Do you believe in God ?

[Jacquemar]

Yeah, I agree. But I do like ghost stories. I have a whole anthology of them from the 19th century.

 

[Pierresro]

As a kid I remember thinking it was very strange people actually believed a guy called Noah built a huge ark and put all the animals on it.
Or how Jonas was swallowed by a whale.

I knew they were just stories then..
only admitting this to adults I'm sure would have gotten me in trouble.

As an adult I respect people who can look at their own religion objectively and say "Maybe not, but I still have faith in it"

LOL regarding The Ark I always wondered when it Landed on a Mountain in Turket how all the animals got back to Africa AUtralian Etc what fucking bullshit!

 

[Telstra]

The people who saw dead people moving about and walk through closed doors, it wasn't in their heads but in plain eyesight.

How many % of people experienced this?
50% must experience this to have a fair and balance outcome.

 

[Telstra]

Feelings in whose head?

There are documented cases of people who were pronounced dead but got resuscitated who once they returned to consciousness described what had gone on in the emergency room while they were medically dead.

And when one of my great-aunts died, in the hospital, at least two cousins reported her being seen at their houses where she announced "It's time for me to go" -- at which point they called the hospital and found that the doctors were trying to resuscitate her; they declared her dead while one of the cousins was still on the phone.

Then there was the time I was making the 110-mile trip from my apartment at the university to home by bicycle, and was about halfway done when suddenly I just knew I needed to catch a ride. We found out later that our pastor suddenly just knew he needed to turn around and go to a certain hospital a half hour after I stopped pedaling and stuck my thumb out. I got a ride within half a minute and got dropped off at home just as everyone was getting into the car to go to the hospital. At the hospital we encountered our pastor, who had arrived a few minutes before Life Flight had delivered my younger brother to the emergency room. When we put the timing together, it turned out that the moment I suddenly knew I needed to catch a ride was before my brother was in the accident and the moment our pastor suddenly knew he needed to go to that hospital was the moment Life Flight had lifted into the air with my younger brother aboard.

There are too many accounts like this to claim "No evidence at all".

I still don't believe until i experience it myself
Or scientifically proven by experts like the theory of gravity or H20 hydrogen and oxygen separation

 

[Rickrock]

How many % of people experienced this?
50% must experience this to have a fair and balance outcome.

I don't know how many people experienced it, but there are many stories of haunted houses and castles so it must have been a few hundred or probably much more throughout time. There are even stories in the Bible of spirits. I heard about 3 times in my grandmother's life in the 1920's, 1950's and 1960's. It is probably less than one tenth of a percent of people. We can agree that we disagree if that is what it is but I wanted to make my life experiences/knowledge known.

 

[Jacquemar]

I don't know how many people experienced it, but there are many stories of haunted houses and castles so it must have been a few hundred or probably much more throughout time. There are even stories in the Bible of spirits. I heard about 3 times in my grandmother's life in the 1920's, 1950's and 1960's. It is probably less than one tenth of a percent of people. We can agree that we disagree if that is what it is but I wanted to make my life experiences/knowledge known.

You originally says thousands of people over thousands of years. Not tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, just "thousands." Considering that there have been billions of people who have lived on this planet over tens of thousands of years, "thousands" is not that many. Maybe said thousands, including your grandmother, were highly suggestible, or in a state of extreme emotional distress. There are many possibilities other than disembodied spirits, you know.

 

[Jacquemar]

Also remember that tales of haunted houses and castles have mostly fallen into the collective public domain and have been told and retold over hundreds of years, making them, like the myths of old, proof of, really, nothing. I have several gothic novels that were all inspired by the same body of legend and myth.

 

[Kyanimal]

My following comments are not directed at anyone in particular. I'm using "you" in the general term.

There are things I have experienced that I can attempt to describe/explain to you. However, no matter how eloquent I might be, or how perceptive you may be, you are not going to fully understand until you experience it yourself. For example; the taste of horseradish. I can not "prove" that to you until you've tried it.

Your not being able to fathom something does not negate the veracity of those who have. I have had personal experiences that I would classify as ethereal. Can I "prove" them? No. However, no one can "prove" they didn't happen, either. The best I can do is share them with you the best that I can. Whether you accept that as "valid", or not, does not change what happened to/with/for me.

 

[Jacquemar]

So, Kyanimal, are you dismissing the possibility of a rational explanation for what you experienced? People experience bizarre things all the time, what's interesting to me is the tendency to accept, without questioning, a supernatural explanation for such phenomenon when a reasonable, simple, rational one could suffice. Belief in disembodied spirits, for example, seems to beg more questions than it provides answers. A simple admission of hallucinations explains everything in a nice and tidy way. I do admit there are things that have happened that appear to have no explanation; but I'd claim to have no answer at all rather than default to something bizarre and fantastic.

 

[Telstra]

My following comments are not directed at anyone in particular. I'm using "you" in the general term.

There are things I have experienced that I can attempt to describe/explain to you. However, no matter how eloquent I might be, or how perceptive you may be, you are not going to fully understand until you experience it yourself. For example; the taste of horseradish. I can not "prove" that to you until you've tried it.

Your not being able to fathom something does not negate the veracity of those who have. I have had personal experiences that I would classify as ethereal. Can I "prove" them? No. However, no one can "prove" they didn't happen, either. The best I can do is share them with you the best that I can. Whether you accept that as "valid", or not, does not change what happened to/with/for me.

