I really like the fact that you always let people speak their mind without interrupting or criticizing (Regardless of how much or a nut bar they are) Integrity at its best :)
AronRa even said that atheist means not believing in a god and it does NOT mean atheists cannot believe in other supernatural things. Atheists do not believe in gods but other things are up to the individual and yes many atheists do believe in ghosts and an afterlife but as a part of nature and not a divine creation. In fact there was a book written by an atheist about the afterlife without god The Atheist Afterlife -- The odds of an afterlife: Reasonable. The odds of meeting God there: Nil. by David Staume Also Skeptical scientist Dr Gary Schwartz did a book the After Life Experiments using science to show that the after life is real Ghosts are suppose to be energy from people that existed. Humans are real. god and jesus, etc are spirits of things that never existed so you cannot compare believing in ghosts to believing in religion beings. We have energy in us and they say energy never dies
The science of today was the supernatural of yesterday. The more we learn about what people call ghosts, the more supernatural becomes absorbed into modern science. An open mind is never a bad thing as long as you don't take insane ideas too far as some religions do. As long as you're willing to accept being proven wrong, belief in the supernatural is perfectly fine.
I have been researching paranormal events for a long time now. I have my own research group est. in 2007. I am an Atheist, but quantum mechanics is telling us that there may be reasons naturally that shows that there could a form of afterlife. We don't need a God to understand that. Good show!
I'm an agnostic leaning toward atheism, but have had one unexplained experience in my life. One morning after I moved into my present apartment I heard a deep, masculine voice say "Barbara". Whether it was a ghost or a god, or just my imagination, I don't know.
I have experienced objects actually moving on their own right in front of me. I've had pennies thrown at me, often landing perfectly without bouncing. I've had a bar of soap literally levitate at me. I cannot explain these things, but they did happen. And I wasn't alone - I had at least one witness, so I didn't hallucinate. I'm atheist, but I can't ignore these things. They're too amazing to ignore. I don't say, "They MUST be this or that.." but I want to know what they are.
What I feel about ghosts or the dead was best summed up in the movie "Ghost Town" with Ricky Gervais: ghosts were still on earth not because they had unfinished business, but because the people they were close to were not finished with them. Even the faceless nameless ones we dont know, that we come in contact with. Its something in our lives and psyche that we havent dealt with yet...fear, death, loss, etc...
This was a damn good episode. Plus, it helps disprove the theistic arguement of atheism being a religion by demonstrating that we don't all think the same and hold the same opinions. Kudos!
There's a lot of us that had an experience at around 13-14. Maybe there is some developmental thing going on with us then? I had a weird experience (with my mother present and had the same experience) involving a plate of oreos, a cold air blast from the garage (during a Texas summer), and then missing cookies. There's also stories of poltergeists and attachments to teens. Makes me really think there is a brain thing going on we haven't figured out yet.
I have seen "ghosts" or whatever one would call them. There was a spectral woman in white who roamed the downstairs of one of my homes. All three of my children and myself saw her at different times. Another time my son, who was not home, walked down the hall and past the open door of a room where my daughter and I were watching tv. We looked at each other and commented that we didn't know he was home. I went to his room to speak to him. He was not there. Another time, my husband saw my daughter, who was not home, go upstairs. He called to her asking when she had gotten home. She wasn't home. I went upstairs to check. She was not there. In our most recent home, my husband has seen 5 small children at the foot of his bed. The previous owners had 5 children and they occupied the house for 60 years. The father used to spend time in a basement workshop, and my son saw him walk through the den and into his workshop on more than one occasion. I have no explanation.
many did not believe of its probability to ever exist. But here we are after decades of researches, it was finally found and made a huge mark into science. Just like everything we study now in science. It's a shame that many skeptic atheist loses their sense of the possibility. Because that is what science was build on, to understand the unknown that probably exist or not.
About unexplainable sightings: the brain is amazing at putting together an image out of essentially pure visual noise. I once "copied" a picture of a horse from a sketch on a wall, and when I went to look at it closer, it was nothing that even remotely resembled a horse! My brain just thought it recognized a pattern and filled in the missing detail. Halloween is awesome though. And I thought the story about Satan visiting his child's grave was so sweet. Aww. I bet he brings flowers too. :D
Here's a Goblin, reporting for duty. I love horror movies, and despite being an atheist who does NOT believe in ghosts, the two scariest movies I know are THE CHANGELING and THE HAUNTING (the 1963 version). I think in part a movie about ghosts lends itself to being atmospheric and letting the viewer's imagination scare them, which is always the most effective way to scare people.
Consider the following. The question 'can computers think?' is akin to asking 'do sumarines swim?'. With that in mind, 'Is there an afterlife' could be said to be akin to asking 'is there an after-off'.
Hey Seth, I doubt you'll read this but here's a fun one. Blair Witch. The last few scenes. Going down the stairs with the plaster and lathe then mud brick type walls, coming around the corner to the right, the brief flash of light over the other person standing in the other corner like a bad kid the way the story goes, then wham. Got that in mind? Okay... I used to live in a mud brick house. With two floors. Going upstairs to downstairs involved going down a wooden set of stairs and turning to the right. Often in the dark or low light situation. Mudlike walls immediately after plaster-like walls and wooden floor... Yeah. For a few nights after watching Blair Witch, once I was upstairs for the night I stayed there. No freaking way would I walk down those steps. Now, Blair Witch had it's issues. But that final scene really stuck with me, if only because it required the watcher to have been paying at least some attention and have at least some imagination. It took just a little effort to connect, and then it capitalised on that. I obviously knew I wasn't in the house in the movie. But the fact that my little house was also in the middle of a forested area with no neighbors in screaming distance probably didn't help matters. I didn't believe it.. But it still reached into my mind and pushed the 'primal fear' button.
