Are you an Atheist whom has had a paranormal experience...?

Question

What did you think about it being real,though ofcourse no God?I'm an Atheist too, I'm just curious to see how many think it is easier to believe in the paranormal stuff verses God.

Answer 1

From time to time I can kind of know things with uncanny accuracy, but I don't know how to make it happen.  Once I bought a circular etched piece of metal from a new age store and I was fooling around with it by putting it on my forehead and asking people to pick a number between one and ten.  I got the right answer about seven times in a row, and then I quit.  But that stuff doesn't make me any more or less inclined to believe there is a God.  Call me an agnostic.

Answer 2

I'm an agnostic; we believe that it is impossible to tangibly (physically) prove OR disprove the existence of ANY deity, Christian or otherwise, beyond all measure of doubt. I've personally never seen any proof of the Christian God's existence during my life.

But being an empath (or a "sensitive"), I've had countless experiences - many of them physical, visual - with the paranormal that, to me, are irrefutable proof of the existence of spirits, poltergeists, demons, and other entities.

Answer 3

ive had paranormal experences and yeh it is easier to believe in the paranormal but then i spose its different for different people.

Answer 4

Hi Kimber...I'm not an atheist..altho for years I was upset with God for not making Himself real to me. Then a lot of stuff happened to me. Maybe part of it was God..at least it sure seemed like it. I have plenty of reason (I think) to be upset with Him again.But if God is Love...then I can't believe He would hurt me on  purpose. I just have to wait and see, I guess. If I ever think about being an atheist, I just think about the human body...and about making babies. I know somebody mighty has to be behind that.

What I want to know is...what did you mean about not believing in God in the "conventional sense"? What does that mean?

EDIT..OOPS..sorry....I thought Kimber was the one who asked the question. Sorry!!

Answer 5

I am an atheist.  I approach spiritualism with the same skepticism that I approach theism.  That being said, god(s) and ghosts are not mutually exclusive.  One could exist without the other.  It's possible they both exist and it's also possible neither exist.

Since no one can definitively prove a negative, one can't say positively that both god(s) and ghosts do *not* exist.  So one must base one's opinion of the matter on probability and the evidence at hand.  Because I have seen no compelling evidence of the existence of god(s) or ghosts and because I see their existence as improbable at best, I consider myself to be atheist (technically agnostic) in regards to both god(s) and ghosts.

I am not dogmatic in these beliefs.  Because the evidence at hand dictates my opinion in the matter, should new evidence arise I will be more than happy to adjust my position correspondingly.

Answer 6

No I've never had a paranormal experience.It's funny people say Atheists believe in nothing.Actually they believe in plenty.The natural world is so full of mystery and wonder.They find all they need there.No need to look for fulfillment in the supernatural.In my opinion an Atheist does not believe in Religion or the paranormal.Which are arguably the same thing.

Answer 7

I am an atheist. I have had a few "paranormal" experiences. I believe they all come from the universal life force called "Bio cosmic Energy". They are the human mind tapping into what I like to call the universal mind.This is the grouping of intelligent energy of the various life forms existing everywhere.It is a natural ability every life form has,some are just better than others.

Answer 8

My father was a self proclaimed athiest. He was not. He was agnostic. He had many many paranormal experiences and he just shrugged it off as if it were not really anythign more than coincidence. Or he openly admitted that it was beyond his comprehension. He was a Mensa member and considered a genius. I do not understand how he could deny it myself. He experienced much of what I experienced and had his own experiences as well.

I am not sure that paranormal experiences are always related to God  however. i am deeply spiritual, and I believe in God, but not in the conventional sense.

Answer 9

No, I've never had a paranormal experience. Any time something weird has happened, I got up to investigate. When you find the natural reason for the "weirdness", it isn't weird or paranormal any more.

People seem to define "atheist" differently, but I like the strict definition: "a-theist". The "a-" prefix indicates lack of, e.g., asymmetry is lack of symmetry, amoral is lack of morality, etc. In this sense, atheism is simply a lack of belief in gods.

This means agnostics are really just atheists by default. I'm an agnostic, towards god as well as the paranormal. In either case, if I am presented with credible evidence, I will evaluate it to see if it warrants changing my position.

Answer 10

I'm an atheist,  I have never had a paranormal experience.  But I have been around people who thought *they* were having a paranormal experience and all I have ever seen is spontaneous contagious hysteria.  It's hilarious to watch.  For me, God and paranormal are all the same.  Nonexistent.

Kimberlee, I think you are being unfair to your father.  Most people who call themselves atheists are atheists.  My sister refuses to acknowledge that I am an atheist.  She wants to call me agnostic, too, and I resent it.  Your father shrugged off things *you* considered paranormal, probably because he realized what they were, or that there was no reason to jump to extraordinary explanations for ordinary things, like coincidences.

Nuff said, you're not even in the ballpark.  Don't try to represent views or the attitudes and feelings of those you clearly do not understand.  Nuff said.

Answer 11

so athiest believe in nothing? From all the posts here, I am coming away with you having pretty boring lives. So let me get this right, if your an athiest, nothing odd ever happens to you? If you dont believe in anything what do you think we are, just another animal?Do you believe in imaginations? Imaginations are not real, yet you have to believe in them, Right?

I have never seen or felt an atom, yet someone tells me they are real. So by your way of thinking, I should not believe in atoms because to the best of my knowledge, 99.9% of the entire world has never seen one. but rather , I should believe because someone says they have seen one. This could go on guys, but I dont want to write anymore. Your a funny bunch for sure.

