Believing in the Paranormal

Telekinesis, although I like to call it  "The shining"

el böthy wrote: Telekinesis, although I like to call it  "The shining"

Peter wrote: Not to start any fights, but I think that if you believe in God, you pretty much believe in the "paranormal," by definition. look at the powers commonly ascribed to God: mind reading onniscience omnipresence immortality the ability to create matter from nothing the ability to work "miraculous" cures the ability to resurrect the dead invisibility etc.   Therefore, it should not tbe too big a stretch, I think, for a religious person to think that some humans or "spirits" could from time to time manifest similar "paranormal" powers.    Essentially, I equate belief in the paranormal with belief in magic, and I think that any "god" is essentially a "magical" entity.    Whattayall think? Belief in God = belief in magic = belief in paranormal? Is it the same? Are religous folks more likely to believe in such "non-scientific" things?   Or is belief in an all-powerful, single God incompatible with, say, a belief in astrology?

Well, according to Catholicism (or the Catholic Church that I was brought up under) belief in ghosts, astrology etc is blasphemy and somehow comes under the commandment "thou shalt not bear false gods before me"

However it is perfectly logical in my view that people who believe in God or gods would also believe in all manner of other manifestations, magical powers and whatnot.It stands to reason that once you believe in an entity that you cannot see then anything goes..

One cannot prove or disprove the existence of Gods (or gods etc) and so it goes for most of these amazing powers that people claim. However, when spiritualists, mind readers et al have been subject to the strictest laboratory tests they have ALWAYS failed totally.

Take ghosts, for example. To me they either exist or they dont. If they exist why arent they commonplace and more perplexingly why do those that claim to have seen ghosts always presume that they are in some way blessed with a "gift" or special sensitivity that others do not possess?

The parsimonious view to take would be that these people are over-sensitive...


Edited by Tony R - June 23 2007 at 18:53

Ghosts? Nah...60 000000000 people lived so far on this planet, since the beginning of human kind. Where are those folks? Is each one of us surrounded by 10 souls? I don't think so...our rooms should be overcrowded with poltergeists...

Aliens visiting us? Nah. Too naive. I believe in existence of life forms on other planets, even the intelligent ones, but visiting us? Why us? There are another 150000000000 stars only in our galaxy.

ESP? Clueless...but I think there is something. As Arthur C. Clarke once pointed it out - 95% of all that is rubbish...but which 5% is right?

Prediciting the future? I do not believe in that, nor in destiny. On the other hand, there might be something in the theories of parallel universes, warmholes, streams of happenings and cosmical mechanics...but that's a huge stretch.

Astrology is one of the worst piles of rubbish ever invented by the human kind, and it should be banned by the law in all the countries. It's too bad that inquisition in the dark ages didn't made astrology extint - by using the pyres for those who had tried to earn something on poor, naive people, desperately searching for a luck in their cruel reality.

In my humble opinion, of course.

Atkingani wrote: darqdean wrote: Atkingani wrote: None of the above...   However, telepathy is an interesting issue IMO although not really paranormal. How is telepathy not paranormal? Telepathy is a form of ESP, namely thought transference. (usually done with those circle, square, cross, wave, star - cards)   Shouldn't it be a sense, just like hearing or vision? In this case it would be biological and/or physical, not a gift IMO.

darqdean wrote: clarke2001 wrote: Ghosts? Nah...60 000000000 people lived so far on this planet, since the beginning of human kind. Where are those folks? Is each one of us surrounded by 10 souls? I don't think so...our rooms should be overcrowded with poltergeists... I think your figure of 60 billion is a little conservative - I'd put it at closer to 100 billion, which works out at 1800 dead people per square mile of earth, or one skeleton every 150 metres. If we consider that only a small proportion of land is actually populated, then this grave-density increases dramatically, which means that there must be some parts of the world where the ghosts must be standing shoulder to shoulder.

Sasquamo wrote: Bigfoot

Edited by Peter - June 24 2007 at 01:58

I voted for ESP...

Paradox wrote: Why have all of these so called Alien crashes taken place in the USA? Please corrent me if there are stories of other nations boasting their very own crash site, it would be of interest to me.

Paradox wrote: Why have all of these so called Alien crashes taken place in the USA? Please corrent me if there are stories of other nations boasting their very own crash site, it would be of interest to me.

There were - allegedly - many sightings and tales of abduction etc, in the former Soviet Union. The worlds other super power at the time. It was the powerful status of the US and the USSR that is believed to be behind why the aliens visited these places with such frequency.

If you believe such things..