So as you guys already know, I celebrate a holiday known as day of the dead, a holiday of remembering past lives. So before I want to start this discussion, one thing I want to throw out there is the reason i use religious iconography on day of the dead even though I'm atheist is because, symbolism, and decoration. To put it in to context, let's say a person loves Greek mythology, and they get a statue of a Greek god. They are not worshippers of that god just cause they have a statue of it, they just like it cause it's cool. Same with Buddha statues. People who are peaceful like to have one around because of its symbolism, they may or may not be a Buddhist, but that's not stopping them from having a statue. Any way, getting back to the original topic of this discussion, can I believe in spirits? In the holiday it is believed that spirits of loved ones return home, and spend time at the altars made for them. I believe in this, and I believe my grandmother spends time with me and I'm happy. I know some might say I'm delusional, but I don't think so. So anyway, is believing in spirits good? Even if the evidence is vague?
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What is a spirit?
Whoops, I accidentally made two posts, I'm sorry guys, anyways, a spirit is a apparition of a person who has died. I believe spirits are not a figure, rather a life force, that leaves once a body dies.
What does this force consist of?
Uhh, the previous life energy of a human, or other living being.
What is life energy? I think you can be an atheist and believe in this but if you are claiming to be a skeptic then you have a lot of work ahead of you.
Life energy is energy present in all living things.
And I'm not a skeptic, just an atheist.
We make energy available in our cells. It is called the Krebs cycle. Fascinating process. However, I don't think this energy producing process carries our image, consciousness, or personality in this life or after death. Can you describe any singular force within us that is capable of this holographic feat?
How are you distinguishing between life energy & non-life energy. Because it seems to me that if there is anything that could be called life energy its electricity.
I'll accept electricity exists. But I'm not sure that's what you are talking about.
What I mean is life energy is energy from previously alive beings, that leaves then being once it dies, at least that what I think a "spirit" is. You can feel free to disagree with me but I do believe in some form of existence after death, not an afterlife, but existence, whether spirits are life energy or are our conscious minds in the form of a energy we can not explain yet.
How many joules of energy does a person's "life energy" have? If it hasn't been measured, how do you know it exists? If it isn't expressible in joules, why call it energy?
But sure, being an atheist means you don't believe in god; you can still believe in all kinds of other crazy stuff.
I want to believe in as meany true things as possible, and as few false things in possible. Thus I try to follow the evidence. I aim for evidence based belief. Thus I cannot & will not believe in things for which there is no evidence, or controdictory evidence.
You've provided no reason for me to change my position of spirits. But you've provided no reason to why you believe. What evidence do you think there is. Can you provide an example?
There are many stories, many photos proven to be un edited and yet depict something very weird and mysterious, and plenty of documentaries. I also know that there are skeptics who may say there was something with the light, or some shadow, or something of that matter, but I highly doubt any of that could result in the cooper family photo
Attachments
Attach Image/Video?:
I'd never heard of the Cooper family photo so googled it. The first hit was this. Seems it didn't exist till about 2009 - 13 time, odd that.
Anyway here's a link:-
http://hoaxes.org/weblog/comments/falling_body_photo
Maybe the photo is not fake. Maybe Uncle Bob was into the cooking sherry and is hanging from the rafters.
Honestly this made me laugh
XD
Atheists can believe in anything they want, except gods. If they believe in gods they're not atheists by definition.
I think spirits exist only in our minds and memories. People who've affected our lives deeply leave indelible traces in our minds and memories. Under certain conditions, such as when we're dreaming, those memories can come bubbling up with incredible clarity and immediacy.
But I don't believe that dead people carry on existing independently as disembodied entities outside of our memories and subconscious.