Today I recieved an angry email from an Atheist who said she believed in ghosts, yet is still an Atheist. This writer was adamant that I should stop making blanket statements that Atheists don’t believe in ANYthing paranormal (like this one: we don’t). My first take was that the writer must be a bit whacky, but hey, sounds like a good blog topic. Please take a moment to look around. See any spooks?
cry4turtles,
Your ?electrical nature? is probably because of wearing rubber-soled shoes (and possibly the type of clothing you wear). I used to wear Rockports because they were so comfortable, but I always built up a large static charge like what you reported. But when I switched to doing research on latest-technology transistors I found I could not get within ten feet without destroying them. I switched to leather-soled shoes and the problem went away.
From what I have read, our electrical nature is very small and localized. External electrical and magnetic fields can affect us, but we do not have any significant effect on things outside ourselves. For example, to look at brain activity, a person usually has to be in a shielded enclosure to be able to measure anything.
Dear Tom,
Thanx for the advice. I didn’t know they made leather soled shoes. I will look for them. I must confess the phonemenon I described has only been affecting me these past 4 to 5 years (I’m 41). I know certain fabrics could esclate the issue such as wool or nylons. However, with my newfound compatibility with elecricity, so am I now way to sensitive to wear these materials. I have to wear 100% cotton (lest I break out in hives)–tshirts, sweatshirts, and jeans are my wardrobe. Perhaps I’m just getting older–they say things change…
I agree that this belief in the supernatural is both irrational and conflicting with atheism.
It reminds me of another angry atheist who was plagued with irrational beliefs who called himself a jew and preached tenets of judaim while demonizing and attacking anyone who disagreed with him with ad hominem attacks, calling them nazis, anti-semites, holocaust deniers, etc.
This angry, irrational and outright whacky so-called atheist also abused his position as moderator of a blog and censored and deleted posts that did not agree with his religious beliefs.
This irrational bigot is now poking fun at another person for also having beliefs in the supernatural.
Thanks for showing everyone that you are also a hypocrite Dave!
This is just my take,and I may be wrong but a belief in ghosts is thusly a belief in the afterlife. While a person may deny the existence of a god they can still be spiritual, and I believe this falls more readily into the category of an agnostic. Atheism, the way I regard it, is based in a denial of spirit/god/afterlife and subscribes more to the materialism picture of reality. Matter, energy, laws of nature and such are what govern the universe and this is existence is all we get.
But hey maybe a wider interpretation of Atheism is out there. I know that it was a concious decision to change from being an Agnostic to an Atheist, and that I see a difference in the two, or am I just splitting hairs.
I’m new here and I would love to jump in on this discussion as it is absolutely captivating me.
Let me preface this by saying that I’m firm in my belief that there is no God, because there is no proof. God is Santa Claus for grown-ups and I stopped believing in Santa Claus years ago. I find myself shaking my head in disbelief in God lasts beyond seven-the age of reason.
“The supernatural is bunk. Live with it. There are no ghosts, no psychic powers, no astral projection, and no astrology.”
I agree and disagree, respectively
I don’t believe in the Supernatural, especially not in the Mystical Sense that New Agers do. I do however believe that there are situations that seem beyond what Science can explain-and that is okay. I am not about to, nor do I want to pretend that Science has discovered everything.
Even in my skepticism, I am careful not to impose upon myself the conservative thinking that anything that has to do with ghosts or the
so-called supernatural is wrong because it means that there is a life after death and therefore a God. To me that is just faulty a perspective as religiosity saying that ghosts and anything supernatural is real and that proves there is a God. It is my opinion that both are close minded views.
Take Alex’s Daniel Boone Character for example (hope you don’t mind Alex). I have rarely met a person who hasn’t seen such a thing in their lifetime, and I hesitate to say that such large numbers of the populous just randomly hallucinate.
Enough people see “ghosts” for it to have a reasonable explanation that is not supernatural. I’d prefer to just say,”Fine, it’s not explained, but not mystical-it’s supernormal. Perfectly explainable, but not explained yet.”
I believe that Quantum Mechanics is on the verge of explaining how some of these things could come to be. Take Holographic Universe, or Hyperspace for example. Time is an amazing thing. I dont believe that we as humans (or scientists) fully grasp it. The implications that time is not linear, perhaps spiral, or a series of interlocking circles is very probable. The area of the Universe that we are capable of veiwing, experiencing and measuring, is just a small part of a complicated system that can only be understood when we can interact with the universe as a whole. I think that Supertring or M-Theory will prove that alot of things that people see are just two 4 dimensional universes with a region in common, like switching the channel on the remote for a moment. Perfectly natural and unexplainable.
Let’s just say that I have a special place in my heart for Quantum Foam, lol. I suppose my whole point Don’t overlook the supernatural as being purely mystical. The magic of yesteryear is certainly the science of tomorrow, and it shall continue to be that way, I hope throughout my life.
Maven
“I feel that some people can permanently alter the electrical environment that surrounds them, and that this permanant alteration can survive that person’s death (at least for some time). Therefore, if a living person feels that he/she detects a ghostly presence, they may be picking up on residual (or vestigial) electrical markers left there by someone (now dead) who resided in that space long enough to have a permanant (or semi-permanant) impact on the surrounding electrical environment. Hey scientists, does this make sense?”
I agree with that, or a similar idea at least. Well put!