Ghosts and the Paranormal

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Nope.
*buzzkill*
 
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iMisterH said:
Do you personally believe in ghosts and the paranormal?
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Hello pertinent question! The answer is no! Not particularly!

See, in order for me to believe there are ghosts and spirits, I would first need to believe there is an afterlife of some kind. However, due to the lack of any evidence for a soul, or really that anything exists of me beyond my brain (which most assuredly gets eaten by maggots or burned to a crisp), I would be hard pressed to imagine that, somehow, I could become an immortal, incorporeal, physics-defying, ectoplasmic entity that fucks with teenagers on TV shows.

That being said, can I disprove the existence of ghosts and spirits? No. I also can't disprove the existence of the tooth fairy or an omnipotent deity, but then, positive claims require evidence. That is: If you claim something is real, you have to prove it. I don't have to prove my lack of belief in a positive claim lacking evidence. Do I think people who believe in ghosts and spirits are crazy? No. Not really.

So basically spirits and ghosts are really neat for stories, or video games, and I dabble in the topic with my role plays fairly often. I just don't think they exist for the same reason I don't believe anything supernatural exists: It fails to meet even the most basic of tests we could apply to see if it does, and has arbitrary rules that differ from culture to culture, and is almost exclusively a personal experience that cannot be verifiable tested.

tl;dr: I don't believe in an afterlife, nor do I believe magic exists, so I can't believe in ghosts and spirits by extension.
 
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Brovo said:
or really that anything exists of me beyond my brain
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I can't provide a source at the moment, but relatively recent brain studies have actually showed that consciousness is not entirely dependent on the brain, implying that the two are seperate entities. It's kind of more like the brain generates a non-physical emenation that is consciousness, and changes to the brain can affect it, but the two are not inherently the same thing. Food for thought.
 
Vansalon said:
I can't provide a source at the moment, but relatively recent brain studies have actually showed that consciousness is not entirely dependent on the brain, implying that the two are seperate entities. It's kind of more like the brain generates a non-physical emenation that is consciousness, and changes to the brain can affect it, but the two are not inherently the same thing. Food for thought.
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Yes, except this part I've bolded here is why I'd have issue believing it. :bsmile:

So far as I'm aware, science doesn't yet fully have the answer for human consciousness. We're starting to get a general idea however that nearly every human emotion or concept is something that can evolve naturally over time, such as animals being able to pass self awareness tests, learning and understanding language & keeping pets, and so on. Even functions we'd consider fairly advanced, such as long term memory and regret for one's actions are behaviours animals such as elephants and dogs can and do exercise. We may be the most advanced intellectually, but by the looks of it, there's nothing particularly impossible about the idea of human beings simply being a byproduct of their environment, but, hey, science isn't done with the question of human consciousness yet. So who knows, maybe we do have souls that we can empirically test, we just haven't found them yet.

Which is why science is awesome!... But is also the reason why I still can't believe in ghosts. :angel: Sorry.

EDIT

This might be a good place to start though to learn the laymen's version of what science thinks on the topic.
 
Brovo said:
Yes, except this part I've bolded here is why I'd have issue believing it. :bsmile:

So far as I'm aware, science doesn't yet fully have the answer for human consciousness. We're starting to get a general idea however that nearly every human emotion or concept is something that can evolve naturally over time, such as animals being able to pass self awareness tests, learning and understanding language & keeping pets, and so on. Even functions we'd consider fairly advanced, such as long term memory and regret for one's actions are behaviours animals such as elephants and dogs can and do exercise. We may be the most advanced intellectually, but by the looks of it, there's nothing particularly impossible about the idea of human beings simply being a byproduct of their environment, but, hey, science isn't done with the question of human consciousness yet. So who knows, maybe we do have souls that we can empirically test, we just haven't found them yet.

Which is why science is awesome!... But is also the reason why I still can't believe in ghosts. :angel: Sorry.
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I'd have to dig out a few books to find my source, so if I decide to do that I'll do some more research and pm you. Neuroscience isn't my specialty, so I could be wrong, but the original source was a fairly reliable one.

I could provide quite a few reasons against the macroevolutionary hypothesis, but that would be even more off topic than we already are, so if you want to have a friendly debate on that, feel free to pm me!
 
