Any Atheists here with unusual beliefs? (eg., Ghosts, or those who don't believe in Evolution or The Big Bang)

Question

I suppose I'm your typical Atheist. I am convinced very firmly of 'the big two' (Evolution and The Big Bang), and have no occult* or spiritual beliefs whatsoever.

But yeh, enough of I, what of you?




* God Bless Jimmy Page!

Sacrilege!

In all seriousness though, Led Zeppelin were fantastic last night.

Effettall:

Indeed, the Big Bang was originally a contemptuous term to desribe the proposterousness of it all. I like 'vast expansion'.

Miss Bouvier:

With respect, I can't really understand how you can deny Evolution AND be an Atheist. Those question have good answers, maybe you could try posting them here?

Answer 1

I like that you called them unusual beliefs. That would imply that you don't believe them either but I'm glad you clarified too. :-) Yes, I have had people tell me that there are ghosts and I am inclined to mention that there have been billions of people in some form on the planet and if they were ghosts that we would all have had an experience. Also, there is an explanation for blury photos and sounds. Some people just deny there brain from thinking about it. So, no I do not believe in unusual beliefs and the Big Bang and Evolution are sound in my mind.

Answer 2

- I doubt there exists any "typical" atheist given that the unique requirement is "I don't believe in any deity".

- I don't beforehand expect every atheist to believe in the big-bang theory, for instance. There are other non-religious theories instead.

Same for the theory of "evolution": there are other non-religious theories.

Personally, I like the theory of Big-bang but I cannot say I "believe" it is 100% true. A theory succeeds to another theory: that's the way it works in real sciences.

I like the "evolution" theory but I doubt this is the only phenomenon that has always ruled life on Earth. I think there are several phenomenons working together, this including "evolution".


- I am an atheist who believes that there exist non-terrestrial intelligent civilisations and that some of them know ours.

Yet I totally distrust anything claimed by "ufologists", new-agists, ...

I don't need scientific proofs: I have the belief in the existence of extraterrestrial civilisations and in life forms widespread in the whole Khosmos. This is totally a non-religious belief.

And I have absolutely no real idea about how those extra-terrestrial intelligent beings may look like. :-)

My brain is pretty "virgin" in this field :D

Answer 3

I would say evolution is a given, but the Big Bang is just another theory about the creation of the universe (it just happens to have the most credence right now). We have been able to observe the effects of evolution here on Earth, but the Big Bang relies on the assumption that what we've observed outside of this world is accurate. A lot of astronomy is wishful thinking because we're doing all the observing from afar. The very fact that we continue to invest in better technology suggests that we know we haven't seen all there is to see, and we need to see more to prove the theory.

It's not completely without basis to disbelieve in the Big Bang. But seriously... who the hell believes in creation over evolution?

Answer 4

I would consider myself an atheist but I don't believe in evolution. We might share most of our DNA with apes and of course major similarities are there, but we're actually pretty different. Plus evolution suggests a constant development, in that case, what are humans going to be 50,000 years down the line (assuming we haven't destroyed the planet and self-destructed by then)? And why didn't all apes evolve into humans, why have some not changed at all?
Big Bang, don't know really. Don't think about it much because these fundamental questions make me feel like my head is exploding.

Answer 5

I don't find any reason to doubt the big bang, as far as I know the only parts that were causing problems was the time zero and before time zero of the bang. Evidently M-Theory/Superstring Theory are taking care of that and we're now working on validating their predictions.

But back to the question, no, I'm a firm disbeliever in anything supernatural. Probably the weirdest thing that I'm undecided on is mental "powers" like far seeing or precognition. There seems to be some small validity to these, but I haven't researched them enough to tell.

Answer 6

I'm an atheist with Fortean tendencies.

That doesn't mean I believe in the supernatural, just that I suspect nature may be rather more complex and odd than conventional philosophies allow for.
(Haldane via Hamlet, if you like.)

