Poll: Do you believe in ghosts?
- Thread starter Thegreatoz
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I'm not one to fall in for ghosts, because there's no proof, and if we're going on belief, I'd rather not believe that what remains of my loved ones is wandering around areas they used to hang out, unable to interact with anything.
I've given some thought to the "ghosts" phenomena and I did come up with this alternate theory, for those who just have to believe in something. Preface with a short story.
I used to live in Annapolis, Maryland, where there was very little to do after midnight. As a result, I spent much of my time in diners, most notably Denny's on West Street. We were the Dennyzens (ha ha!) and there were maybe thirty of us in total, though usually only about 15 together at once. I went a lot, because as said, I didn't have anything else to do.
After a few years, I moved to New York. A few months later, I came back to visit. People in Denny's commented that I hadn't been coming "as much". When I asked about the "as much", they said they had seen me here and there, but never at their table, and not with any regularity.
I choose to believe that they saw someone who looked like me and assumed it was me, but as a possible "ghost" explanation, I think I can buy that we leave impressions on the places we touch, and those places can sometimes keep "memories", rather than believing that the soul of my dead grandmother is wandering around her house at night, occasionally banging into things. That'd be a horrible afterlife.
So no. No ghosts.
- J
I've given some thought to the "ghosts" phenomena and I did come up with this alternate theory, for those who just have to believe in something. Preface with a short story.
I used to live in Annapolis, Maryland, where there was very little to do after midnight. As a result, I spent much of my time in diners, most notably Denny's on West Street. We were the Dennyzens (ha ha!) and there were maybe thirty of us in total, though usually only about 15 together at once. I went a lot, because as said, I didn't have anything else to do.
After a few years, I moved to New York. A few months later, I came back to visit. People in Denny's commented that I hadn't been coming "as much". When I asked about the "as much", they said they had seen me here and there, but never at their table, and not with any regularity.
I choose to believe that they saw someone who looked like me and assumed it was me, but as a possible "ghost" explanation, I think I can buy that we leave impressions on the places we touch, and those places can sometimes keep "memories", rather than believing that the soul of my dead grandmother is wandering around her house at night, occasionally banging into things. That'd be a horrible afterlife.
So no. No ghosts.
- J
Difference being? Seems like the discussion is almost identical between the two, one is just without the inevitable emotionally charged yelling matches.HSIAMetalKing said:
YES!!! This is the argument Carl Sagan makes in "The Dragon In My Garage". Believers in the paranormal can find any number of reasons that a hypothesis cannot be tested. It's one of the key red flags that something is pseudoscience.GrowlersAtSea said:
My girlfriend and I used to go to a nearby graveyard a lot to do it, and not once were we ever interrupted by the restless spirits of the dead. And we were like, right there, you know, like we were haunting them kind of thing. And nothing. So I'm calling bullshit.
Good golly on a stick, it was an example of the ridiculous logic used in "You can't prove it's not there, ergo it has to be there". Just like Julius Ceasar being an alien cyborg.LordOmnit said:
That my made-up-on-the-fly example was not worded absolutely perfectly at once does not mean my logic automatically fails, I shall refrain from the namecalling normally followed to someone who makes a stupid claim like that.
Trying to prove a negative is something skeptics and atheists have been forced to do by people who firmly believe that the burden of proof is not with the one making a very tall and ridiculous claim, but rather the one saying "That's bollocks".
The average conversation between believer/nonbeliever goes something like this...
"There are invisible intangible dead people walking around all over."
"...um...what? No."
"PROVE ME WRONG!"
"...you made the claim, you freaking prove yourself right. That's how it works in the legal world."
"Nuh-huh! You can't prove it's not there! So it's there!"
"Moron"
"Hey!"
"You can't prove I didn't actually say "Thanks for making me see your point" but that invisible space-bugs above us changed the soundwaves to make it sound like "Moron", ergo that's exactly what happened."
"You're mean"
"And you're an idiot."
Believe in ghosts for any reason you want, but "You can't prove it's NOT the case" is NOT a reason to believe in ghosts, god, reincarnation, flying purple people eaters, santa or the tooth fairy as far as I'm concerned.
Sex in a graveyard just reminds me of the movie [a href=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0331811/]11:14[/a]. And, had you seen this movie prior to your shenanigans, I think you might've been somewhat less... aroused by the thought of getting your freak on in the memorial garden.Malygris said:
Lord Omnit pretty much convayed what I would say as a reply to this.propertyofcobra said:
That's taking it a bit far for the discussion at hand mate.
Do some research. What I was saying was you can't 100% say, as a fact, that ghosts don't exist, you can't prove it.
Stop, don't say you can't prove that there's no way to prove that ghosts do exist or don't, don't be thick with this mate.
I do not really care to argue about proving whether its possible to disprove ghosts existence, or any other far fetched blabbidy things added after this point on the topic.
It's funny, after I posted that comment I thought to myself, "Hmm, I'll bet someone will respond by saying there is no difference between the two." Not that I believe in ghosts or God-- I just get tickled when I'm right like that.Geoffrey42 said:
But you seem to have gotten my point-- I worry that it is only a matter of time before this thread becomes an "emotionally charged yelling match".
[a href=http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/07/fable-2-alan-wake-and-more-confirmed-for-2008/]Microsoft says so. It must be true. I dare you to prove me wrong.[/a]Cheeze_Pavilion said:
/Sorry, mild attempt to respond, and yet stay on topic. Tricky.
I can prove it! He was stabbed to death. 1) You can't just stab a cyborg alien to death! 2)His metal shell or interior would of protected him from the knives. 3)Also, I'm pretty sure no-one mentioned that he bleed a gooey yellow substaince instead of blood, as all cyborg aliens tend to do.GrowlersAtSea said:
With ghosts, I take the same approach I do with gods. No gods, no afterlife. No afterlife, no ghosts. Of course, if someone could provide some hardcore evidence, preferably in the form of a ghost coming up to me and saying 'Hi', then that's a different story.