+ Reply to thread
Results 1 to 10 of 10

Thread: Seriously? People need to stop going on about ghosts

  1. #1
    Padding Enabler Panther Squad's avatar
    Registered
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Southeastern MA
    Posts
    679

    Default Seriously? People need to stop going on about ghosts

    Alright, I admit it, I'm an utter skeptic.

    Actually, more than being a skeptic, I'm an unbeliever. My unbelief is so inherent that I'm not even a 'non-believer', atheist, etc. I don't mind religion, I coexist with it peacefully, I think/feel/believe that all the shitty things done by religious folks are done in the name of religion, not because of religion or spiritual beliefs.

    That being said...

    I have had it up to HERE with people getting defensive that I should, upon them speaking to me about ghosts, question their beliefs. When you start talking about your ghosts to me, you are involving me in your beliefs and, well, once you bring me into the picture, yes, I will explain that the house I live in is: a) older than yours, b) probably seen more deaths, and c) has a more intimate history, and d) makes way more noises than your house.

    You'd think I'd hear more disapproval about the gay/trans thing, but honestly, what people get most angry (actually angry) with me about is how I refuse to listen to any talk about ghosts. People have literally turned red because they insisted location(s) in old houses I had spent more than ten times as much time as them in were haunted.

    Am I the only one? I don't know why my rational friends who know I don't get religion would suddenly start to defend their beliefs of ghosts to me. It's not like it's a belief in their holy books or what not. It is so profoundly superstition and, in fact, in a grain AGAINST/blasphemy in their respective religious beliefs.

    Am I alone, Mello? Anyone else here have to tell most of the people close to them, at one time or another, that they need to nix the ghost talk lest they listen to you shoot them down?

    Sincerely
    Future Miss Skepticism 2011
    comcast guy - m4m - 18 (nb)
    seem like we had that connection when we looked at each other
    you had a blue shirt on nice asss,dought you will see this but dosnt hurt to try, but id love to play with you. tell me what you where fixing, or the street name,or describe me.

  2. #2
    Prehistoric Bitchslapper Sarahfeena's avatar
    Registered
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Chicagoland
    Posts
    5,891

    Default

    Please don't read this thread, she said meekly.

    Actually, despite that thread, I don't believe in ghosts, either. But sometimes old houses do some strange things...it doesn't surprise me that people become convinced. Plus, I think they really WANT to be convinced, you know? A haunted house is much more exciting than a regular old non-haunted house.

  3. #3
    Stegodon Heffalump's avatar
    Registered
    May 2009
    Posts
    341

    Default

    Quote Originally posted by Sarahfeena View post
    Please don't read this thread, she said meekly.
    I was just wondering if she read your last post in that thread. I didn't read it yet, but I had a pretty good idea where you were going with it.

    To the OP: How about aliens? Are we OK to talk about aliens or do they fall under the ghost category?

  4. #4
    Padding Enabler Panther Squad's avatar
    Registered
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Southeastern MA
    Posts
    679

    Default

    Sarah, agreed. Fear of the unknown is a (I assume) universal experience for humankind. I mean, I too have that. We worry about strange serial killers, I have nightmares about tsunamis (despite living far enough from water where this would be an impossibility), etc etc.

    Except we know, understand,a nd can process this information. The issue I have is when someone tries to involve me in what is clearly a delusion. Most religions have a message and community about them where I can understand the benefits of belonging and believing. In these instances? I cannot.
    comcast guy - m4m - 18 (nb)
    seem like we had that connection when we looked at each other
    you had a blue shirt on nice asss,dought you will see this but dosnt hurt to try, but id love to play with you. tell me what you where fixing, or the street name,or describe me.

  5. #5
    Prehistoric Bitchslapper Sarahfeena's avatar
    Registered
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Chicagoland
    Posts
    5,891

    Default

    I hear you, Panther. Mostly I think people want to be convinced more than they are convinced, you know? So if they convince YOU, then they feel validated. It's kind of silly, I mean, even if every last person on earth believed in ghosts, it doesn't mean they exist.

