Nope. If anyone was to produce reasonable evidence (not just a collection of anecdotes), I'd happily change my mind, as I can't imagine what would happen if it were proven that things like ghosts existed. It would be amazing!
I used to listen to a skeptical podcast where they would get on people who believed in the paranormal, and often made a living out of investigating ghosts, communicating with the dead etc. and interview them. It was great because it rarely ended up in any animosity, which usually happens when you get these types on radio talk shows and things.
I'll always remember one where they interviewed a man who used to look for the images of ghosts in static and voices in white noise. Nothing he came up with was conclusive, but he first began looking after his wife died. Even though he admitted that everything he'd found could be attributed to things like pareidolia, he said he'd never stop looking for his wife in the static.

I most certainly do not believe in the paranormal since as it stands there is no observable evidence for things like ghosts. No one has ever been able to present me with any sort of a solid piece of evidence for some of the supernatural things that are supposedly everywhere on this planet.

With that said I do believe in Aliens however since this is a wast world and aliens would not really be classified as "supernatural" any more than other creatures on this planet such as rabbits, cats and humans.

Exactly. I believe in the super natural, but I do agree with you about aliens. It is also so ironic in the sense that it's stupid, that pretty much most atheists don't believe even in the possibility of live outside of Earth. That logically does not make sense considering the incredibly high provability of life existing else where. That being said I have seen two ghosts and I have astral projected(out of body experience), but I have never gotten far in my projections.

I CALL A PARADOX.

It can't be proven, as the proof doesn't use logic, and logic is proof. You'll have to search for the proof yourself, nobody can find it for you.

Though most people aren't willing to look for "proof" of anything, it must be shoved into their face by a college professor, similar to how a baby must be fed its food.

What makes you think most atheists think that? I'm an atheist, and I definitely think that there's a high probability of alien life out there somewhere. But I don't believe any of the "alien sightings" here on Earth - maybe that's what you're referring to? Either way, I wouldn't want to speak for all atheists.

[Edit] And what Ellert said; being atheist tells you nothing about what a person believes (or doesn't believe) about ETs or the paranormal, it just means that they don't believe in a God.

That reminds me a bit of people who think that mental illness should be cured without drug treatment or other medical intervention: I've noticed that this seems particularly prevalent amongst certain rationalists who seem to see nothing incongruous with also expecting the brain to be able to magically heal itself, which has always struck me as being rather bizarre.

Too many odd things have happened in my life that I can't explain. Yes, I believe in the paranormal.

Believing in life beyond the borders of Earth has nothing to do with being an Atheist. The only thing that has to do with being an Atheist is not believing in any sort of a god. But even then as for the Atheists I know (myself included) most believe in Aliens but many disagree about how advanced said aliens would be. I myself think there is a possibility of there being Aliens that are more intelligent than Humans but I don't mean in the sense of them being able to do things that are supernatural, certainly not. But more in the direction of for example that you could quite possibly teach a dog or a chimp some basic calculus like 1 + 2 = 3 and such, and then we have humans who can process amazing amounts of information and work on large equations in their head, and then there could be Aliens out there that simply have a more biologically advanced brain capable of processing much more information than humans, and thus capable of creating more complex technology, but nothing supernatural. Like I don't think they would be capable of portal guns and travel at the speed of light and such things that would be quite possibly be impossible.

I believe I'm a rational-minded person, which I will differ from open-minded as put by members like vometia. I agree that open-minded allows for a perspective with little to no prejudice, and that would allow for the possibility of paranormal belief. Rational-minded, instead, seeks reasonable explanations grounded in fact, theory, or corroboration.

And so, paranormal activity... While it's been defended greatly with many personal accounts, I've seen no (reliable) supporting evidence or studies behind them. That's not to say they don't make a fine case for it, but it's far from ironclad. So that door or chair got moved? Could be an air current. You actually saw something? The mind often convinces itself it "sees" all sorts of things that aren't there, and things like afterimages (ie, when blinking) are the norm. An electronic device got turned on/off? Welcome to the frustrating world of technology. Sorry, but it's just not enough to make me believe. Heck, half the time it strikes me as more of a case of someone looking for attention by spinning whatever yarn they can.

There are scientists, that talk about worm holes and how you could take a worm hole from one part of the universe and end up at the other end. I think an advance civilization could probably figure out a way to use worm holes.

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and anolysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
- Buddha

Good quote. Reading this thread made me think of that.

Seeing is believing, but with photoshop and all those bogus ghost hunter shows, I'm not believing.

I'd think it's the other way around, where theists seem to believe that the human race is the only intelligent race in existence. I believe in live outside of Earth, I just don't believe they have any reason to come here.


We've never actually done that so there's still no solid proof it's even possible.

From what i've heard a wormhole is supposedly formed of two connected black holes. But a black hole is not a "hole", it's just a dead star that has collapsed into so dense material that it distorts time/space continuum so much even light can't escape it. Any matter that enters it will just be disintegrated straight into energy (like what happens when a nuclear bomb explodes).

An interesting tidbit, for Sun to collapse into a black hole, it's radius would have to shrink to less 3000 meters (~9000 ft, the so-called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzschild_radius) while maintaining it's current mass, so you can imagine how dense the core of a black hole is.

But that is science, not paranormal stuff. And as the above implies, i'm all about science :hehe:

And this is why these threads annoy me. <_<

I guess I should explain why: "Paranormal stuff" is exactly the reason scientists even exist. Without the existence of things we do not understand, there'd be no need of science, since we'd understand everything. But we don't. It's there to explain things we don't know about yet, and put that knowledge to use. You can't just dismiss something because it's hard to explain or possibly non-existent. Extensive research has to go into it first, and as technology advances, we'll figure more things out. There is no reason to ignore something because it sounds unrealistic or doesn't follow the "rules".

yup

I absolutely believe in the paranormal, I've had many experiences that could not otherwise be explained. However when there are rational explanations for my experiences I have gone out of my way to find them. I also maintain a certain level of skepticism.

The problems I see in this debate are the people who are so set in their opinion that they cannot conceive of another option. On the one side you have the true believers who see proof of the paranormal in everything, even when a normal event has occurred.

Oh wow! Did you see that light go off by itself? This place is haunted!
Um, I think the bulb just burned out.
The ghost must have broken our light bulb!

At the other extreme are the skeptics who ask for proof, but refuse to look at any that gets offered.

Ghosts aren't real therefore anyone claiming to have photos/videos/recordings must have faked them.
You should take a looks this one, it is pretty interesting.
No, I already know it's fake so I'm not even going to waste my time.

A ghost by definition is a non corporeal entity, therefore there can be no physical evidence. Just like we cannot directly measure temperature, only its effects on known elements, we cannot directly quantify paranormal activity we can only observe its effects.

I only stuff "stuff" because i was too lazy to think of a better word :hehe:

I believe in things not currently supported by mainstream science. I believe that people see ghosts, I just don't think they're the sterotypical spectral dead people or evil monsters. I think a lot of it is internal, projecting the imagination outwards, creating the very symptoms you experience.

Pretty much agree.

So I suppose yes, I do believe in the paranormal. But only with an understanding that the paranormal is simply what we can't yet encompass with our current levels of science. For instance, I'm no math genius, yet some things I've read about quantum theory and how it might be expressed in the physical world resembles fiction to me.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
-Arthur C. Clarke

I think that could also be said of our own understanding. What's beyond our current comprehension we explain away by whatever means we have.

Nope. No logical reason or hard evidence to belive in that stuff.

I believe.

When I was five, I woke up in the middle of the night with my covers ripped off of me and floating above my bed. When I started screaming they fell back down. Also, when my little sister was a baby, my grandmother babysat her on one of the days that I was in school and both my parents were working. She saw three black figures walk into my parents' room.

Then, a few years later when my family moved to Missouri, I was playing with some action figures in my new room and all of a sudden there was a lot of thrashing inside of my closet and it sounded like someone was doing screamo in it. When I came sprinting into the living room where my parents were and asked them if they heard anything, they said that they didn't.

My last story happened last year when I was coming home at 11PM from a friend's graduation reception. As I pulled into my driveway I saw what looked like an 1800s rail worker walk into my garage. I thought it might have been a thief that was going to steal my dad's tools, so I got out of my car to confront the man, but when I entered the garage there was no one there.

Well, that's what you get for being near any thread that discusses any subject. No one loves to argue about something more than people who don't really understand the subject they're arguing about.

Funny that this thread should come up. My buddy's girl friend was in the mood to be scared so we hit up a few haunted places in Ontario last night.

One of the more reputable places we went to was Lion's Valley Park in Oakville. They closed off the road many years ago because the turn was so sharp, a lot of people crashed or weren't able to see what was around the corner. Apparently that wasn't even the scary part either.

The place where we went used to be an old cemetery which was basically lost in time. Old caskets could be seen coming out of the cliff sides due to erosion. Did I see any? Nope.

I did however, come across an old playground with a marigold round as well as some rusty swings..it looked kinda creepy.

I was more on edge of having to fight off hobo's or drug dealer's than I was of a haunting...its just my inner city defense mechanism coming in.

I agree with someone who's name I forget and am too lazy to scroll up to see said, that there are things we simply can't understand yet and that's the point of science. Not all the ghost stuff on TV and the Internet you see is faked...there's just so much.