this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2024
116 points (84.9% liked)

Atheism

4116 readers
42 users here now

Community Guide


Archive Today will help you look at paywalled content the way search engines see it.


Statement of Purpose

Acceptable

Unacceptable

Depending on severity, you might be warned before adverse action is taken.

Inadvisable


Application of warnings or bans will be subject to moderator discretion. Feel free to appeal. If changes to the guidelines are necessary, they will be adjusted.


If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathizer or a resemblant of a group that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of any other group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you you will be banned on sight.

Provable means able to provide proof to the moderation, and, if necessary, to the community.

 ~ /c/nostupidquestions

If you want your space listed in this sidebar and it is especially relevant to the atheist or skeptic communities, PM DancingPickle and we'll have a look!


Connect with Atheists

Help and Support Links

Streaming Media

This is mostly YouTube at the moment. Podcasts and similar media - especially on federated platforms - may also feature here.

Orgs, Blogs, Zines

Mainstream

Bibliography

Start here...

...proceed here.

Proselytize Religion

From Reddit

As a community with an interest in providing the best resources to its members, the following wiki links are provided as historical reference until we can establish our own.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Lets take a little break from politics and have us a real atheist conversation.

Personally, I'm open to the idea of the existence of supernatural phenomena, and I believe mainstream religions are actually complicated incomplete stories full of misinterpretations, misunderstandings, and half-truths.

Basically, I think that these stories are not as simple and straightforward as they seem to be to religious people. I feel like there is a lot more to them. Concluding that all these stories are just made up or came out of nowhere is kind of hard for me.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

I do not currently believe in any supernatural anything, for the exact same reasons I do not believe in gods.

  1. There is no persuasive evidence of anything supernatural
  2. Many supernatural phenomena were discovered to have naturalistic explanations
  3. The only evidence provided for supernatural phenomena is anecdotal

It's entirely possible for there to be supernatural stuff, but the time to believe it is when it is demonstrated.

One point that I don't see raised a lot is that otherwise perfectly mentally healthy people can experience hallucinations. They may even find them comforting, and some even then do not believe the visions are real. I have a suspicion that a lot of ghost sightings, etc, might be such hallucinations. But I can't demonstrate that, and I'm honestly not sure how we could, unless we can find a way to trigger such hallucinations on purpose.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Most ghost sightings happen in low lighting when our brains are trying to fill the gaps of limited information. Evolution taught meat to think and it doesn't do the best job at times.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Well it is better (for survival) to imagine a predator than to imagine an ice cream truck.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

I suppose I'm more thinking about examples like one in this comment section where they see a ghost sober in the middle of the day.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

Don't forget carbon monoxide poisoning most likely contributed significantly to ghost stories before the risks of indoor fires for heat were known.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Agreed. I had a ghost encounter in 2019, as an atheist with no supernatural beliefs since 2007. I knew in the moment that it was a hallucination, but accepted it as an emotional release for what it seemed to be at the time.