An atheist who believes in ghosts is almost as bad as a theist; they are believing superstitious, invisible, unprovable, untestable, unfalsifiable, immaterial, supernatural nonsense just like theists who believe in magic men.
cont. I have researched the possible explanations of the EVPs as well and find many to be a jumbled mess, but this was very clear. It was a very strange experience visiting Waverly Hills Sanatorium. I just had so many weird experiences there! Highly recommend checking it out if you are ever in that area. I wish I had the photos in digital form to show you. Never felt afraid there though, just feel it is part of our environment and nothing to fear, just something we don't fully understand yet.
To be honest, I believe in ghosts / spirits, because it would be nice imo, to live for eternity and for there to be some form of afterlife, and I do not really want to spend it praise and worshipping a god who didn't raise me or teach me everything that I want to know. Furthermore, it would be nice to be able to express my opinions and imagination more then what my physical body can provide me with. There's only so much you can do with a physical body, you know. I find it a shame that scientists are trying to styfle ghost stories simply by inserting logic into it. As the presenter said, the real thing is more anti-climatic then what's really there, and what's life when you can't have a bit of fun with your iamgination?
I'm an atheist and I have had an experience with a ghost at an old stone building that my friends have lived at for several years. All of them have experienced and seen unusual things at that building. Apparently a chef hung himself in one of the storage rooms when it was a lodge. Keys get hidden, Sounds of footsteps, movement of objects, literally one guy got hit with the toaster after saying something to the effect of I don't believe in ghosts.He's an atheist as well. Unknown form of energy
@Animeabe I totally agree with this! I think it's good for us to be able to accept that there may be things in our universe that are beyond our current ability to explain. I think it's possible that some of those things may be ghosts or they be things easily mistaken for ghosts, or they may be nothing at all. What I think is bad is assumption. When you say "that MUST be a ghost/god/coincidence/hallucination" and you close yourself off to even the possibility that your world view MAY be wrong.
The dorm was built in the early 1990's and the door had expanded to the point where it took a shoulder press (195 lbs of muscle here) to shut the door. If it had been a breeze, it wouldn't have shut and fully locked in the handle. Happened while I was alone, while my roommate was there, and while we had people over. I wish I could go back!
I'm pretty certain I understand that Seth doesn't believe in ghosts and neither do I. HOWEVER, I do like a good scary movie that, in the beginning, you don't know it's actually a real human causing all the scary shit. Then, in the end, there is a logical explanation that it was a homicidal maniac...similar to the Scooby-Doo cartoon. I am actually pissed if I watch a movie that doesn't have a logical explanation. I know religious people who absolutely believe in God and an afterlife, but scoff at the idea of ghosts. To me, it is a contradiction. You can't say there isn't evidence of a super natural being in one way, but SWEAR the other exists. People who believe in god swear they have "felt" or "had a personal experience" (as Seth talks about a lot lol). People who believe in ghosts swear the same thing about ghosts. Have I experienced scary shit that I can still not explain? Yup, but I am sure there is a logical explanation for it somewhere.
As others have said, Atheist just means a lack of belief in god. Having said that, because we apply logic and reason to why we do not believe in god, we also apply it to other supernatural things i.e. ghosts. I'm a skeptic in the area because there hasn't been enough evidence presented for me to be convinced. So when I see ghost videos I rule out anyother natural explanations first before saying "you know, I don't have an explanation for this" not, " oh it *must* be supernatural". Great podcast.
I understand the difficulties of believing in ghosts for people who have never experienced it by hand. A lot of arguments stated that it's just the imagination of the individuals and how they always set their mind into that kind of situation (wanting to believe ghosts are real). But the problem is how would you know that's the case? How would you know those people are "indoctrinated"? Especially if they are atheists. We mustn't judge too easily for things that can't be proven yet. Discussions about ghosts aren't necessarily equally talking about god or religion. Religion has been disproven so many times by science. But has there been any thorough research on ghosts? It doesn't even necessarily be ghosts as described by supernatural meanings. I just think it's pretty sad if we limit our judgement to something we haven't really found out. Are we limiting the possibility of time travel? Are we limiting the possibility of alien life? Those are a few things that we haven't really had any clear conclusions yet. All I'm saying we can't really dismissed that easily something that hasn't been researched thoroughly by science. Is the world only has 1 dimension? What about 2 dimensions, 3 dimensions, 4 dimensions, etc? What if we changed the term "ghosts" to "energy" or "dimensions"? Clearly the words energy or dimensions are by far more acceptable for science. If it turns out there are no such thing as "ghosts", so what? Especially for atheists who actually experienced some strange things they want to prove it (or disprove) as much as other atheists. I don't think it necessarily atheists who experienced those things be considered foolish because the fact was they did experience it. And it's not like they believe it religiously. If it was some kind of process in the human brain then that's fine too. For me I'd like more explanation scientifically on the topic. Just as i'd like a conclusion about alien life or time travel.
I think there needs to be a distinction between belief in ghosts as spirits of the dead that live on etc. and the recognition that there are phenomena that we don't quite have an explanation for. There are people who genuinely experience "supernatural" things and the lack of explanation causes some to write it off as never having occurred. Not believing in the ghost theory doesn't mean you can't recognize that the phenomena of "ghost experience" is real in some way.
@DasHinchen True, those comments did let me off as a Jackass. I had just seen a string of atheistic videos that used flawed logic to disprove God and I was left feeling very smug. In all seriousness, I apologize if you feel you wasted your time, although the replies were appreciated. I completely understand if you don't reply to this. But, I'm left curious; What is an Atheist's opinion on Enlightenment? A reply from you or any other Atheist would be genuinely appreciated.
