The Existence of Ghosts

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What is your view on the existence of ghosts?

I believe ghosts exist and nothing will change my mind.
1
7%
I believe ghosts exist, but I would be willing to change my mind if presented with good evidence to do so.
1
7%
I believe the existence of ghosts can never be shown one way or the other.
1
7%
I believe ghosts do not exist and nothing will change my mind.
1
7%
I believe ghosts do not exist, but I would be willing to change my mind if presented with good evidence to do so.
8
53%
Other (please clarify in the thread).
3
20%
 
Total votes: 15

Kylie
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The Existence of Ghosts

Post #1

Post by Kylie »

From a discussion in another thread with Purple Knight.

Do you believe in ghosts? Please feel free to add any more information as a post in this thread, such as a story where you encountered something you believe was a ghost, etc.

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Re: The Existence of Ghosts

Post #31

Post by AgnosticBoy »

brunumb wrote: Fri Jul 09, 2021 1:09 am May I ask where I have tried to reduce observation of UFOs as being nothing or that there is no value in observational evidence. I'm sure that I have never intentionally made such declarations. Could you have misconstrued what I was saying?
Here's a statement of yours:
brunumb wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 7:58 pm
AgnosticBoy wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 6:56 pm UFOs defy current science, but they are still accepted as phenomenon that exist.
How can we possibly conclude that they defy current science when we don't know what they are?
I responded by saying that we can know some details about them based on observational data alone, like how fast they're travelling, in what mediums or conditions can they travel (through air, space, and water?), etc.
Diagoras wrote: Fri Jul 09, 2021 1:05 am You asked me to elaborate. I was concerned that if unchallenged, your claim would imply that subjective methods were the only methods being currently used or accepted. I could have emphasised that better. Hopefully that clears things up and doesn’t need a link to an MRI machine?
Understood. Link to MRI is not needed.
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Re: The Existence of Ghosts

Post #32

Post by Goat »

Kylie wrote: Mon Apr 26, 2021 9:38 pm
benchwarmer wrote: Mon Apr 26, 2021 3:01 pm [Replying to Kylie in post #1]

What exactly do you mean by 'ghost'? That would drive my answer to the poll. For now I picked other as I don't know exactly what we are talking about.

In short, I am always open to changing my mind when presented with convincing (to me) evidence. It happens all the time. Especially when my wife is glaring at me and pointing to the evidence :shock:
The general idea of a ghost, a spirit of a person left behind after that person's body dies. Of course, if someone has a different view of ghosts, then I'm happy to accept that as well.
What is a 'spirit'? Can you define a spirit in a manner that does not rely on metaphysical terms that are non-phyiscal in basis?
“What do you think science is? There is nothing magical about science. It is simply a systematic way for carefully and thoroughly observing nature and using consistent logic to evaluate results. So which part of that exactly do you disagree with? Do you disagree with being thorough? Using careful observation? Being systematic? Or using consistent logic?�

Steven Novella

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Re: The Existence of Ghosts

Post #33

Post by Diagoras »

Athetotheist wrote: Fri Jul 09, 2021 10:19 amAnd having a friend "try to hide quickly" assumes that the unknown visitor would for some reason have done the same, which significantly lowers the reliability of such an experiment.
It sounds like we agree that performing an experiment ‘after the fact’ on things like ghost activity is problematic.

Actually, it is easy to say. The chances of the flapping of a bird's wings exactly duplicating the sound of hard heels moving in a straight line across a wooden floor are so low as not to be worth mentioning.
This was interesting to me because the details of ‘hard heels moving in a straight line’ weren’t in the original post. I’m not trying to ‘call you out’ in this instance, but I think it’s fair to say that (in the general sense), ghost stories and similar things tend to become more embellished, rather than less in the retelling.

And at the end of the day, we’ll never know how those footstep noises were produced. To what extent your own imagination might have ‘filled in the gaps’ or your ears slightly misheard something cannot be established. But while “we will never know” is highly disappointing, it’s at least being honest. As soon as a person reaches for a supernatural explanation purely because a natural one can’t be definitively identified, then they are abandoning critical reasoning. Sorry to seem harsh, but I see no real difference between ascribing ‘ghosts’ as the reason for doors moving or unseen footsteps, and ascribing ‘demons’ to mentally disturbed people, or ‘gods’ to earthquakes and hurricanes.

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Re: The Existence of Ghosts

Post #34

Post by Athetotheist »

Diagoras wrote: Mon Jul 12, 2021 7:23 pm
Athetotheist wrote: Fri Jul 09, 2021 10:19 amAnd having a friend "try to hide quickly" assumes that the unknown visitor would for some reason have done the same, which significantly lowers the reliability of such an experiment.
It sounds like we agree that performing an experiment ‘after the fact’ on things like ghost activity is problematic.

Actually, it is easy to say. The chances of the flapping of a bird's wings exactly duplicating the sound of hard heels moving in a straight line across a wooden floor are so low as not to be worth mentioning.
This was interesting to me because the details of ‘hard heels moving in a straight line’ weren’t in the original post. I’m not trying to ‘call you out’ in this instance, but I think it’s fair to say that (in the general sense), ghost stories and similar things tend to become more embellished, rather than less in the retelling.

And at the end of the day, we’ll never know how those footstep noises were produced. To what extent your own imagination might have ‘filled in the gaps’ or your ears slightly misheard something cannot be established. But while “we will never know” is highly disappointing, it’s at least being honest. As soon as a person reaches for a supernatural explanation purely because a natural one can’t be definitively identified, then they are abandoning critical reasoning. Sorry to seem harsh, but I see no real difference between ascribing ‘ghosts’ as the reason for doors moving or unseen footsteps, and ascribing ‘demons’ to mentally disturbed people, or ‘gods’ to earthquakes and hurricanes.
The specific type of heel it sounded like wasn't central to my earlier post and I believe I mentioned the sound moving across the floor, which would reasonably imply the straight line in which someone would normally walk. I go into more detail in my more recent post to illustrate how easily I could distinguish what I heard from the flapping bird wing you suggested.

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Re: The Existence of Ghosts

Post #35

Post by Kylie »

Goat wrote: Sun Jul 11, 2021 8:32 pm
Kylie wrote: Mon Apr 26, 2021 9:38 pm
benchwarmer wrote: Mon Apr 26, 2021 3:01 pm [Replying to Kylie in post #1]

What exactly do you mean by 'ghost'? That would drive my answer to the poll. For now I picked other as I don't know exactly what we are talking about.

In short, I am always open to changing my mind when presented with convincing (to me) evidence. It happens all the time. Especially when my wife is glaring at me and pointing to the evidence :shock:
The general idea of a ghost, a spirit of a person left behind after that person's body dies. Of course, if someone has a different view of ghosts, then I'm happy to accept that as well.
What is a 'spirit'? Can you define a spirit in a manner that does not rely on metaphysical terms that are non-phyiscal in basis?
No, I don't think I could provide such a definition. But then again, I do not hold the belief that ghosts are real in any way.

For the purposes of this thread, however, I'm happy to interpret "ghost" in whatever way the readers wish. If someone has experienced an encounter with what they believe was a ghost, then that's good enough for me.

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Re: The Existence of Ghosts

Post #36

Post by Diagoras »

Ok, I'm going to jump back a little bit to address an earlier point:
AgnosticBoy wrote: Mon Jul 05, 2021 8:42 pm [Replying to Diagoras in post #13]However, I think the best method (not sure how practical it is given the nature of the supernatural) is to provide an explanation (or a testable hypothesis) of how any given supernatural phenomenon works. Then test it. This would be in contrast to just going by a process of elimination of simply ruling out all natural explanations. I honestly believe that there are laws to the supernatural so it should be explainable, in theory.
Can we put up a reasonable hypothesis for exactly how a ghost makes sound? What could be some possible foundations for such a theory (e.g. ghosts only have an incorporeal form, they are somehow associated with a real but dead person, etc)? Could a ghost 'hear' sounds made in the real world (if so, how?) and is it possible to communicate with them somehow? That's only one small part of the problem though, because such a hypothesis would need to fit into a cohesive larger framework. For instance, is a 'spirit world' possible, and if so, under what conditions is it possible for ghosts to interact with individuals? Why are these events so few and far between, usually at night in unfamiliar locations and so infrequently witnessed by more than one person? Given the number of dead people must far outweigh the number of living people, why aren't we inundated by ghost sightings at all hours of the day? Do ghosts experience similar incidents in their world when the fabric of reality momentarily tears and they see the image of someone living? I could go on, but to fairly say, "yes, it was most likely a ghost", you'd have to make at least a basic attempt at answering all these questions that arise from a set of footsteps.

Or, y'know, it might have been in your imagination.

