Hello, newbie here
Read many an article that revolves around the belief of the spirit world for want of a better phrase. many threads on here also discussing whether or not an atheist can believe in ghosts and the supernatural. I have always been a non believer of gods and sky fairies and any of there associates , but there has been many an argument that if you believe in the spirit world you must have a belief in gods, enter the holy spirit etc etc, the splashing of holy water to rid of evil spirits and so on, without going far to much into detail I can paint a picture and you can imagine the rest and place the story to it.
As the existence of gods , I believe, was brought about many many many .......blah dee blah years ago for the comfort or control of mankind then this negates the fact that spiritualism has anything whatsoever to do with it as it was a human invention for a human cause. So what I am trying to say is there is no real connection between them, so spirits are a separate entity of there own. I have these beliefs not by the fact that youtube says so, but a personal experience. Also a friend had an experience. I have absolutely no experience or interventions from gods , goddesses , fairies etc etc.
Atheism is a belief in almost anything but gods and the likes, so I suppose it covers the spiritual world, the naturalist world , and maybe a dash of the materialist world. Now you can go into the argument against the church and exorcisms and using that as a connection to gods and spirits, but I have a different view, or angle on that one, lets just say the good out weighs evil, therefor you smother evil with good, good wins, evil gets up and does a runner, so thats my belief.
so do we need another type of belief that mixes a few things together but leaves out the GOD part? Or does atheism cover it all
well i have other things to say but these may materialise as things progress , such as jesus was just a prophet and not the son of....and when jesus was so called born in a barn, was he just marys excuse that she had it away with the local shepard or farmer , so used that as an excuse to get out of it, or was he an abandoned child from someone who did the same with the milkman, mary found him and because she couldn't have her own she said it wa a child from god
digress
Ps i do know what atheism is, that's not the query for debate, over my adult life i have read many an article on many a belief and i dont think new age covers it really
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Atheism is the lack of a specific belief (that god exists). You can be an atheist and believe in Martians, ghosts, goblins, or Bigfoot.
New Age might be the term you are looking for?
i do know what atheism is, that's not really what I am pondering, over my adult life i have read many an article on many a belief and i dont think new age covers it really, and there has been quite a lot more reports and experiences regarding ghosts of the human form than goblins and even the bigfoots of the world, I put those under the fairy tale titles as I have had experiences of ghosts
I do get what you mean
Most humans have beliefs and emotions that are not rational.
In my view, the primary concern is the truth - we only need certain beliefs to the extent we believe that they are true.
Atheism is a position on belief in god or gods. It typically applies to spirits and spirit world as well but not always,. A Buddhist for example might believe in an evil spirit or the spirit of an ancestor but not a god. He would be classified as an atheist. Remember Christians were some of the first atheists and they were called such by the Pagans for not believing in the Pagan gods. "Atheist" is a derogatory term used by the religious to put down the non-believers, heathen, sinners, infidel, disbelievers of the world. The typical range of the word "Atheist" is directed specifically towards "Non-Believer."
So there are spirits..... What is a spirit? If you can answer the questions, people on the site will tell you whether or not they believe in them. You must define what you mean by SPIRIT.
What objective evidence do you have that spirit's exist?
@Justme:
Have you ever heard of this explanation for "spiritual" experiences?
http://transhumanity.net/the-god-helmet-neuro-theology/
Also look up ergot. That's a kind of fungus that grows on food grains under certain climatic conditions. Ergot poisoning from contaminated bread was common problem in medieval times and was responsible for many religious or demonic experiences.
These so-called ghostly encounters have become firmly embedded in our culture, so we are primed to look for supernatural causes for what are really natural phenomena.
I have just recently read that the first time the term atheist was used was by the Greeks against the Jews who refused to believe in Zeus et al.
It really all depends on your own viewpoint. I dont believe in gods or spirits or other people's heartfelt reportings of such things.
I have had unexplained things happen to me, things that I still can not explain but I do not concede anything spiritual occurred but rather they were natural events for which I did not have all the necessary information for understanding what actually occured.
If you learn only two things while you're here try and make it the art of brevity, and that claims require objective evidence.
Atheism as Nyarl says, is the lack or absence of belief in a deity or deities.
Beyond that you can believe the moon is made of cheese if it makes you happy, but those beliefs are subject to the same principles of validation as all else if they are to be considered rational.
What you're describing sound just like an irrational superstition to me, at least as vapid as any theism I've encountered.
Phenomenological existentialism
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/phenandexist.html
... seems to cover to a considerable degree the way I experience my existence.
@OP
As others discussed you can certainly form your own new belief system where you include believing in "ghost(s)" but still remain atheist as well.
Many atheist have very high standards of proof when it comes to claiming something highly fantastical like "ghosts," and something like the word "spirit" is a very broad term that has many religious connotations but may not necessarily be religious in a particular use, so a more precise defining of the word "spirit" may be in order.
I personally do not believe in anything that makes a large claim that has no evidence other than "he/she said." And to me, the claim of a spirit (most all definitions of) and certainly ghost is a large claim that lacks any real evidence.
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I concur, good post.