Is there a correlations between religious types and believers in the paranormal?

Question

Just pondering this;
It takes a certain type of person to believe in something that there has never been any evidence for, such as believing in a Deity of some description.
Being a Scientist and an Athiest I have no idea how people can blindly do this.
However, I was just wondering if it takes the same mentality to believe in other such phenomena as Ghosts, Telepathy, Telekinesis, which there are equally as little evidence or proof as it does a Deity?
Is it just the religion surrounding the God which dictates the unconditional belief, or the need to believe in something more? Or is it just plain gullibility?

Grandma Susie - "You are so proud of your "intelligence" aren't you, bless your heart." It has nothing to do with my intelligence, if anything I am trying to expand my mind by listening to someone else's opinions, most people would think that's nothing other than a good thing, obviously not you.

Answer 1

Yes, a strong positive correlation, they are both full of $hit

Answer 2

I am agnostic when it comes to religion. I am scientific when it comes to the material world and open minded when it comes to anything else. I believe that there are possibilities for otherworldly phenomena such as ghosts and aura's and such like. When it comes to religious phenomena I am far more sceptical. I have been accused of being gullible, thick, misguided and uninformed etc.... but I believe that humans can only find true answers and understanding if they research all area's of existence. Including the devine, supernatural and conventional. This is what humans have been doing for hundreds of years and will continue to do so. I believe that the only people who should be ashamed of what they believe in are the people who are narrow minded and refuse to even consider something outwith their own experience or prior knowledge. However if you can't accept anything that you see or hear as the truth when it comes from a book or someone's mouth then how could you ever come up with new ways of thinking or researching or exploring the nature of anything that is before you, or even understanding it. Blind faith in some regards is essential for development. Take learning to walk or talk it's mimicry. The proof however is in proving or disproving anything. May true today but a fact may not be a fact in a hundred years time.

Answer 3

I'm an atheist who believes in some paranormal phenomena and is interested in science.

It's interesting that you mention telekinesis. This has actually been tested and proved in laboratory conditions, but the results have been dismissed by the scientifc status quo because it doesn't fit in with the laws of physics as we understand them. The scientific world is full of discrepancies like this.

I think there is a big gulf between being religious and believing in the paranormal. I, for example, believe only in the possibility of paranormal phenomena for which there is strong evidence (most of it, in fact, as you would find out if you really looked into the subject), even if that evidence is not concrete. I don't believe in faeries, for example. It's about keeping an open mind. Just because we don't understand why something would happen, it doesn't mean that it isn't happening. I think that's what has to be taken in to account. These things DO happen. There is irrefutable evidence for this. We just don't know why it happens.

Religion is very different. It involves believing in something for which there is no empirical evidence whatsoever. It involves believing in something for which there are almost water-tight theories to the contrary. It also involves the believer altering the way they live life, their values, their ethics and, in many cases, their personality. It involves giving ones whole self to something completely esoteric and not even slightly grounded in what we can observe around us.

I believe in certain aspects of the paranormal not because I like the idea of it, but because I have read a HUGE amount on the subject, including various papers writing up experiments and outlining theories as well as eye-witness and third party accounts and the like. I believe in these aspects precisely because there IS evidence that points to mechanisms which we don't understand. The actual facts of the cases themselves (levitating beds, objects flying accross rooms) are often irrefutable.

Answer 4

My question for you, sir, is how expensive of an education do you have to get in order to be educated out of faith at all? Everyone has faith in something, even you, as an athiest has faith. You are believing that there is no God and that we are all "...just plain gullible." You have faith in what you believe and you believe it whole heartedly, else you would not be an athiest. Why, then, are you attempting to place yourself on a pedestal simply because we have faith in something other than you?
I apologize for the long preface but I feel it needs to be addressed.

I have been around many folks who are religious all of my life, most of whom do not believe in paranormal activity in the way you think about it. Any person who reads and believes the Bible, as I do, will limit paranormal activity at Angels and demons. There are those who attempt to communicate with the dead, necromancers. Aside from that, anything else that the Bible does not talk about I will not spend time speculating on.

Answer 5

OK i started off as leaning towards atheism then through science ( yes science lol ) studied paranormal happenings via a university course held by members of the SPR the society for psychical research ... they are investigative team studying psychical matters and this started as a means to expose fakes in the world of the paranormal and spiritualism
their findings proved the opposite and have since been working to prove the existence of spirit and paranormal matters whilst still having focus on exposing fakes and hoaxes or explaining them logically when need be
after my studies i did begin my mediumship development and have since studied life after death in much detail
the evidence for all these matters are astounding if you happen to be looking in the right places and not on the likes of Randi's sites
i would be happy to exchange views , answers questions or just have a good old discussion any time :o)

Answer 6

You obviously don't have much experience.

I think you will find when you get out and meet more people, that the correlation is almost a complete divergence: i.e., if you believe in God, you do not believe in the "paranormal"; and the people who believe in Ghosts and things don't actively believe in a personal (Christian) God.

You are correct that both groups experience the supernatural, but the nature of the things experienced is completely different.

Good question.

.

Answer 7

Most people believe in something because they have some personal evidence. Whether it be God or a ghost, most people believe because of some experience they've had.

It is a bit arrogant and condescending to assume that everyone who "believes" does so blindly and ignorantly.

Answer 8

when you find out that through meditation, and the connecting with your bodymind, you will understand, that there is far more to this subjuct than meets the eye, if you ever need healing and someone gives you a blast of magnetic healing, you will want to know more like where does the heat come from if the healer has cold hands as i do, your curiosity will take you to a place that you never thought you could get to, that is where your journey of self discovery begins, love and light be with you.

Answer 9

We are created to worship and be in fellowship with our Heavenly Father. When we are not, we seek to fill that space with lots of things.
I think that people who are searching for dead relatives, or trying to find answers to their life questions by seeing mediums, are seeking to fill that empty space.
If you don't believe in God, how can you have closure on death? Your own or a loved one.
If you can't trust that God has a plan for you, not to harm you but to prosper you, how can you walk your life out?

I know that you don't agree with my beliefs, but I am trying to gilve you perspective.. I don't walk blindly, I walk by faith, and alot of people can't understand that.
be blessed

Answer 10

God is a supernatural God....Christianity is full of the supernatural.....we just don't em brass the dark side of the super natural...we know it exists but we follow the Bible and stand against it....