Poll: Do you believe in ghosts?

[John Galt]

I don't believe that there is any such thing as a ghost. People often experience something that they just can't explain. "I saw a ghost" is a reaction we're programmed from childhood to have whenever our rational minds cannot explain the situation.

Vampires do exist, just nothing supernatural about them. They're just people who have a hobby for drinking blood. I'm pretty sure the History Channel did a report on them when they ran out of WWII shows.

 

[Easykill]

Ectoplasm: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ectoplasm_%28paranormal%29#See_also

And something cool I found on vampires, although I was unable to find anything on "Blood bars", where people who consider themselves vampires drink blood ,that I saw on CSI once. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhampir

 

[Scypemonk]

And something cool I found on vampires, although I was unable to find anything on "Blood bars", where people who consider themselves vampires drink blood ,that I saw on CSI once. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhampir

Funnily enough, thats were i heard of them to, thats when i realised why all those wierd people, hung around the place 3 houses away from mine. Yeah, i know i live in a sick neighbourhood.

 

[HSIAMetalKing]

Vampires are a completely different story-- they're out there. I actually make vampire hunting a hobby of sorts-- you don't often find one, but when you do it's always an exciting hunt. I've got a few of their bodies stored in my parent's garage (don't worry-- the corpses have been pierced through the heart with a crucifix made of garlic).

 

[LordOmnit]

That's... wonderful? HSIA.

 

[Frybird]

I don't believe in ghosts.

And IF ghosts exist, there would be probably no way to prove it, as there are just about always logical reasons behind ghost sightings.

That said, i do not BELIEVE, however, i also do not deny the possiblity that such things may EXIST.
Like God, Reincarnation or whatever, it is only logic that things man cannot comprehend may exist and that we are unaware of it exactly because of that.

However that would mean that it is unlikely that Ghosts, as we imagine them (!), do not exist.

 

[BonsaiK]

Ghosts are totally real and if you don't believe me, you smell.

Sorry, I know that came out a bit harsh but it's not my fault. A ghost told me to write that.

 

[Blayze]

Ghosts, the afterlife, psychics, gods, reincarnation... It all boils down to five-year old logic from people who defy logical thought.

"You can't prove that ghosts exist or not, so my opinion's still valid!"

But the worst aspect of this crap? Derek Acorah. If I hear the words "residual energy" one more time, I'm hunting him down and gutting him in his sleep. Let's see if that spirit guide of his lets him know where his intestines have been relocated to.

 

[propertyofcobra]

Short answer: No.
Long answer: Ghosts are a combination of wishful thinking and an active imagination.
Ever woken up in the night and seen a shadow and KNOWN that it's someone there, until you turn the light on and "oh, it was just my shirt hung over the closet door"?
Take that, sprinkle in a good deal of "I wish Robert was here today", add a smudge and a backlit bush in your daughter's wedding photo and voila: "That's Robert! His ghost was there that day!"
"No, that's just a smudge and a bush. It's a coincidence"
"It's Robert's ghost. This blurry thing that looks like a round shape with two eyes, if you squint and hold it like this, is proof!!!"


Also: Residual Energy.

 

[Jack Sheehan]

eh no. Years of most haunted have turned the whole ghost thing into a joke.

 

[Esta]

Well, as there's no real physical evidence that disprooves ghosts I'd have to say yes, they exist.

If you say there's no such thing as ghosts in your opinion that's okay, but if you announce that ghosts don't exist as a fact, your thick, because obviously, you can't proove that.

 

[GloatingSwine]

There's actually plenty of empirical evidence that ghosts exist. There's plenty of sensory experience of what people call ghosts..

Anecdotes are not considered evidence in any field of enquiry.

 

[propertyofcobra]

Well, as there's no real physical evidence that disprooves ghosts I'd have to say yes, they exist.

If you say there's no such thing as ghosts in your opinion that's okay, but if you announce that ghosts don't exist as a fact, your thick, because obviously, you can't proove that.

There is a giant invisible elephant right behind you. You can't prove there's NOT one there, you might just not be able to see or smell or touch it. Doesn't mean it's not there, thus it has to be there. Flawless logic, really.

 

[LordOmnit]

There is a giant invisible elephant right behind you. You can't prove there's NOT one there, you might just not be able to see or smell or touch it. Doesn't mean it's not there, thus it has to be there. Flawless logic, really.

Actually, invisible just means not visible, not intangible. Therefore, your logic fails and you required outside assistance from someone who does believe in ghosts to illustrate your point of trying to (sarcastically) say that ghosts do not exist if you were to correct yourself and say intangible or come up with another example. And it isn't an elephant, it's a giant mutant venus fly trap that only eats prehistoric dragonflies, get it right.
Also "right behind you" is highly subjective as "right" isn't a quantitative measurement.

 

[Dectilon]

I rarely talk to any imaginary friends, be they gods or ghosts. I like to think it's a sign that I'm sane ~~

 

[Stomp224]

Only because I refuse to believe that the Ghostbusters don't exist.

 

[GrowlersAtSea]

You cannot disprove the allegation that Julius Caesar was in, in fact, an alien cyborg sent here to change the course of history. You can't produce a body, nor is there any historic document expressly saying that he was not an alien cyborg.

If you say that he was not an alien cyborg in your opinion that's okay, but if you announce that he wasn't an alien cyborg as a fact, you're thick, because obviously, you can't prove that.

Sounds a bit silly doesn't it?

Trying to prove a negative is insanely hard, especially when there's virtually nothing to actually look for/investigate with this kind of thing. Believing in something just because it cannot be dis-proven is an iffy way to go about things, simply because it gives the benefit of the doubt to literally anything and everything without evidence to the contrary.

Believing in something is just fine, I think. But belief without evidence is just that, a belief. That's not to belittle belief and faith, they make up a bit part of this world, but to call people thick because they cannot disprove your beliefs or disagree with them seems a bit extreme.

 

[Geoffrey42]

I don't "believe" in anything. Things can either be empirically verified, in which case they exist regardless of my belief in them, or they can't, which is indistinguishable from them not existing at all.
"Ghosts" fall into the latter category. There is no empirical evidence for their existence.

Not to be rude or anything, but that's more atheism than anything.

Per my understanding of Atheism, no, not really. To paraphrase, Atheism is the belief that there are no deities. That, in and of itself, is as much of a "belief" as believing IN deities. There is no empirical evidence for or against the existence of one or more deities.

If anything, I'd say the statement leans more towards agnosticism.

On a personal note, I've always been a fan of militant agnosticism. (I don't know and you don't either.) I think it applies as well to this case of ghostism, as it does to the case of a/theism.

 

[Easykill]

I'm the only Agnostic I know. I didnt even think that was the right word for it because I invented it myself without hearing of it... I'll have to check it out on wikipedia

 

[LordOmnit]

Oops, yeah, my mistake, sorry.