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Re: The Existence of Ghosts

Post #37

Post by Athetotheist »

Diagoras wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 4:09 am Ok, I'm going to jump back a little bit to address an earlier point:
AgnosticBoy wrote: Mon Jul 05, 2021 8:42 pm [Replying to Diagoras in post #13]However, I think the best method (not sure how practical it is given the nature of the supernatural) is to provide an explanation (or a testable hypothesis) of how any given supernatural phenomenon works. Then test it. This would be in contrast to just going by a process of elimination of simply ruling out all natural explanations. I honestly believe that there are laws to the supernatural so it should be explainable, in theory.
Can we put up a reasonable hypothesis for exactly how a ghost makes sound? What could be some possible foundations for such a theory (e.g. ghosts only have an incorporeal form, they are somehow associated with a real but dead person, etc)? Could a ghost 'hear' sounds made in the real world (if so, how?) and is it possible to communicate with them somehow? That's only one small part of the problem though, because such a hypothesis would need to fit into a cohesive larger framework. For instance, is a 'spirit world' possible, and if so, under what conditions is it possible for ghosts to interact with individuals? Why are these events so few and far between, usually at night in unfamiliar locations and so infrequently witnessed by more than one person? Given the number of dead people must far outweigh the number of living people, why aren't we inundated by ghost sightings at all hours of the day? Do ghosts experience similar incidents in their world when the fabric of reality momentarily tears and they see the image of someone living? I could go on, but to fairly say, "yes, it was most likely a ghost", you'd have to make at least a basic attempt at answering all these questions that arise from a set of footsteps.

Or, y'know, it might have been in your imagination.
Physicists have long pursued their beloved "Theory of Everything" to explain all known physical phenomena. They don't know how it all fits together, but observation tells them that it does. They don't write off an observation as illusion just because they haven't found a place for it in the grand scheme of things.

If the suggestion that an observation is "imagination" is being applied to me, I think it fair to point out that it's somewhat ad hominem since it assumes that I'm prone to such imaginings. If that's the case, why don't I imagine such things on at least a semi-regular basis? The infrequency of such "imagination" on my part weighs against that hypothesis.

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Re: The Existence of Ghosts

Post #38

Post by Difflugia »

Athetotheist wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 11:13 amThey don't write off an observation as illusion just because they haven't found a place for it in the grand scheme of things.
They do if there's no apparently plausible mechanism and they can't reproduce it when they try.
Athetotheist wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 11:13 amIf the suggestion that an observation is "imagination" is being applied to me, I think it fair to point out that it's somewhat ad hominem since it assumes that I'm prone to such imaginings.
It's quite literally an ad hominem in that it's an argument based on your status as a human being. It's unnecessary to assume that you imagine things any more than anyone else, because humans qua humans imagine quite enough.
Athetotheist wrote: Tue Jul 13, 2021 11:13 amIf that's the case, why don't I imagine such things on at least a semi-regular basis? The infrequency of such "imagination" on my part weighs against that hypothesis.
Unfortunately, the implausibility of the experience reflecting reality is more powerful evidence than how infrequent you perceive your imaginings to be.
My pronouns are he, him, and his.

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Re: The Existence of Ghosts

Post #39

Post by nobspeople »

Kylie wrote: Mon Apr 26, 2021 12:12 am From a discussion in another thread with Purple Knight.

Do you believe in ghosts? Please feel free to add any more information as a post in this thread, such as a story where you encountered something you believe was a ghost, etc.
I have many experiences with what some would call 'ghosts'. I've had many experiences with things some would call 'energies'. I don't know what they are, but I've never had an experience with a 'ghost' of someone I know.
I think it's possible, and I believe there are things 'out there' that we don't know about or understand. What they are... :?:
Have a great, potentially godless, day!

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Re: The Existence of Ghosts

Post #40

Post by Tcg »

Athetotheist wrote: Sat May 01, 2021 10:51 pm
When a door you're looking right at starts to open slowly and then shuts with force and no one visible is anywhere near it, it makes you wonder----especially after being told by others of the same door doing the same thing. When you're on a balcony in a large upstairs room in a building and you hear footsteps cross the wood floor below in the dark and suddenly stop, it makes you wonder----especially when the people downstairs tell you later that none of them had been up there.
And as we can imagine, if someone dies and comes back as a ghost, their favorite pastimes will be shutting doors and walking partially across a floor and then disappearing. Who could ask for a more fulfilling afterlife than that?


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