So ghosts may be something, and UFO's, but not necessarily spirit beings or visiting aliens.
The susceptibility of the brain to electromagnetic fields may be of relevance... The "Earthlights" hypothesis.

And cold fusion never seems quite of go away, even if the one thing it appears not to be is "cold fusion"!

My main " belief" in this area is that data should not be thrown away *merely* because it doesn't fit comfortably with current concepts. Yes the reports may be mistaken, fraudulent, or wrongly interpreted. That's a given. That they are worthless isn't.

Answer 7

This isn't exactly ghosts and spirituality, but my take on the Big Bang is a little different from the normal understanding of the term. This will take a while to explain, so you may want to get some coffee or a beer before you start reading my answer...

1. In order for the Big Bang to have occurred, two things are required; matter and energy. I believe that the matter and energy required for the Big Bang to have occurred came from the destruction of a previous universe from either a universal scale super-nova, or other naturally occuring spacial phenomenon on a grand scale.

2. Space is infinite. Infinite space means that there are an infinite number of universes. And no, I don't mean galaxies, I mean universes.

Imagine your living room as space. Now, imagine that your computer monitor is our universe. Now, if your monitor is the only thing that exists in infinite space, the rest of your living room would be completely void. However, if you imagine that every single object in your living room is a complete, distinct, and separate universe, then you have a much better picture of what infinate space must really be like. Just for fun, try to imagine item in your home is a seperate universe. If you can wrap your brain around that one, try every item in your neighborhood...

3. In our understanding of the physics of the universe, it expands, contracts, and certain rules apply to everything to keep things on track. Now, our solar system also expands and contracts based on it's relationship to other solar systems they all move through the galaxy following those same rules. These rules can be seen in practical application if you look at the orbits of spacial bodies. So, the obvious explanation for a universe to expand and contract is it's relationship to other universes.

Mass keeps energy moving in calculable and predictable ways. Large bodies of mass attract smaller bodies of mass which keep planets in rotation and in set orbits. Solar systems and entire galaxies continually orbit and rotate around each other in a constant state of motion.

Since I believe that there must be an infinite number of universes in the infinity of space, I must believe that these universes ALSO revolve and orbit around each other in much the same manner. Now, we know that in all this motion thats constantly going on in our universe, occasionally bodies of mass collide.

We know that when mass collides in space, two things are likely to happen. Either the two bodies merge and create a single body, or they collide and break up altering their courses and throwing debris into space which eventually collides with another body of mass or settles into an orbit based on the gravity of nearby bodies of mass.

Carried to it's ultimate conclusion, we have a pretty good idea of what must happen when universes collide. See 1.

We apply the term "Big Bang" to the scientific belief for the origins of our universe. Mathematicly, we can trace time backwards to a point where the math doesn't work anymore. This is a quantum singularity that mathematicly expresses the point in time for the Big Bang. I hypothesize that at this point, this singularity, the math ceases to apply because the variables change. They change because the singularity itself represents not one, but 2 or more universes in collision. In other words, the singularity expresses not only the birth of our universe, but also the death of two universes.

What most people think of as a "Big Bang" is more likely the result of a collision of universes that probably took billions of years.

-SD-

Answer 8

I have a few hesitations on the "Big Bang" stuff but since the steady state theory is a bust the "Big Bang" is the best we have.
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Big Bang is such an innacurate term for the Hot Inflationary Model of the Universe, but it is much more catchy and easier to say.

Answer 9

Dude you're definitely wrong about the idea of a typical Atheist. Atheism simply refers to not believing any god/s. It's like trying to profile the typical person who doesn't have blond hair, black skin and green eyes - that could refer to almost anybody.

Answer 10

I find the Big Bang suspect, but that's only because we don't possess a thorough understanding of quantum physics as yet, there are several other theories that have merit though, but ultimately, it's not a matter we'll have an answer for in my lifetime, so I don't dwell on it