Question for atheists and deists only?

Question

I am just curious if any of you have encountered anything that you would define as a "ghost" or "spirit"?
I know I never have. I think something like that is possible, but highly unlikely. One thing that I could never understand about the "ghost" concept is how they float through walls, but not through floors or the ground. If they are incorporeal, they should be able to float through anything. Anyway, I really am curious about this. Are the religious types the only ones that see ghosts, or am I making a false assumption?

Thanks for the answers and keep them coming.
This is very interesting and is giving me ideas for a possible book.

:)

Answer 1

I think that seeing things you can't explain
is part of the human condition, whether you
believe in God or not.

It's also true that certain biological conditions
(brain chemistry) can cause people to hallucinate.

So yes, I am *SURE* that persons who are absolutely
sure that God doesn't exist and that dead people are
really dead have occasionally been confronted by
their long dead rabbit Chester.

Or Mom or Dad ...

The trick here is what they do with that information.
If they assume that it MUST be real and that several
thousand years of science must be wrong, they are
probably suffering from wishfull thinking. Gee, wouldn't
it be nice if Mom would come back and tell me that
she loved me?

This is not to say that there isn't some concept of
life beyond death - but to date there has never been
a credible repeatable test to demonstrate that there his.

As to matter moving through matter ... it happens all
the time. Consider a car through fog. It is unlikely
that science fully understands all of the states of matter
and energy - so "floating through walls" is less
unlikely as it might seem.

However - just cause you want to believe in life
after death, doesn't make the thing you are seeing
real or unreal. Can you perform tests on it? Can
it be analyzed...

That's where ghost stories usually fall apart.

Answer 2

Well, hmm. I wouldn't call myself religious...although...I'm not exactly an atheist either (I think the word you were aiming for there is AGNOSTIC)...but I believe there are ghosts...spirits...and other assorted odd creatures poking about.
Ghosts....I would classify as anything like...I dunno, Casper. In that sense, I have seen very few ghosts in my lifetime. I have conversed with many SPIRITS, but actually SEEN maybe 5 or 6. From what I can tell, ghosts see things the way they were when they were living...for instance, if the floor has been built up since said ghost was alive, assuming he or she was alive in the place you saw them (which is usually the case) they will almost always appear to walk or float with no feet. That's because their feet are on the floor where it used to be, not where it is now. Hmm...Ghosts usually don't realize they could go through walls, like I said, this is usually because the wall YOU see them walk through was NOT THERE when they were alive. Visible spirits can do pretty much whatever they want...because they are not bound to a place like a ghost is. Who said they could not go through floors? lol...they can and do...and often hide in the ground...or just above it...and 'shadow' you...its spooky but kinda neat too...

Yeah. That's all I got.

Answer 3

Well Im not an Atheist but I know of a few who have "seen things"....

As for why a spirit walks through walls: When a spirit passes away they are often drawn back to a place they remember, however sometimes a building may be knocked down or renovated creating a wall where there was none previously, therefore the spirit still remembers that no wall was there and so continues to walk that path as they knew it therefore "walking through walls". They dont walk through the ground or floors because generally they dont do so in life - however I know of a case where a spirit seemed to do so after a renovation that changed where a staircase had been, again the same principle.

Answer 4

I believe in God but I'm not a fanatic. I did however, see something I can't explain other than paranormally, and yes it did hit the floor and keep going.

After my mother died, my sister and I went to pick up her ashes at the crematory. Now...don't assume we WANTED to see anything, and therefore did...because our mother was estranged and we weren't close. In any case, I asked the man in charge if we could see where they did the cremations. He took us into a chapel area where some people have services.

The room had one door from the lobby (which we came through) and one door into the room where they did the cremations. There were pews facing a glass window which had a curtain drawn across it from the opposite side. The man asked us to wait in that room. He opened the door to go into the 'oven' room for lack of a better term, and as he closed the door behind him...this ball of light came flying through the door. It was about the size of a raquet ball, transparent and had different colors spinning inside of it...almost like when a bubble is about to pop in mid air, only the colors were much more vivid, and on the inside.