I wouldn't call a ghost "supernatural". Everything in nature is NATURAL, so if ghosts exist, so are they. Supernatural means that we consider something ABOVE nature - leave that term to the religious. A better term, which should be used at all times is PARANORMAL What WE think is NORMAL is a judgement, so is PARAnormal. It means that it is an known phenomenon which has not been explained yet. The phenomenon exists, but we fail to explain it. So we deny it? Very unscientific approach.
Your conscious mind keeps you from receive all the signals drifting around, but when your mind is calm you could pick up the stronger signals. That normally occurs when you are between being awake and sleeping. But it doesn't help with lottery numbers, as you would have to win to generate that strong thought of joy for your past self to pick up on.
I'm an atheist and my favorite movies are horror movies with ghosts, demons and zombies. Return of the Living Dead!!!! Not scary at all but still amazing!
Your podcasts are great and I've listened to every one of them but it has dawned on me that they reach a much smaller audience. Your short cartoon type videos will be seen by way more people as they are more "bite sized". I'm sure you already know this as you are obviously not an idiot but what I am getting at is that preaching to the choir does not change the world. The podcasts are really only for atheists. The short videos serve more to help religious people find their way to thought.
as far as ghosts and these supposedly "haunted" places, lets face it. most places people talk about or claim are haunted are usually old, dilapidated, naturally creepy places that have a history, thats really all there is to it. all the things that supposedly prove a place is haunted can also explain why the electric bill is high, all the tiny cracks and crevices that can't be seen. plus its so easy to trick people into thinking that a place could be haunted, without needing to do any work.
I just watched a documentary where they were studying near death experiences and they claimed that there r scientists studying this who say that this near death experience happens EVEN WHEN the brain is NOT functioning. They are trying to study this by looking at WHEN the experience happens in relation to brain function. That sense of warmth/comfort that he describes is common in near life experiences.
Interesting... now that I think about it. As a child raised in the church, I was never discouraged from believing in spirits or ghosts. In fact, I think most of the ghost stories I heard were told by other christians and a lot of my friends actually believed the stories and attributed them to satan. And, while I was always skeptical, it wasn't much of a stretch to believe in ghosts. Ghosts do seem more probable than god... Now I find science much more interesting than ghosts.
@GigaBoost I believe that he trims up the audio a bit before uploading it, to keep things fluid, so sometimes it might seem more abrupt than it actually was. Incidentally, he seemed to keep the callers on this week for about as long as he normally does.
@kilroy1964 1) I'm not American, I'm Israeli. 2) All three large religions believe in a God that promises afterlife, an argument which leads to the idea that Ghosts exist. If you're an Atheist that denies the existence of God(s), it would make greater sense to deny the idea of an afterlife and the existence of ghosts.
@DeltaPhi79 the keyword in that statement is FILTERED. anyone who knows how to use sound editing software could filter out everything but a specific noise they want, they do it for movies and tv all the time, which is why you can always hear the characters when their talking, even in crowded, noisy places.
@DeltaPhi79 document their paranormal encounters. Another purpose COULD be to "entertain" people (more like scare the wits out of them) but mainly to show what goes on in the world. Not being able to explain a simultaneous temperature, video, and sonar change, to me, is a good reason to say there was a ghost in the room and that they exist. (Try looking up their Poveglia Island episode here. You might like it.)
I find "ghosts" are plausible, as well as being able to see into the future. Everyone's mind works on a resonate frequency, strong emotions emit a strong "signal" fear being one of the strongest types. So if your frequency is close to a person who used to live or will live it would be possible to pick up on those signals. Likewise it would explain deja vu, and love at first site sensations. You know that is the one for you as your future self has been living with the person for years. ....
I'm an atheist and I believe in ghosts and the supernatural. I also had an experience with a physic, its kind of a long story but one did a reading from an old picture I had and told me stuff about myself that no one else would know.
@GregQzag Everything has a life-force. And just because a "chicken ghost" doesn't come in the form of a chicken, doesn't mean no one's seen it. I once saw a black blur fly through my room, "into" a wall of mine. It was small, like a chicken. For all I know it was a "chicken ghost". Or even a "child ghost". I like how you feel because we're human our ghosts/life force can only take one form: Human. Never mind that apparitions have been noted to take many forms.
Black holes come from the collapse of massive stars (super giants). First you need to understand that nuclear fusion and quantum tunneling fuses hydrogen into helium. However, some mass is turned into pure energy (E=MC^2 explains how much this is). This energy creates an outward force, but stars are heavy, and super giants are unimaginatively heavy. This gravitation is the inward force. these two forces balance. When iron starts to fuse, iron absorbs energy and it's the end of the star...
Well, as some people may point out. Atheism dose not talk about what you do believe it talks about what you don't believe. In the strictest seance it means you don't believe in any gods, and yes there may be overlap but that doesn't exclude having other irrational believes like ghosts or say homophobia. At least that's my take on it.
Sorry if my comment on Samhain came off as chastising. I just wanted to make the point because I'm both a Celt and an Atheist and I feel that the Pope spoiled a part of Celtic cultural identity by trying to make the holiday part of the broader Christian tradition. Additionally, the nature of "All Saints Day" as a day of memory downplayed the holiday from one of much deeper spiritual meaning to the Celts, kind of like a new religion taking Easter and making it Memorial Day.
it gets me how someone would believe in science that admits its "90% guesswork" when it comes to evolution but that same person would deny things they see
@RollTheDice00 Because BlogTalkRadio servers were glitchy during our broadcast, and we couldn't hear our callers from the host cue. There's a logical explanation to everything.
I love those ghost hunter reality tv shows. They're just fun to watch. I have to say, of all the days I get to exercise my eyeballs by rolling them back inside my head, it's those times. They're funny and frustrating at the same time because you just know tons of dopes out there will buy that instantly.