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Do I believe in ghosts.

No.

Is there a possibility that there could be ghosts?

WEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL Looking at it from a philosophical point of view, you could say they exist. You could also say we ARE ghosts. Ghosts could be the activity of the restless conscious, Maybe we haunt ourselves, it wouldn't be the first time the brain decided to give anyone a false stimulus. Maybe we are already dead, waiting to die again. Maybe we are being controlled and have formed a bond with the Dualshock 4 controller. Maybe this is all bullshit that I've gotten you to read.
BUT THAT IS NOT THE POINT!​​
While I sit, here on the floor, in a yukata, with my trusty paper fan and wakizashi, I've come across a sound reason as to why... nevermind, lost my train of thought.​​
 
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Razilin said:
if theres one thing i learned from d&d, its that everything can be killed
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Until 4e made it impossible to kill the Tarrasque by RAW. Reducing it to to 'death' just makes it fall asleep until it wakes up again.

On topic, no, I don't believe in any paranormal or supernatural event. If we could observe it and prove it, then... well I still wouldn't. Because then it would no longer be supernatural, and instead be part of typical old natural existence. Fun times.

Neener neener.
 
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Elendra said:
Until 4e made it impossible to kill the Tarrasque by RAW. Reducing it to to 'death' just makes it fall asleep until it wakes up again.
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Fourth edition? I know of fifth edition, but I'm pretty sure we skipped the number four for some reason.

Shush, we don't talk about 4E.
 
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Brovo said:
Hello pertinent question! The answer is no! Not particularly!

See, in order for me to believe there are ghosts and spirits, I would first need to believe there is an afterlife of some kind. However, due to the lack of any evidence for a soul, or really that anything exists of me beyond my brain (which most assuredly gets eaten by maggots or burned to a crisp), I would be hard pressed to imagine that, somehow, I could become an immortal, incorporeal, physics-defying, ectoplasmic entity that fucks with teenagers on TV shows.

That being said, can I disprove the existence of ghosts and spirits? No. I also can't disprove the existence of the tooth fairy or an omnipotent deity, but then, positive claims require evidence. That is: If you claim something is real, you have to prove it. I don't have to prove my lack of belief in a positive claim lacking evidence. Do I think people who believe in ghosts and spirits are crazy? No. Not really.

So basically spirits and ghosts are really neat for stories, or video games, and I dabble in the topic with my role plays fairly often. I just don't think they exist for the same reason I don't believe anything supernatural exists: It fails to meet even the most basic of tests we could apply to see if it does, and has arbitrary rules that differ from culture to culture, and is almost exclusively a personal experience that cannot be verifiable tested.

tl;dr: I don't believe in an afterlife, nor do I believe magic exists, so I can't believe in ghosts and spirits by extension.
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I just have one question: if solid evidence were to present itself that confirmed the possibility of the existence of ghosts and/or the afterlife, would you still express disbelief? Basically I'm asking if you're a stubborn, close-minded individual or a flexible, open-minded one.
 
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Hatsune Candy said:
I just have one question: if solid evidence were to present itself that confirmed the possibility of the existence of ghosts and/or the afterlife, would you still express disbelief? Basically I'm asking if you're a stubborn, close-minded individual or a flexible, open-minded one.
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If there were scientifically verifiable evidence to prove the existence of anything currently seen as supernatural, I would then have to accept it as reality whether I liked it or not, be that a deity, a ghost, or even magic. That is how the scientific method works: By forming theories around evidence, not evidence around theories.

So! If there was evidence for ghosts like there is for evolution and gravity, I would be compelled to believe it rather than take the stance of "I don't know, but don't believe it to be so."

EDIT

Just so we're clear, the people that worship current scientific theories as ironclad and defend them as though they're irrefutable disappoint me. The point of science is to question things, including and especially science itself, sooooo... Being close minded whilst taking science as your guide is like saying you love vegetables and then eating at McDonalds. :rotfl:
 
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I'll answer in a way that isn't derailing from the topic.



Do I believe in the supernatural and/or paranormal? Yep.
 
Honestly? Open to the possibility, but not very optimistic.
 
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