This ball hovered for probably 2 to 3 seconds, then dropped as if it were very heavy...hit the floor...spread out as though it were made of liquid...and then APPEARED to absorb into the carpet. My sister and I are pretty logic oriented, so I asked her if she had seen it. She said she was glad I had seen it because she never would have believed it if I hadn't. We both touched the floor where it fell and it was bone dry. We looked for any possible cause....a reflection or anything, but there was none...not to mention the ball hovered BETWEEN us. There was nothing it reflected from. It was it's own, contained object.

We've never been able to explain it, and I've never heard of anything remotely close to it happening to anyone else. If there weren't two of us there...NOW I would wonder if it were just a lucid dream, but she remembers it too.

Answer 5

I'm not a religious type, but I have had some experiences in my life that are difficult to explain with any rational reason... so ghosts it is. As far as passing through stuff is considered, you have to remember that the only real concept of ghosts that people have is created by movies and television.

Answer 6

I am a deist. I believe something must be behind the sightings, but I doubt if it is expired humans. I have encountered a "ghost" once, which was quite eerie. I was not a child, nor was I half-asleep or hallucinating.

Actually, I probably never would have noticed the phantasm had my cat not hissed in that direction. Then I looked and saw something that could not be explained.

I find no reason to not believe in energy beings, even if they are not known to exist.

Answer 7

I have several times. I had a visitation from my great-grandmother around the time of her death. I didn't "see" her, but she spoke to me. I have visited a multitude of "haunted" places and on occasion HAVE had various manifestations....noises, moving cold spots, objects moving, being touched. I live VERY near a location where civil war soldiers are often seen. I've been staking out several of the areas where apparitions have been seen when I have time (I am a member of a "ghost" club), but so far I haven't experienced that one.

My father SWEARS that a few years ago, both he and my mother saw what is called in the south the "Old Hag". She appears just before tragic deaths...in this case, a multicar/multifatality accident. My father said that he felt that he was seeing something that he shouldn't and when he asked my mother if she saw her too, the hag turned immediately to look at him and he and my mother both felt compelled to pretend that they didn't see her. He said for some reason, he was terrified. (I have never known anything before to scare my father who is a retired Secret Service Agent.)

Answer 8

Errm..
My mother believes in God.
Yes.
And she has seen
MANY.
Ghosts, Phantoms, Spirits...whatever you wanna call them throughtout her whole lifetime..
Its interesting to hear her stories..
Like one time she said she saw a grim reaper behind a friend of hers or someone she didnt know..
And the next day she found out that they were shot by their uncle..

I dont believe in anything...And I havent seen any ghosts or whatever....


Personally I think the more spiritual you are..The more you are able to see :)

Who said these ghosts cant float throught floors and ground?

My mother also told me that she once saw a friends mother spirit behind her friend sticking out her tongue and making funny faces...Now thats scary >_> LOL!

Hmm..but I do think that religious people see more of this than us.

Answer 9

As an atheist I can say that there is no real evidence for ghost or spirits. I thought I saw one when I was younger, but I realize now that I was just half asleep, and I hallucinated it.

Answer 10

properly I certainly are transforming into a ton of distinctive outcomes on my IQ attempt, the optimal I certainly have ever scored develop into a hundred and sixty, yet i think of that develop right into a fluke. So i visit furnish my assumed ranged based off of the tests I certainly have taken a million - IQ variety: a hundred thirty five - one hundred forty five 2 - Agnostic 3 - My course is ever changing: At 14 I skipped over Christianity, at 19 I went returned to Christianity to win over a warm woman I enjoyed, at 21 I embraced Atheism and probable around 26 I leaned in direction of Agnostic Animism. i think of something is achieveable. i think of we nonetheless have a finite information of issues so the animism area of my thought is basically an assumption (or denial).