Yes, but Ghost Hunters DO SAY that EMF causes hallucinations also! They don't say that high EMF automatically means ghost. Many times they say that the EMF spike is causing the ghost sightings.
me too. every time i would bring up such a subject, my skeptic family and friends, they would call them "demons", even the concept of imaginary friends.
@GregQzag Also, if you consider yourself the "winner" here because I refuse to argue with someone who needs to resort to insulting people then fine. You win. All points are conceded to you and you are the best at debates. Because we all know that those who must resort to insults in a debate are the real winners. The end.
I think it was best said by Dennis from Canada. Because it is widely know in quantum physics, within the you atom you have these fermions, quarks, and leptons particles. But farther than that, you have these strings that are vibrating within those particles. That is where the string theory comes in. That possibly that there are other strings that vibrate higher or lower than our universe. So i would not so easily push the idea of spirits off. Just like the higgs bosons, at first...
@TheThinkingAtheist Well, I didn't actually claim that Shelly is American (read my comment again). Interestingly, I'm also Israeli. Keep it up, you rock!
@enimcraft Are you serious? The video you linked to is interesting because it's funny. The guy does not look surprised at all, he laughs a lot and he obviously expects these things to happen just the way they do. Look at 1:05, for example, when he grabs his tray to protect himself. Why does he turn to this particular side where, oh surprise, something happens, as if he knew it was going to happen...? because he did knew of course! :-) I hope you had a good Halloween! Take care.
@BgbadWulof Actually at the quantum level particles can just pop into existence. And you kind of answered your own question there. Energy can't be created or destroyed. So it didn't "come" form anywhere as that implies some sort of Genesis (if you'll forgive the word). It has always been there. It is, as you rightly said, a constant.
Not necessarily. Spirits could exist, but usually die when our body dies. But occasionally something disturbs the spirit where it goes on living after the body has died. I don't believe this, but it is a possible way ghosts could exist without there being a real "afterlife."
I was in a hotel in Portland, OR over this last summer where a film crew from the Travel Channel just happened to be filming for one of their ghost shows. I asked them if they actually believed in ghost and they told me not a freakin' chance! It's all just for money because they know people like a scary story.
I tend to think that our fears of ghosts are just manifestations of our own psychological trauma. I personally recognize that a lot of my problem with it is just reliving deeply traumatic events from my childhood. Though here's the thing, so I kind of think just like how you can use electromagnets to write information onto stuff that the electrical field of our bodies, if we experience an intense enough emotion can leave like an emotional imprint on a place or thing.
@bohemianwriter1 "If you are only using 5% - 10% of your brain, that would explain the belief in ghosts." It remains a true statement that you prove with each post.
Define Ghost, If Ghost is defined as a spirit returned. Then, as an atheist I don't think that would be a logical deduction and therefor I personally would not believe in such things. But what if we are interpreting a genuine 'ghostly figure' the wrong way. I have a sort of philosophical point of view (based solely on theory :P). I'm sure you all know we live in the third dimension, and there is up to (i think) 11 dimensions. It could be a 4th, 5th.. etc. dimensional being trying to interact
@DeltaPhi79 if you were to look up close to the stuctures themselves, you would find hundred of pores and openings within the walls, floors, ceilings, support stuctures, everywhere. its concievable that heat and sound travel through these pores causing heat to suddenly build up or disappear in certain areas, and it would create sounds eerilie similar to muffled high-pitched speech. as for some of the visual anomalies, that could be caused by anything. cameras aren't as reliable as people think.
@Uberboy07 Fear of imaginary things is in many cases an involuntary behavior, a defense mechanism in the same way that we might flinch even if we know someone wouldn't really hurt us. As children, it can make us act silly. As adults, it can let us enjoy a more primitive, emotional side of ourselves - or convince us something's out there.
just because you are done with the conversation you dont have to lie and say the connection is being lost. you can just tell them your moving on to another caller...
@MovieFusionist It's just a technicality: the word "atheist" means one who does not believe in a god or gods. So long as you don't believe in those, you're an atheist by definition, and any number of whacky or supernatural beliefs are open. Most atheists, I'll admit, are what we call rationalists; those who believe or disbelieve based on the available data, and go for what is most evidently true. That's probably the group you're thinking of. Again, just a technicality based on definitions.
![[Part 1] ทารกน้อยถูกทิ้ง👶 หญิงชราเก็บขวดขายเลี้ยงดูเขาจนโต #โลกการละคร](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nPTDvFCExks/mqdefault.jpg)
I really like the fact that you always let people speak their mind without interrupting or criticizing (Regardless of how much or a nut bar they are) Integrity at its best :)
I Believe that there are still things we don't understand about ourselves, our world and our universe.
AronRa even said that atheist means not believing in a god and it does NOT mean atheists cannot believe in other supernatural things.
Atheists do not believe in gods but other things are up to the individual and yes many atheists do believe in ghosts and an afterlife but as a part of nature and not a divine creation. In fact there was a book written by an atheist about the afterlife without god
The Atheist Afterlife -- The odds of an afterlife: Reasonable. The odds of meeting God there: Nil.
by David Staume
Also Skeptical scientist Dr Gary Schwartz did a book the After Life Experiments using science to show that the after life is real
Ghosts are suppose to be energy from people that existed. Humans are real. god and jesus, etc are spirits of things that never existed so you cannot compare believing in ghosts to believing in religion beings. We have energy in us and they say energy never dies
Athiest here, and I've seen ghosts twice. Both in Spring. Once at a friends' house, and once in my own room.
Although, I'd like to believe in ghosts, I logically cannot...
Finally listened to the whole thing. Thanks for the awesome ghost stories. The one about Anabelle Lee was pretty cool. keep up the good work! ;-)
The science of today was the supernatural of yesterday. The more we learn about what people call ghosts, the more supernatural becomes absorbed into modern science. An open mind is never a bad thing as long as you don't take insane ideas too far as some religions do. As long as you're willing to accept being proven wrong, belief in the supernatural is perfectly fine.
I have been researching paranormal events for a long time now. I have my own research group est. in 2007. I am an Atheist, but quantum mechanics is telling us that there may be reasons naturally that shows that there could a form of afterlife. We don't need a God to understand that. Good show!
I'm an agnostic leaning toward atheism, but have had one unexplained experience in my life. One morning after I moved into my present apartment I heard a deep, masculine voice say "Barbara". Whether it was a ghost or a god, or just my imagination, I don't know.
No it's your in only imagination power of mind
Man, that's AWESOME to see someone else like that! Usually when I respond to stuff like this I have 5 guys calling me an idiot. Thanks Steve :)
Yes, listening well beyond the air date
I have experienced objects actually moving on their own right in front of me. I've had pennies thrown at me, often landing perfectly without bouncing. I've had a bar of soap literally levitate at me. I cannot explain these things, but they did happen. And I wasn't alone - I had at least one witness, so I didn't hallucinate. I'm atheist, but I can't ignore these things. They're too amazing to ignore. I don't say, "They MUST be this or that.." but I want to know what they are.
What I feel about ghosts or the dead was best summed up in the movie "Ghost Town" with Ricky Gervais: ghosts were still on earth not because they had unfinished business, but because the people they were close to were not finished with them. Even the faceless nameless ones we dont know, that we come in contact with. Its something in our lives and psyche that we havent dealt with yet...fear, death, loss, etc...
This was a damn good episode. Plus, it helps disprove the theistic arguement of atheism being a religion by demonstrating that we don't all think the same and hold the same opinions. Kudos!
There's a lot of us that had an experience at around 13-14. Maybe there is some developmental thing going on with us then? I had a weird experience (with my mother present and had the same experience) involving a plate of oreos, a cold air blast from the garage (during a Texas summer), and then missing cookies. There's also stories of poltergeists and attachments to teens. Makes me really think there is a brain thing going on we haven't figured out yet.
I'm from Canada. We have some strange devil stories, especially supernatural transport means, and stories from the grave.
Folk tales are great!
I have seen "ghosts" or whatever one would call them. There was a spectral woman in white who roamed the downstairs of one of my homes. All three of my children and myself saw her at different times. Another time my son, who was not home, walked down the hall and past the open door of a room where my daughter and I were watching tv. We looked at each other and commented that we didn't know he was home. I went to his room to speak to him. He was not there. Another time, my husband saw my daughter, who was not home, go upstairs. He called to her asking when she had gotten home. She wasn't home. I went upstairs to check. She was not there. In our most recent home, my husband has seen 5 small children at the foot of his bed. The previous owners had 5 children and they occupied the house for 60 years. The father used to spend time in a basement workshop, and my son saw him walk through the den and into his workshop on more than one occasion. I have no explanation.
i look forward to these pod casts.. that totally make my day.. love em
this is the first THA podcast i have watched. its great. i will go back and watch the other1s
many did not believe of its probability to ever exist. But here we are after decades of researches, it was finally found and made a huge mark into science. Just like everything we study now in science. It's a shame that many skeptic atheist loses their sense of the possibility. Because that is what science was build on, to understand the unknown that probably exist or not.
The "I don't what what you just said" bit was amazing. I was thinking the same thing...
About unexplainable sightings: the brain is amazing at putting together an image out of essentially pure visual noise. I once "copied" a picture of a horse from a sketch on a wall, and when I went to look at it closer, it was nothing that even remotely resembled a horse! My brain just thought it recognized a pattern and filled in the missing detail.
Halloween is awesome though. And I thought the story about Satan visiting his child's grave was so sweet. Aww. I bet he brings flowers too. :D
Here's a Goblin, reporting for duty. I love horror movies, and despite being an atheist who does NOT believe in ghosts, the two scariest movies I know are THE CHANGELING and THE HAUNTING (the 1963 version). I think in part a movie about ghosts lends itself to being atmospheric and letting the viewer's imagination scare them, which is always the most effective way to scare people.
Consider the following. The question 'can computers think?' is akin to asking 'do sumarines swim?'.
With that in mind, 'Is there an afterlife' could be said to be akin to asking 'is there an after-off'.
Hey Seth, I doubt you'll read this but here's a fun one.
Blair Witch. The last few scenes. Going down the stairs with the plaster and lathe then mud brick type walls, coming around the corner to the right, the brief flash of light over the other person standing in the other corner like a bad kid the way the story goes, then wham. Got that in mind? Okay...
I used to live in a mud brick house. With two floors. Going upstairs to downstairs involved going down a wooden set of stairs and turning to the right. Often in the dark or low light situation. Mudlike walls immediately after plaster-like walls and wooden floor... Yeah. For a few nights after watching Blair Witch, once I was upstairs for the night I stayed there. No freaking way would I walk down those steps.
Now, Blair Witch had it's issues. But that final scene really stuck with me, if only because it required the watcher to have been paying at least some attention and have at least some imagination. It took just a little effort to connect, and then it capitalised on that. I obviously knew I wasn't in the house in the movie. But the fact that my little house was also in the middle of a forested area with no neighbors in screaming distance probably didn't help matters. I didn't believe it.. But it still reached into my mind and pushed the 'primal fear' button.
An atheist who believes in ghosts is almost as bad as a theist; they are believing superstitious, invisible, unprovable, untestable, unfalsifiable, immaterial, supernatural nonsense just like theists who believe in magic men.
Your voice is smooth like butter.
cont. I have researched the possible explanations of the EVPs as well and find many to be a jumbled mess, but this was very clear. It was a very strange experience visiting Waverly Hills Sanatorium. I just had so many weird experiences there! Highly recommend checking it out if you are ever in that area. I wish I had the photos in digital form to show you. Never felt afraid there though, just feel it is part of our environment and nothing to fear, just something we don't fully understand yet.
To be honest, I believe in ghosts / spirits, because it would be nice imo, to live for eternity and for there to be some form of afterlife, and I do not really want to spend it praise and worshipping a god who didn't raise me or teach me everything that I want to know.
Furthermore, it would be nice to be able to express my opinions and imagination more then what my physical body can provide me with.
There's only so much you can do with a physical body, you know.
I find it a shame that scientists are trying to styfle ghost stories simply by inserting logic into it.
As the presenter said, the real thing is more anti-climatic then what's really there, and what's life when you can't have a bit of fun with your iamgination?
I'm an atheist and I have had an experience with a ghost at an old stone building that my friends have lived at for several years. All of them have experienced and seen unusual things at that building. Apparently a chef hung himself in one of the storage rooms when it was a lodge. Keys get hidden, Sounds of footsteps, movement of objects, literally one guy got hit with the toaster after saying something to the effect of I don't believe in ghosts.He's an atheist as well. Unknown form of energy
@Animeabe I totally agree with this!
I think it's good for us to be able to accept that there may be things in our universe that are beyond our current ability to explain. I think it's possible that some of those things may be ghosts or they be things easily mistaken for ghosts, or they may be nothing at all.
What I think is bad is assumption. When you say "that MUST be a ghost/god/coincidence/hallucination" and you close yourself off to even the possibility that your world view MAY be wrong.
17:00 - you have to admit, that was a pretty awesome story, haha!
The dorm was built in the early 1990's and the door had expanded to the point where it took a shoulder press (195 lbs of muscle here) to shut the door. If it had been a breeze, it wouldn't have shut and fully locked in the handle.
Happened while I was alone, while my roommate was there, and while we had people over. I wish I could go back!
'..don't take this wrong... I have no idea what you just said'
Classic Comedy Moment
Great cast :) will there be an option to subscribe to the podcast on itunes, rather than just downloading an mp3 from the link?
I'm pretty certain I understand that Seth doesn't believe in ghosts and neither do I. HOWEVER, I do like a good scary movie that, in the beginning, you don't know it's actually a real human causing all the scary shit. Then, in the end, there is a logical explanation that it was a homicidal maniac...similar to the Scooby-Doo cartoon. I am actually pissed if I watch a movie that doesn't have a logical explanation. I know religious people who absolutely believe in God and an afterlife, but scoff at the idea of ghosts. To me, it is a contradiction. You can't say there isn't evidence of a super natural being in one way, but SWEAR the other exists. People who believe in god swear they have "felt" or "had a personal experience" (as Seth talks about a lot lol). People who believe in ghosts swear the same thing about ghosts. Have I experienced scary shit that I can still not explain? Yup, but I am sure there is a logical explanation for it somewhere.
As others have said, Atheist just means a lack of belief in god. Having said that, because we apply logic and reason to why we do not believe in god, we also apply it to other supernatural things i.e. ghosts. I'm a skeptic in the area because there hasn't been enough evidence presented for me to be convinced. So when I see ghost videos I rule out anyother natural explanations first before saying "you know, I don't have an explanation for this" not, " oh it *must* be supernatural". Great podcast.
I understand the difficulties of believing in ghosts for people who have never experienced it by hand. A lot of arguments stated that it's just the imagination of the individuals and how they always set their mind into that kind of situation (wanting to believe ghosts are real). But the problem is how would you know that's the case? How would you know those people are "indoctrinated"? Especially if they are atheists. We mustn't judge too easily for things that can't be proven yet. Discussions about ghosts aren't necessarily equally talking about god or religion. Religion has been disproven so many times by science. But has there been any thorough research on ghosts?
It doesn't even necessarily be ghosts as described by supernatural meanings. I just think it's pretty sad if we limit our judgement to something we haven't really found out.
Are we limiting the possibility of time travel? Are we limiting the possibility of alien life? Those are a few things that we haven't really had any clear conclusions yet.
All I'm saying we can't really dismissed that easily something that hasn't been researched thoroughly by science. Is the world only has 1 dimension? What about 2 dimensions, 3 dimensions, 4 dimensions, etc?
What if we changed the term "ghosts" to "energy" or "dimensions"?
Clearly the words energy or dimensions are by far more acceptable for science.
If it turns out there are no such thing as "ghosts", so what?
Especially for atheists who actually experienced some strange things they want to prove it (or disprove) as much as other atheists.
I don't think it necessarily atheists who experienced those things be considered foolish because the fact was they did experience it. And it's not like they believe it religiously.
If it was some kind of process in the human brain then that's fine too. For me I'd like more explanation scientifically on the topic. Just as i'd like a conclusion about alien life or time travel.
I think there needs to be a distinction between belief in ghosts as spirits of the dead that live on etc. and the recognition that there are phenomena that we don't quite have an explanation for. There are people who genuinely experience "supernatural" things and the lack of explanation causes some to write it off as never having occurred. Not believing in the ghost theory doesn't mean you can't recognize that the phenomena of "ghost experience" is real in some way.
Love the podcasts
@DasHinchen True, those comments did let me off as a Jackass. I had just seen a string of atheistic videos that used flawed logic to disprove God and I was left feeling very smug. In all seriousness, I apologize if you feel you wasted your time, although the replies were appreciated. I completely understand if you don't reply to this.
But, I'm left curious; What is an Atheist's opinion on Enlightenment? A reply from you or any other Atheist would be genuinely appreciated.
I wouldn't call a ghost "supernatural". Everything in nature is NATURAL, so if ghosts exist, so are they. Supernatural means that we consider something ABOVE nature - leave that term to the religious.
