made up your mind that Ghosts exists, and we are the ones who are closed minded because we ask for evidence.

It's just like the atheist can't be convinced that any deity exists, be it the Christian version or any other. What proof is there? If you are a Christian what evidence would you provide?

[Celgress]

This thread has taken an unpleasent turn (like the political thread). Things have gotten too heated for me. It was fun, but now I think I'll throw in the towel. Bye everyone, I'll see you all elsewhere.

[Kirby101]

It's just like the atheist can't be convinced that any deity exists, be it the Christian version or any other. What proof is there? If you are a Christian what evidence would you provide?

I dunno, I'm an atheist.

[Scott Taylor]

It's just like the atheist can't be convinced that any deity exists, be it the Christian version or any other. What proof is there? If you are a Christian what evidence would you provide?

There is no proof one way or another. We are at the point as a society where skepticism and belief about the supernatural are common, and its no surprise. Take germ theory - it started with just an inkling in ancient times that there were vectors that caused disease and eventually we were able to physically see bacteria and viruses and even classify them by type. People spent thousands of years in the skepticism/belief paradigm.

If Christians exist, doesn't that open the possibility that God may exist? Many of them are essentially eyewitnesses to the miraculous, and I'm not talking about Jesus appearing in French Toast. If someone believes God exists, there are experiments to do to see if that belief is authentic and real. But that is about all we can do right now. We don't know what the nature of the supernatural, and therefore can't test for it. Our stage of understanding it is little different from the inkling stage of germ theory.

[Powerboy]

This thread has taken an unpleasent turn (like the political thread). Things have gotten too heated for me. It was fun, but now I think I'll throw in the towel. Bye everyone, I'll see you all elsewhere.

There's a reason I've refrained from further comment in the thread and bitten my tongue, so to speak.

I don't think ghosts exist but someone says you're just not psychically sensitive and it goes around and around.

It's not like teaching religion in schools or trying to make laws based on ghosts existing. It has no applicability beyond you either believe it or you don't. It's not worth getting snotty or mean spirited about.

[Powerboy]

There is no proof one way or another. We are at the point as a society where skepticism and belief about the supernatural are common, and its no surprise. Take germ theory - it started with just an inkling in ancient times that there were vectors that caused disease and eventually we were able to physically see bacteria and viruses and even classify them by type. People spent thousands of years in the skepticism/belief paradigm.

If Christians exist, doesn't that open the possibility that God may exist? Many of them are essentially eyewitnesses to the miraculous, and I'm not talking about Jesus appearing in French Toast. If someone believes God exists, there are experiments to do to see if that belief is authentic and real. But that is about all we can do right now. We don't know what the nature of the supernatural, and therefore can't test for it. Our stage of understanding it is little different from the inkling stage of germ theory.

I would say that the basic idea that God exists is philosophically arguable either way. Specific claims of events and some miracles are testable as to evidence they happened or not. Flood? Evidence says it didn't. Biblical text itself has world filled with people again within a relatively short time. Jesus healing someone? Very personal scale and no way to test. But this sort of thing is only relevant to very Fundamentalist/ Literalist forms of belief. It doesn't address the core question of the existence of deity which is unanswerable.

[Frobisher]

I dunno, I'm an atheist.

A religious person is just an atheist who missed one.

[Kirby101]

A religious person is just an atheist who missed one.

True but I am also a naturalist by philosophy.

[Starter Set]

It's just like the atheist can't be convinced that any deity exists, be it the Christian version or any other. What proof is there? If you are a Christian what evidence would you provide?

Well, sorry but it's not up to the non believer to bring up a proof that something doesn't exist.

If you believe in something invisible and that for some weird and bizarre reason you really want me to believe in it too, then it's up to you to bring the proofs.

[Odd Rödney]

Well, sorry but it's not up to the non believer to bring up a proof that something doesn't exist.

If you believe in something invisible and that for some weird and bizarre reason you really want me to believe in it too, then it's up to you to bring the proofs.

^This, 100%.

Consider that every report of a ghost ever made has been presented with absolutely no credible evidence whatsoever so the whole conversation in this thread is entirely pointless.

[batnbreakfast]

True but I am also a naturalist by philosophy.

Put on some pants

(I've read about nekkid ghosts earlier)

[Kirby101]

Put on some pants

(I've read about nekkid ghosts earlier)

Naturalist by philosophy, not by lifestyle.

[Kirby101]

Iron Maiden, I have no doubt you heard something late at night and saw something. But have you considered that footsteps and a partial figure might be your interpretation, and given the emotional perspective of losing your grandfather your younger self might have filtered those sounds and sights into your grandfather's ghost?
Is that any less reasonable than your grandfather's spirit in your house?

[Iron Maiden]

Iron Maiden, I have no doubt you heard something late at night and saw something. But have you considered that footsteps and a partial figure might be your interpretation, and given the emotional perspective of losing your grandfather your younger self might have filtered those sounds and sights into your grandfather's ghost?
Is that any less reasonable than your grandfather's spirit in your house?

He was no longer living at home and was in a nursing facility when he died. He was very resistant to going there but he could no longer be cared for at home and became mostly bedridden.

I was not particularly close to him honestly. He spoke some English but mostly spoke Polish so I never really had much conversation with him.

[Kirby101]

He was no longer living at home and was in a nursing facility when he died. He was very resistant to going there but he could no longer be cared for at home and became mostly bedridden.

I was not particularly close to him honestly. He spoke some English but mostly spoke Polish so I never really had much conversation with him.

Okay, but to my point about you interpreting sounds and sights at night when you were young?