  6. #6
    Oliphaunt The Original An Gadaí's avatar
    Registered
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Nowhere
    Posts
    2,933

    Default

    It's just non-sceptics take anything not immediately explained as a sign of ghosts, spirits etc. It's very hard to challenge beliefs though, nigh on impossible, and it is when you challenge beliefs that you really offend people, regardless of any objective accuracy on your part. Conspiracy theorists get angry with me when I dismiss their theories and then try to make my own checkable facts out as the ravings of a lunatic.

  7. #7
    Elen síla lumenn' omentielvo What Exit?'s avatar
    Registered
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Central NJ (near Bree)
    Posts
    10,071

    Default

    You seem to feel about ghosts the way I feel about creationist wanting their silly indulgence taught in schools in science.

  8. #8
    Oliphaunt
    Registered
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    5,174

    Default

    Quote Originally posted by Panther Squad View post
    Except we know, understand,a nd can process this information. The issue I have is when someone tries to involve me in what is clearly a delusion. Most religions have a message and community about them where I can understand the benefits of belonging and believing. In these instances? I cannot.
    It's fun. Thinking about spooks and whatnot is fun. It makes the world seem more interesting and mysterious, imagining that there's stuff out in the world that goes beyond the scientifically explicable. Same goes for cryptids and aliens.

  9. #9
    Elen síla lumenn' omentielvo What Exit?'s avatar
    Registered
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Central NJ (near Bree)
    Posts
    10,071

    Default

    Quote Originally posted by Orual View post
    Quote Originally posted by Panther Squad View post
    Except we know, understand,a nd can process this information. The issue I have is when someone tries to involve me in what is clearly a delusion. Most religions have a message and community about them where I can understand the benefits of belonging and believing. In these instances? I cannot.
    It's fun. Thinking about spooks and whatnot is fun. It makes the world seem more interesting and mysterious, imagining that there's stuff out in the world that goes beyond the scientifically explicable. Same goes for cryptids and aliens.
    I agree but I also don't treat any of these seriously. In fact I have the least threshold of belief for Aliens. Ghosts and cryptids seem more likely.

  10. #10
    A Dude Peeta Mellark's avatar
    Registered
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Posts
    1,028

    Default

    I tend to feel sorry for people who are really passionate about ghost beliefs and while I try not to encourage them, I'm gentle in my explanations for what accounts for the experience.

    When it comes to matters of religion, people are taking that on faith. Most people can understand someone not sharing their faith. (Most, not all.) But with the belief in ghosts and other supernatural experiences, it's usually not based on faith. It's based on some actual experience the person had. Now, if they're not very educated on the subject they'll probably think that they can either believe that they are mentally ill/stupid/hallucinating, or they can believe ghosts are real. When you question them or express your disbelief, to them you are saying "you're nuts."

    There are a lot of really good explanations out there for experiences people have that they assign to ghosts (or aliens, depending), but those explanations don't get as much press as "the supernatural" and people have been taught that you have to be "crazy" to experience something that isn't real. Infrasound can explain away a lot of ghostly experiences people have had, as it is associated with feelings of unease and unexplainable dread. It can also account of visual manifestations and some physical effects. Another excellent explanation for seemingly supernatural experiences is sleep paralysis. I suffer from it and if I didn't understand what it was, I might have thought that the only explanations were that I was insane or actually being visited by demons. Another explanation is that it is entirely possible for a non-delusional person to have hallucinations under the right circumstances. Sleep deprivation is a prime cause, but drugs (not even necessarily hallucinogens) or simply being in a suggestable state of mind can do it, too.

    There is no shame in having a hallucination or experiencing something that isn't, in the strictest sense, happening. But because people are made to feel stupid or crazy--and made to feel there is shame in either of those--they would rather cling to superstition than realize how faulty our senses really are.

+ Reply to thread

Posting rules

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts