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Originally Posted by JoeCamaro  Ok, I have been thinking about this for a while, so I decided to ask here.
Can Agnostic and/or Atheists believe in ghosts?
I used to believe and even liked ghosts stories, but believing in ghosts implies believing in Souls, dead people not going to where they should (heaven or hell) and things like that. Then if I dont believe in heaven, hell, souls, and death after life and so on, how can I believe in ghosts?
I think I shouldnt believe in them either.
What do you guys think about it?
JoeCamaro |
Absolutely. Agnosticism is about knowledge, not belief and I don't think ghosts imply theism. However, since the only data on ghosts is typically personal accounts which ar eoften linked to sleep paralysis, it is irrational and unjustifiable to believe or deny the possbility that they exist(as the same applies to God), so yes as an atheist, you should simply not believe in them and claim your position of neutrality. That said, you can still be agnostic (know that there is no testable and reproduceable evidence for ghosts) and believe in ghosts as long as you are not convinced they exist. Belief and knowledge are often seperated in ever day life for sake of comfort or as a lazy way to form explanations. For example, it's a sad fact girls and women are raped every minute around the world and I worry deeply about my girlfriend many times a day, but if I sat around with that piece of knowledge and stewed all day I would go crazy. For the sake of my sanity and comfort I
hope and take faith in the notion that she's ok when I'm not around. Stuff like this happens more than most of us think. So that's on the same curve as believing in ghosts...but I don't see them as particularly comforting unless they are like Casper.
Og, is right, an agnostic should believe in anything like that, but you still can and be agnostic. It's also on the curve of a scientist believing his scientific hypothesis (ie: Aquatic Ape) to be true, but he hasnot proven it yet.