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If I'm such a hardcore Atheist, then why am I afraid of GHOSTS??

I'll tell you why... Ghost Hunters on SciFi Channel and Paranormal State on A&E scare the CRAP outta me!!! LOL!! I'm not lying... I love those shows!!

But for real... the existence of ghosts/spirits/residual 'energies' after you die defy my perception of the human existence. I think most Atheists agree that we are nothing but a small step up from chimps and the fact that we cry when someone else cries does not make us leaders of the Universe! Just because you perceive your emotions a profround and earth moving, at times, does not mean that your existence permeates space and time. It's just neurotranmitters and synapses... nothing more. The same thing can be found in your pet dog's gray matter (I heard about a study on Calling All Pets on NPR that dogs have similar neurotransmitters and receptors in their brains as us). Just because we have cognition doesn't make us special enough to float around after we're dead and rotted and interact with our loved ones (who will also be dead one day).

The next time you pass by the dead squirell at the end of your street that has been there for a few days, realize that WILL be you and it WILL be too soon whether it's tomorrow or 80 years from now. All of a sudden that TV show you're watching doesn't seem that interesting, and that 99 cent hamburger seems like a complete waste of your precious time to choke down. I'd get a steak instead, and enjoy it while I can.

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Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on February 15, 2010 at 10:26pm

Not believing in ghosts, but still getting creeped out by watching creepy shows all alone in a dark house...cognitive dissonance maybe, but totally normal. No one is all logical; we all have irrational quirks and it's better to just acknowledge that. Anyway people are wired to get scared of things; it's better for survival to mistakenly think you see something that isn't there, than to mistakenly not notice something that is there.

I'd much rather just die and have nothing happen than have to worry about roaming around invisibly forever...

Ghost-hunting tools detect radioactivity I think? Apparently people become radioactive after they die...now that's badass!

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Permalink Reply by Brandon P on February 15, 2010 at 11:45pm

Meh... I have a friend, I don't know if he'd self-identify as atheist, but I'd describe him as a nontheistic, rational person.

However, he plans on being cremated when he dies solely due to the fact that he has an irrational fear of coming back as a zombie. He knows it's impossible and that it's irrational, but he saw too many zombie flicks as a kid, and now the thought of his corpse shambling around postmortem keeps him awake at night. By having absolute certainty that he will be cremated, he satiates the irrational part of his brain and has piece of mind.

Personally, I used to see things that I thought were ghosts when I was a kid. One time, my brother and I both saw the same thing (a leering skull rise over the edge of the bed) from different angles and lighting. To this day I don't know what we saw, but rationally I know it wasn't a ghost. However, there's still a part of me that fears the same things I did as a child - namely, hypodermic needles, escaping helium balloons, and dark spaces (especially if there's something that could be hidden behind - dark bathrooms with the shower curtain drawn unnerve me, since I always had childhood fears of a malevolent skeleton hiding behind there).

Some fears (death, dark, etc) are hardwired into us, and they are present even in the most rational minds. It's important to recognize these within ourselves, and, if they cannot be fully overcome, accept them as part of our mental makeup and allow a bit of space there for irrationality*

*As long as it's a little bit of space...not big enough to fit a bible in ;)

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Permalink Reply by Boo Radley on February 19, 2010 at 12:11am

It sounds like you experienced sleep paralysis.

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Permalink Reply by Tara Grant on February 22, 2010 at 6:55pm

I agree Boo. I had a similar experience after watching some 'ghost' related stuff on the internet. SCARED the CRAP outta me!!
when my b/f was a teen, had problems with 'aliens using a tractor beam to pick him up at night and float him around his room' until he realized it was a mix of sleep paralysis and experimentation with psychoactive drugs... lolololololololololol

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Permalink Reply by james bunyan on February 16, 2010 at 11:40am

i dont believe in ghosts nor things that go bump in the night but im programed to respond to them, i still jump at the head falling down in that scene in jaws, the one under the boat?, even though i know its going to happen, its just our brain doing what it is built to do, most fear is fear of the unknown, and darkness will highten the response, get used to it, and enjoy it when it happens, we have so safe a life now compaired to 100,000 years ago when that noise in the dark could have been the last noise you heard.

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Permalink Reply by El Solo Lobo on February 16, 2010 at 3:06pm

Wow, I'm sure relieved to see not many folk here believe in ghosts. Had me scared I was gonna have to change my affiliation.I went to the theater - alone - and watched The Exorcist in 1973. Scared the living crap out of me, even when I was back outside in the afternoon sunshine. But then I was a Christian then. Now I find such things mildly amusing. I hear plenty of stuff in here when no one else is in the room...but I know it's just the mice.

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Permalink Reply by Faerie on February 24, 2010 at 9:22am

I've never had any supernatural encounter, although I believed in ghosts (and all other things associated with the term paranormal) when I was younger. Now, like the rest of you, I think they're just fun for stories.

I'm not sure why anyone would have a strong fear of ghosts if they did exist. If many of our fears our hardwired to our primitive needs ghosts would not be associated with them. A little unsettling would be understandable many new things can cause that feeling, but true fear? From the people I know who claim they've had ghostly encounters though a good portion weren't afraid though.

One of my exes claimed she had ghosts biting her in her sleep and kinds of other ridiculous things. While she didn't go around offering to hold seances a lot of that stuff really annoyed me.

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Permalink Reply by amer muhammad on February 24, 2010 at 11:43am

One of my science student explains it in this way. Mostly we see those things whose molecules are close enough to reflect light(usually in solid and liquid states). And those in gaseous state can't reflect the light, thats why are unseen. And things in gaseous state can't maintain shape or volume. They become part of atmosphere when set free. According to him ghosts and other thing if have any existance it is momentarily. After very little time they become part of atmosphere. Remeber they got to reproduce in that short span of time for continuation of their race.