Jess said 10 years, 1 month ago:

Well, I don’t have a religion, I don’t identify with religion, I barely identify as an atheist, though that’s what I would technically be classed as.

I totally, 100% believe in ghosts. I think there is something after death and I believe ghosts have something to do with that.

Atheism isn’t about not believing in things that don’t have 100% factual proof to back in up, I think atheism is simply not believing a God, it’s not believing that there is some ultimate power that creates and controls everything.

That doesn’t mean you cannot be spiritual. That doesn’t mean you can’t believe in life after death. That doesn’t mean you can’t believe that crystals hold energy and healing powers. Hell, you can believe in mermaids if you want. You can also believe in a god and not be religious.

The difference between believing in one thing and believing in a religion, is that religion isn’t just one thing, (I’m running out of words, hopefully this makes sense) it’s like a cult. Religion is a cult. You believe in certain things, you have a lifestyle loosely or very rigidly based off this, you believe you should be a certain way, it affects how you think. Religion affects everything about you (not necessarily in a bad way, I don’t want to come off like that), whereas believing in something, say ghosts for the sake of this conversation, is simply believing in that one thing. It will only affect that one thing.

Hopefully this makes sense.

Deleted User said 10 years, 1 month ago:

I just thought you couldn’t be an atheist, if you believed in a spiritual matter, such as ghosts.
I got it told, so it made me wonder..

@jesuswasrussian

I think I understand you.. but what do you mean with “The difference between believing in one thing and believing in a religion, is that religion isn’t just one thing, (I’m running out of words, hopefully this makes sense) it’s like a cult.”

” whereas believing in something, say ghosts for the sake of this conversation, is simply believing in that one thing. It will only affect that one thing”

Deleted User said 10 years, 1 month ago:

@jesuswasrussian
Well my question were just: can you call yourself an atheist, even though you believe that ghosts exist?

And reading your respond.. it seems that you think it doesn’t have any impact on your God-less beliefs, if you believe in the existence of ghosts (;

Deleted User said 10 years, 1 month ago:

I know! But I just can’t make myself do it xD it’s so loooong! @rondo

imdown said 10 years, 1 month ago:

@jess you would find that most atheists are not ACTUALLY full blown atheists most of us are more specifically “agnostic atheist” simply because we don’t actually KNOW whether spirituality exists, many of us just find it very unlikely, and don’t believe it because we find it unlikely. but it is just easier to call ourselves atheist and skip over specifics because after all, labels are just labels. Personally for me, I do not believe in ghosts at all, because there has never been a scientific study that explored them, and i have never had a true encounter with one myself.

io.oi said 10 years, 1 month ago:

Theism: 1. the belief in one God as the creator and ruler of the universe, without rejection of revelation (distinguished from deism ).
2.
belief in the existence of a god or gods (opposed to atheism )

Atheism: 1. the doctrine or belief that there is no God.
2. disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.

The ‘A’ should be accepted as a symbol for ‘Anti’, which is a person who is opposed to a practice, or idea, or anything.

There are a few types of Atheism, all of which disagree with the principles of mysticism, spirituality, and supernatural happenings, past;present;future. If you believe in ghosts, demons, magic, miracles, dragons (unfortunately), unicorns, creationism, or anything else of that nature, you are NOT an atheist. You are either Agnostic or Religious.

I for one am a Secular Humanist. I believe that humans by nature are moral and societal creatures, and that the needs and progression of Humanity as a whole take priority. Globalization is inevitable and integral to the future of our species. In that, I do not believe in a god, or religion, or countries and borders for that matter. I think a separation of Church and State is important (secular) and must happen for a successful governing of societies; and I think that things like Immigration Processes and National Pride are inhumane.

Then there are Existential Atheists who believe that man has no morals or innate human nature, because there is no god to create it. They are the complete polar opposites of Humanists, and deny that humans can be anything more than what they choose to be. Disorder and Chaos are inevitable, and death and despair will always follow humanity throughout it’s existence in this pointlessness that is existence.

In any instance, Atheism is grounded in the Physical and Observable world. Even Quantum Mechanics can sometimes fend off Atheists. Atheism, at it’s roots, is the principle that there is nothing that can’t be explained by science. Ghosts can’t be explained by science. Ghosts don’t exist. Fin.

io.oi said 10 years, 1 month ago:

You’re welcome, @theclearmind. It’s best we all know who we are, even if we don’t all agree what’s right.