Ask the Atheist

i would certainly consider myself an atheist as i am strictly against religion and do not believe in creationism. to deny science is to wrap a blindfold around your eyes. but in terms of ghosts...this is where it conflicts with my atheist views. i love myths and conspiracy theories, etc. and i really love watching ghost shows (ghost hunters, blabla). they do a really good job of using science and analyzing and skepticism to disprove the existence of ghosts and spirits...but often times there is evidence that can skimpily not be explained. does this make me not an atheist for accepting the existence of ghosts? to that question i don't have an answer. maybe there is a scientific explanation behind it.

but there have been specific times when the evidence theyve come up with is unbelievable, and i strongly doubt that the show is a fraud. they caught an EVP (electronic voice phenomenon, where you catch a "ghosts" voice on tape) that was incredible. it was clear as day, and the "ghost hunter" was asking some questions in an empty room while recording. he said "where are you? are you here" and he didnt hear a response, but when the tape played back you could clearly hear a woman respond "why of course i'm here in this room, where are you?" there were several other responses to questions asked. how can this be explained? i really don't know, and its sad that a television show can bring evidence forth that questions my "faith" in atheism.

I'm open to the idea that you're an exception.

You still fit the strict definition of an atheist by the nature of the word; you don't believe in any gods. That might change later, if your belief in ghosts leads you to think something more powerful is making them possible. As it is, you're a spiritualist apart from being an atheist. I'll swallow that combination if you will.

The show doesn't have to be a fraud; perhaps the person who made the tape is. In any case, the show needs to make it look at least plausible in order to justify its own existence, so even if it's been successfully debunked you wouldn't hear about it.

To try and determine whether or not there really is a supernatural phenomenon at work, pick up where the show leaves off and do your own research. Take down names and places and plug them into Google. Take a trip over if you can. Recognise that if this stuff had been clearly demonstrated and proven it would be all over the primetime news, and then ask yourself why it isn't.

Don't sit there and be a Mulder. Go out and be a Scully. Even Scully became a believer in the end because she uncovered the evidence herself. It was the right thing, because in her universe aliens, ghosts and gods really do exist. Find out for yourself whether you live in that universe.

Please consider checking out the following article. It deals specifically with where modern ghost stories come from, and the answer may surprise you.

actualy many athiests such as myself consider atheism not denying the existince of god(s) but completely lacking belief in god(s), but anything other than that such as ghosts, paranormal activity, demons, boogeymen unicorns etc is individualy chosen by that one person what to believe in or lack (not deny but lack) belief for.

there is some form of scientific basis in ghosts...kinda

humans are a bag of meat and bones charged by energy...science states that energy can never be destroyed only change forms...thus that energy has to do something when the bag o' meat and bones stops working ... thus the ability to explain ghosts through science ...roughly.
this would officially not super natural and just something above what we understand now, in the same way that primitive mane thought fire was supernatural ...only to discover it is very natural.

It's true that a great deal of energy leaves a body when it dies, but it's not as if we don't know where it goes. It escapes as heat and pressure, it drives the chemical reactions that decompose the body and make it smell. Some of it nourishes the earthworms who ultimately devour what's left, and enriches the soil the worms process. New plant matter then uses the energy to grow. So it cycles through living matter like water through rainclouds and rivers.

That said, you've come up with quite a good piece of pseudoscience which I'm sure has been used before to make ghosts sound more plausible.

Right on, SmartLX. I share your positions, and I appreciate your efforts in explaining them. I know atheists who still believe in spirits. I guess they're not card-carrying atheists, yet.