A better term, which should be used at all times is PARANORMAL What WE think is NORMAL is a judgement, so is PARAnormal. It means that it is an known phenomenon which has not been explained yet. The phenomenon exists, but we fail to explain it. So we deny it? Very unscientific approach.
Your conscious mind keeps you from receive all the signals drifting around, but when your mind is calm you could pick up the stronger signals. That normally occurs when you are between being awake and sleeping. But it doesn't help with lottery numbers, as you would have to win to generate that strong thought of joy for your past self to pick up on.
I'm an atheist and my favorite movies are horror movies with ghosts, demons and zombies. Return of the Living Dead!!!! Not scary at all but still amazing!
Your podcasts are great and I've listened to every one of them but it has dawned on me that they reach a much smaller audience. Your short cartoon type videos will be seen by way more people as they are more "bite sized".
I'm sure you already know this as you are obviously not an idiot but what I am getting at is that preaching to the choir does not change the world. The podcasts are really only for atheists. The short videos serve more to help religious people find their way to thought.
as far as ghosts and these supposedly "haunted" places, lets face it. most places people talk about or claim are haunted are usually old, dilapidated, naturally creepy places that have a history, thats really all there is to it. all the things that supposedly prove a place is haunted can also explain why the electric bill is high, all the tiny cracks and crevices that can't be seen. plus its so easy to trick people into thinking that a place could be haunted, without needing to do any work.
I just watched a documentary where they were studying near death experiences and they claimed that there r scientists studying this who say that this near death experience happens EVEN WHEN the brain is NOT functioning. They are trying to study this by looking at WHEN the experience happens in relation to brain function. That sense of warmth/comfort that he describes is common in near life experiences.
And it turns out that the host is really Rick Dees!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! This show is awesome!
Love how dramatic you sound when you say "Hell".
Interesting... now that I think about it. As a child raised in the church, I was never discouraged from believing in spirits or ghosts. In fact, I think most of the ghost stories I heard were told by other christians and a lot of my friends actually believed the stories and attributed them to satan.
And, while I was always skeptical, it wasn't much of a stretch to believe in ghosts. Ghosts do seem more probable than god...
Now I find science much more interesting than ghosts.
@GigaBoost I believe that he trims up the audio a bit before uploading it, to keep things fluid, so sometimes it might seem more abrupt than it actually was. Incidentally, he seemed to keep the callers on this week for about as long as he normally does.
Thank you, that was very entertaining.
Great podcast. The part I find unbelievable is that some people found the movie "Paranormal Activity" scary. :p
@kilroy1964 1) I'm not American, I'm Israeli. 2) All three large religions believe in a God that promises afterlife, an argument which leads to the idea that Ghosts exist. If you're an Atheist that denies the existence of God(s), it would make greater sense to deny the idea of an afterlife and the existence of ghosts.
@DeltaPhi79 the keyword in that statement is FILTERED. anyone who knows how to use sound editing software could filter out everything but a specific noise they want, they do it for movies and tv all the time, which is why you can always hear the characters when their talking, even in crowded, noisy places.
I was just talking about that celebrity ghost show today! Haha it was funny.
' Are you the axe murderer that killed thirteen people....' absolute genius!
@DeltaPhi79 document their paranormal encounters. Another purpose COULD be to "entertain" people (more like scare the wits out of them) but mainly to show what goes on in the world. Not being able to explain a simultaneous temperature, video, and sonar change, to me, is a good reason to say there was a ghost in the room and that they exist. (Try looking up their Poveglia Island episode here. You might like it.)
As an proud atheist myself, I don't believe in ghosts, but I do believe in fear and fear is powerful.
I find "ghosts" are plausible, as well as being able to see into the future. Everyone's mind works on a resonate frequency, strong emotions emit a strong "signal" fear being one of the strongest types. So if your frequency is close to a person who used to live or will live it would be possible to pick up on those signals. Likewise it would explain deja vu, and love at first site sensations. You know that is the one for you as your future self has been living with the person for years. ....
I can't believe I listened to the whole thing. I love the show I suppose :)
I'm an atheist and I believe in ghosts and the supernatural. I also had an experience with a physic, its kind of a long story but one did a reading from an old picture I had and told me stuff about myself that no one else would know.
@GregQzag Everything has a life-force. And just because a "chicken ghost" doesn't come in the form of a chicken, doesn't mean no one's seen it.
I once saw a black blur fly through my room, "into" a wall of mine. It was small, like a chicken. For all I know it was a "chicken ghost". Or even a "child ghost".
I like how you feel because we're human our ghosts/life force can only take one form: Human. Never mind that apparitions have been noted to take many forms.
@RollTheDice00 Just because YOU hear the audio output to the stream, doesn't mean that HE heard the audio input to his headphones.
BUSEY IS STARING INTO MY SOUL
I've been in the winchester manor, its cool, and yes there are doors to nowhere, including one to the kitchen sink, what a way to take a bath...
Black holes come from the collapse of massive stars (super giants). First you need to understand that nuclear fusion and quantum tunneling fuses hydrogen into helium. However, some mass is turned into pure energy (E=MC^2 explains how much this is). This energy creates an outward force, but stars are heavy, and super giants are unimaginatively heavy. This gravitation is the inward force. these two forces balance. When iron starts to fuse, iron absorbs energy and it's the end of the star...
i believe in farts, i may not see them, but i can smell THEM!!!!
Well, as some people may point out. Atheism dose not talk about what you do believe it talks about what you don't believe. In the strictest seance it means you don't believe in any gods, and yes there may be overlap but that doesn't exclude having other irrational believes like ghosts or say homophobia.
At least that's my take on it.
the wincherster mystery house is really amazing, look it up, its shows how crazy the woman must have been to build the thing.