Answer 12

there are no real true atheists. Watch when it comes their time to die , they will find religion real fast.

Answer 13

Christians often think I'm an atheist I'm more of a  Deist (God created the universe and then went to play golf).

My beliefs about God are mixed at best.

However, I have experienced unexplained (by conventional science) events and I do not associate any of them with a belief in God (although perhaps an afterlife).

I also have a friend that is a practicing shaman and believes in an afterlife but is a firmly dedicated atheist.

We were in a paranormal investigation group together for a few years. While he always looked for normal explanations he firmly believed not everything had an immediate conventional explanation.

Answer 14

it's amazing what some people will allow themselves to believe

Answer 15

Hi Kris, This whole atheist, theist argument is just plain rubbish. I am not being critical of you but of scientist and educators that peddle this line. We have all these science buffs, who really are not critical of science and the limitations of logic and the epoch relative nature of knowledge  running round pretending they know everything.  (in two hundred two thousand years time our belief systems will be laughable) Total arrogance and hubris. The same type of narrow minded dogmatism based upon primitive magic and mythology that religions peddle. Dumb, dumb, dumb. As I pointed out before once infinity enters human discourse everything changes. There are many things that scientist don't understand and if they do not have absolute proof for all possible circumstances then their model is radically incomplete re; Godel's incompleteness theorem and Gregory Chaitin's extension of  mathematical randomness and incompleteness. Here is a short list of other counterintuitives and paradoxes: Relativity theory time dilation e.g. the twin paradox; Particle wave duality; Non-locality or action at a distance; Uncertainty principle and Schrödinger's Cat; Microphysical block time; Psychological, cosmological and entropic time; Qualia or qualities e.g. the color red (David Chalmers hard problem of consciousness);  Predictions mapped out to hundreds thousands or even millions of years (we are future primitives), The problem of measurement and observation; Symmetry violations at the origins of the universe (matter antimatter);  The asymmetry between pleasure and pain that leads to a preference for happiness, joy and love over pain, hardship and suffering (evolution is certainly not value neutral); Stephen Hawking's backward referral in time (multiple histories); linguistic paradoxes such as Russel's and Grelling's paradox, amongst others: Georg Cantors denumerable, non-denumerable infinity,  Cantor's Paradox and a bunch of other mathematical paradoxes and on it goes. If any of these smart atheist can give an answer to these and many more questions then let them claim inviolable knowledge otherwise tell them to be a little more circumspect. Religions peddle untruths and scientists haven't even begun to understand reality. Something is totally wrong here but not many have the courage to challenge these dogmatic assumptions. The concept of paranormal is just another abstract term that tells us nothing. Yes I have had amazingly insightful subjective experiences however though they are not of the external material world they do have psychophysical correlates with neurochemisty. Subjective experiences are as real as the external world otherwise they could not exist at all. They just don't hang around around except in your head. Calling them delusional or illusionary gains nothing it simple ignores the important question of absolute necessity verse contingent belief. As Ray Kuzwiel has demonstrated exponential growth is going to accelerate change dramatically.  It will not be long before will use genetic engineering, horizontal gene transfer, artificial intelligence to find new architectural frameworks for intelligence. We will develop virtual reality that will map out a five dimensional hypercube space (already constructed in basic form by programmers) so that the degrees of freedom available will go from four dimensional degrees of freedom to 16 dimensional degrees of freedom. The creative abstract potentiality of this space literally maps out to infinity. There will be no beginning or end. If we can predict this possibility what else lies waiting? Max Tegmark has provided a coherent theoretical model for infinite universes and if there are infinite universes there are infinite sentient beings who attain comprehension of Absolute Infinty and Absolute love. This is here right now: here being timeless and spaceless, now resting in non-dual  awareness.  I have written extensively on this stuff but don't publish because neither scientist, religious believers, new age ideologues, spiritualists etc have the courage to step out of their attachment and discover the unknown and new. The limitations of insight are  the limitations of minds attachment to belief. If everything is absolutely necessary existence is already a perfect functioning of itself. We could also consider physicist Hugh Evretts multiverse model modified by Ed Witten which proposes that every possible sum over history pathway of the collapse of the waver function must occur for all possible universes at every moment in time. You see once you start messing with infinity you realize that there is alway infinitely more to existence than we can encapsulate in our primitive little corner of reality. Magic and Mythology  is pre-egoic; empirical science is middle egoic self-identification; insight is trans-egoic recognition of Absolute Infinty and the resolution of existence in Absolute Love. When we don't know how to understand stuff we call it paranormal or illusory or delusional rather than opening out our understanding to new dimensions of potentiality. Potentiality is Infinite and when you understand this your mind will totally and completely reconfigure itself and see existence from a completely new and revisionary frame of reference. Just don't expect many other people to come along for the ride. Maybe I have witnessed Absolute Infinity, Absolute Love, forgiveness and non-judgment however it is not for me to claim ownership or sell to others.

Answer 16

No, I'm too curious of an atheist.  Sure, I could have interpretted those weird lights as aliens, or I could go check them out and find out it was my neighbors.  Sure, it might have been a ghost making those noises - but when I got up to look, it was just the fridge motor going.  Frankly, the more curious and less credulous you are, the fewer 'paranormal' experiences you are likely to have - simply because you go investigate.