Atheists do you believe in Ghosts?

Question

I know this question has been answered before, but I feel the answers to be below par, and uninformative.

As an atheist, have you ever experienced the presence of a ghost or spirt?

My best friend that I have known since we were kids has had numerous experiences where she has seen ghosts, and even been in a ghost's "body" as he was murdered. She has seen these types of thigs since she was 5 years of age, (not all so violent).

One specific instance was she was at a sleep over at her friends house. She saw a man cut up and bleeding on her friend's balcony. When she told her friend, her freind had told her that her neighbor had died when he fell into a wood chipper.

My mother has also seen an instance of a ghost at the hospital that she works at. My mom had faited while at work and a nurse, dressed in all white came to her aid. Also in this hospital, numerous patients have seen a nurse of a similar description.

I personally haven't seen a ghost, but I believe in them.

As an atheist, how do you explain these experiences if you do not believe in any form of spirituality? If you do believe it, do you know of a scientific explination?

I'm not considering these as you to take as evidence, I know that this hardly counts, I'm usig examples of experiences from trustworthy sources. No neither of them have past family mental medical history and neither were on drugs.

I guess what I'm really asking is just a simple do you believe in ghosts, yes or no? Why do you believe what you believe. And if you have experienced a ghost, how do you rationally explain it?

Whoaaaa - "How can you not believe in our Lord, but believe in a $)%*$% ghost?"

For your information, I do believe in the Lord, and what respect you have for all of God's creatures. Wonderful language too, Thanks.

Moiraes Fate - I never once in my question mentionad God. Just becasue I believe in God, doesn''t mean that I'm trying to prove it to you through this weak method. I am simply trying to gain a better understanding of the beliefs of Atheists, and if they do infact believe in ghosts, is there a rational explination. This is a spiritually question, not religious.

Answer 1

I'm probably the only Atheist here who can say honestly, yes, I DO believe in ghosts and spirits...but maybe not as the way religious people do....see, an Atheist can be spiritual, to clear up that misunderstanding you seem to have, sprituality does not come from religion...now, I believe in energy, and that energy is our emotions, like how you can tell when someone's pi55ed off all of a sudden...and when you get a bad feeling about a place...that's your senses telling you that there is negative energy going around...So, when someone dies, they leave behind their emotion "shockwaves" again like when you can tell someone is happy, sad, or angry without even looking, but just be sensing it. And sometimes if that person has extreme emotions, such as hate, love, saddness, etc. it manifests into stuff...either noise, apparitions, or whatever...I've had one or two experiences of that nature, me and my friends went inside a derelict house once where this one person was killed defending herself, she killed her murderer as well...I got a really bad vibe comming from it, and when I was leaving the others, I heard a table crashing downstairs, and we were all upstairs....and the table just didn't break or fall, but was pushed really hard into the wall. Another was a haunted lighthouse and once again I got a weird vibe and I heard footsteps from above, no one was above me or my dad and we were both stationary for some time, so it couldn't be echoes...does this accont for ghosts? Maybe, maybe not...but all that I said, I believe...once again probably the only Atheist who says yes to your question...hope I helped! ^_^

Answer 2

Yes.

I have had many experiences with them. Why do the religious assume that "god did it"? Its not neccesary for god or heaven, the devil or hell, to exist for ghosts to exist.

There are two types... there are ghosts of people that were once living, and there are spirits that never were.

It seems that some people have the ability to hold their energy together past death. Very few have the personal strength to accomplish such a task.

It does not last forever which is why you don't see 5000 year old ghosts.

You Christians are so weird. You assume that ANYTHING supernatural (which are really just things science has YET to understand) in any way must be "gods doing" when there's no reason it has to be.

Answer 3

A very witty and intelligent guy I knew at work said that a ghost lived in his house. I sometimes never knew if he was serious about things because he had a dark sense of humor. However, he was an atheist, and said that the was an actual ghost living in his house. He didn't know exactly how this was, but said that maybe it was some sort of left over energy from someone. WHo knows?

Answer 4

I believe in ghosts... for the period that I'm watching a horror movie.

I believe in trollocs and fades and aes sedai... when I'm reading the wheel of time.

I believe in witches and wizards... When Harry Potter is on.

I believe in mutants (esp. wolverine)... X-Men :)

Unfortunately where real life is concerned, ghosts get lumped up with the rest of those supernatural/fantastical apparitions along with the invisible pink unicorn that roams around in my nonexistent palace.

Human beings are afraid of death, and so like to believe that some part of us stays alive after death. Once that notion is allowed, ghosts are a natural progression of the imagination. If one tries to find a rational explanation for perceived supernatural phenomena, they can be found.

Answer 5

I believe that there are things that we do not yet have an explanation for. To believe otherwise, in my opinion, is arrogant. However, I have never experienced a ghost or apparition personally so on this subject I am agnostic.

and to Malak above: While many atheists may not believe in a soul/spirit it is not a defining characteristic of atheism to not believe in such things. Atheism simply is defined as a belief in the nonexistence of God.

Answer 6

No, I don't believe in supernatural beings.
Don't under estimate the power of suggestion - people can convince themselves that they believe in any number of things, including ghosts. Others, perhaps suffer from some sort of mental illness.

Answer 7

As an Atheist, I have never experienced the presence of a ghost or spirit.

Answer 8

NO, because I don't believe in second hand stories and I certainly know that people conveniently connect imagination, superstition, and real events into a schizophrenic adaptation to make an attempt to make sense out of illogical clap trap.

Bottom line? Its like all reason has left you because you heard some stories from some friends! I've even seen some things in my imagination and had it explained away from hysterical Catholic friends in high school. It was all so "convenient."

Recently, I listened to my mother's tape recording of her session with a psychic. It really angered me that my mother couldn't even figure out that this fraud who took her for her money was able to pull general statements out of thin air and my mother filled in the details because she "wanted" to believe it was real. - It was like listening to verbal improve!

How convenient!

Answer 9

I have a scientific Swedenborgian view on that. When we die our energy is absorbed by the earth, since it is energy we are talking about and the earth is a big capacitor, and our life forces are still here. some people can tap into that and can see ghosts or the life force of people who have died. It makes more sense than god as explained by most of the people on this forum.

Answer 10

I don't see how atheists could possibly believe in ghosts since they keep saying they have no soul or spirit. I'm pretty sure a soul/spirit is needed in order to have a ghost.