Sorry if my comment on Samhain came off as chastising. I just wanted to make the point because I'm both a Celt and an Atheist and I feel that the Pope spoiled a part of Celtic cultural identity by trying to make the holiday part of the broader Christian tradition. Additionally, the nature of "All Saints Day" as a day of memory downplayed the holiday from one of much deeper spiritual meaning to the Celts, kind of like a new religion taking Easter and making it Memorial Day.
Can you up load these to Itunes so that we are able to listen to them on the road? It would be great to download it as a regular podcast.
The fact that the Discovery Channel has a show on ghost hunting is even worse than the Travel Channel.
it gets me how someone would believe in science that admits its "90% guesswork" when it comes to evolution but that same person would deny things they see
Dennis said what I was thinking about. He just made it sound more professional.
@RollTheDice00 Because BlogTalkRadio servers were glitchy during our broadcast, and we couldn't hear our callers from the host cue. There's a logical explanation to everything.
I love those ghost hunter reality tv shows. They're just fun to watch. I have to say, of all the days I get to exercise my eyeballs by rolling them back inside my head, it's those times.
They're funny and frustrating at the same time because you just know tons of dopes out there will buy that instantly.
Yes, but Ghost Hunters DO SAY that EMF causes hallucinations also! They don't say that high EMF automatically means ghost. Many times they say that the EMF spike is causing the ghost sightings.
You are allowed to believe what ever you want right or wrong
me too. every time i would bring up such a subject, my skeptic family and friends, they would call them "demons", even the concept of imaginary friends.
The writer and creator of STAR TREK was an atheist. People... Being an atheist does not mean you lost your imagination.
@GregQzag Also, if you consider yourself the "winner" here because I refuse to argue with someone who needs to resort to insulting people then fine. You win. All points are conceded to you and you are the best at debates. Because we all know that those who must resort to insults in a debate are the real winners. The end.
I think it was best said by Dennis from Canada. Because it is widely know in quantum physics, within the you atom you have these fermions, quarks, and leptons particles. But farther than that, you have these strings that are vibrating within those particles. That is where the string theory comes in. That possibly that there are other strings that vibrate higher or lower than our universe. So i would not so easily push the idea of spirits off. Just like the higgs bosons, at first...
@TheThinkingAtheist Well, I didn't actually claim that Shelly is American (read my comment again). Interestingly, I'm also Israeli.
Keep it up, you rock!
of course ghosts etc. do NOT exist,but haloween is just harmless fun! ;)
@LJay279 ..if you listen to it as you would any other kind of radio, then the hour really flies by.
Awesome job.
@TheThinkingAtheist No problem, it happens. I enjoyed the show :)
@enimcraft
Are you serious? The video you linked to is interesting because it's funny. The guy does not look surprised at all, he laughs a lot and he obviously expects these things to happen just the way they do.
Look at 1:05, for example, when he grabs his tray to protect himself. Why does he turn to this particular side where, oh surprise, something happens, as if he knew it was going to happen...? because he did knew of course! :-)
I hope you had a good Halloween! Take care.
@BgbadWulof Actually at the quantum level particles can just pop into existence. And you kind of answered your own question there. Energy can't be created or destroyed. So it didn't "come" form anywhere as that implies some sort of Genesis (if you'll forgive the word). It has always been there. It is, as you rightly said, a constant.
Not necessarily. Spirits could exist, but usually die when our body dies. But occasionally something disturbs the spirit where it goes on living after the body has died. I don't believe this, but it is a possible way ghosts could exist without there being a real "afterlife."
I was in a hotel in Portland, OR over this last summer where a film crew from the Travel Channel just happened to be filming for one of their ghost shows. I asked them if they actually believed in ghost and they told me not a freakin' chance! It's all just for money because they know people like a scary story.
I tend to think that our fears of ghosts are just manifestations of our own psychological trauma. I personally recognize that a lot of my problem with it is just reliving deeply traumatic events from my childhood. Though here's the thing, so I kind of think just like how you can use electromagnets to write information onto stuff that the electrical field of our bodies, if we experience an intense enough emotion can leave like an emotional imprint on a place or thing.
@bohemianwriter1 "If you are only using 5% - 10% of your brain, that would explain the belief in ghosts."
It remains a true statement that you prove with each post.
Define Ghost,
If Ghost is defined as a spirit returned. Then, as an atheist I don't think that would be a logical deduction and therefor I personally would not believe in such things. But what if we are interpreting a genuine 'ghostly figure' the wrong way. I have a sort of philosophical point of view (based solely on theory :P). I'm sure you all know we live in the third dimension, and there is up to (i think) 11 dimensions. It could be a 4th, 5th.. etc. dimensional being trying to interact
Gary Busey's freaky stare is seriously creeping me out.
@DeltaPhi79 if you were to look up close to the stuctures themselves, you would find hundred of pores and openings within the walls, floors, ceilings, support stuctures, everywhere. its concievable that heat and sound travel through these pores causing heat to suddenly build up or disappear in certain areas, and it would create sounds eerilie similar to muffled high-pitched speech. as for some of the visual anomalies, that could be caused by anything. cameras aren't as reliable as people think.
@Uberboy07 Fear of imaginary things is in many cases an involuntary behavior, a defense mechanism in the same way that we might flinch even if we know someone wouldn't really hurt us. As children, it can make us act silly. As adults, it can let us enjoy a more primitive, emotional side of ourselves - or convince us something's out there.
just because you are done with the conversation you dont have to lie and say the connection is being lost. you can just tell them your moving on to another caller...
@MovieFusionist
It's just a technicality: the word "atheist" means one who does not believe in a god or gods. So long as you don't believe in those, you're an atheist by definition, and any number of whacky or supernatural beliefs are open.
Most atheists, I'll admit, are what we call rationalists; those who believe or disbelieve based on the available data, and go for what is most evidently true. That's probably the group you're thinking of.
Again, just a technicality based on definitions.