What things you have experienced? You can tell the things ... i want to hear
I remember when i was young (under 10) i felt things, scary things but when looking back it was ''feelings in my head''.

 

[TX-Beau]

I don't know how many people experienced it, but there are many stories of haunted houses and castles so it must have been a few hundred or probably much more throughout time. There are even stories in the Bible of spirits. I heard about 3 times in my grandmother's life in the 1920's, 1950's and 1960's. It is probably less than one tenth of a percent of people. We can agree that we disagree if that is what it is but I wanted to make my life experiences/knowledge known.

The number of stories is utterly irrelevant. The assertion is without foundation, he said, she said, they said and on and on. There are plenty of accounts of butt probing little grey aliens with exactly the same amount of credibility, weeping statues, stigmata, faith healings, rattlesnake handlers, people who drink poison with the exact same "evidence" - though I have to say, I don't remember where in the bible there were spectral live people wandering the ether before they were dead, or even much spectral dead people occurrence happening either - in fact I don't remember any of that.

You do realize that every spiritual tradition generates these kinds of apocrypha specific to their tradition.

What is it that makes you believe? It's not proof.

 

[TX-Beau]

My following comments are not directed at anyone in particular. I'm using "you" in the general term.

There are things I have experienced that I can attempt to describe/explain to you. However, no matter how eloquent I might be, or how perceptive you may be, you are not going to fully understand until you experience it yourself. For example; the taste of horseradish. I can not "prove" that to you until you've tried it.

Your not being able to fathom something does not negate the veracity of those who have. I have had personal experiences that I would classify as ethereal. Can I "prove" them? No. However, no one can "prove" they didn't happen, either. The best I can do is share them with you the best that I can. Whether you accept that as "valid", or not, does not change what happened to/with/for me.

The taste of horseradish is neither supernatural or un-provable, it's commonplace fact understandable by inference and comparison, and completely describable by "science." If you can't describe the taste, just go buy some and hand it over.

That is a completely specious comparison, when next you assert that it's the same as being unable to demonstrate a supernatural occurrence. What the various religious believe is a huge, and utterly contradictory amalgam of doctrine, custom, scripture, and oral tradition. There isn't even any agreement within religious traditions on what thier numinous experience entails.

The question is less what you believe, people believe many, many things, some that can't be real if that guy over there is right - but why you believe that particular set of mythology.

 

[Kulindahr]

How many % of people experienced this?
50% must experience this to have a fair and balance outcome.

LOL

That's like saying half the people in a city have to witness a murder in order to find the perpetrator guilty.

 

[Kulindahr]

So, Kyanimal, are you dismissing the possibility of a rational explanation for what you experienced? People experience bizarre things all the time, what's interesting to me is the tendency to accept, without questioning, a supernatural explanation for such phenomenon when a reasonable, simple, rational one could suffice. Belief in disembodied spirits, for example, seems to beg more questions than it provides answers. A simple admission of hallucinations explains everything in a nice and tidy way. I do admit there are things that have happened that appear to have no explanation; but I'd claim to have no answer at all rather than default to something bizarre and fantastic.

Hallucinations can't explain much of anything we've been discussing here, for example this item:

Then there was the time I was making the 110-mile trip from my apartment at the university to home by bicycle, and was about halfway done when suddenly I just knew I needed to catch a ride. We found out later that our pastor suddenly just knew he needed to turn around and go to a certain hospital a half hour after I stopped pedaling and stuck my thumb out. I got a ride within half a minute and got dropped off at home just as everyone was getting into the car to go to the hospital. At the hospital we encountered our pastor, who had arrived a few minutes before Life Flight had delivered my younger brother to the emergency room. When we put the timing together, it turned out that the moment I suddenly knew I needed to catch a ride was before my brother was in the accident and the moment our pastor suddenly knew he needed to go to that hospital was the moment Life Flight had lifted into the air with my younger brother aboard.

 

[Telstra]

LOL

That's like saying half the people in a city have to witness a murder in order to find the perpetrator guilty.

No, ghosts or god is not like saying ''witness a murder'' LOL

 

[Kulindahr]

No, ghosts or god is not like saying ''witness a murder'' LOL

Witnessing something is witnessing.

 

[Telstra]

Witnessing something is witnessing.

then, why not at least 50% of the people witnessing it? why not?

- - - Updated - - -

 

[Kyanimal]

The taste of horseradish is neither supernatural or un-provable, it's commonplace fact understandable by inference and comparison, and completely describable by "science." If you can't describe the taste, just go buy some and hand it over.

^ That proves my point that nothing can be fully understood/appreciated until personally experienced. Unfortunately, it is beyond my control to instruct 'anyone' "on the other side" to contact you. It is also outside my power to grant you the abilities to be attuned to such communications if they may ever be directed your way. Your lack of experience is not my, nor anyone else's, responsibility.

The only thing I can do is share what I have experienced, as best I can. Whether, and or how, you choose to accept that is entirely up to you. It is no more incumbent upon me to prove anything to you than it is for you to believe me.

ESP, or whatever you which to label it, is not the same as religion. One is not necessarily related to the other.

 

[Kulindahr]

then, why not at least 50% of the people witnessing it? why not?

- - - Updated - - -

Because you aren't applying that standard to other situations. If a lady got mugged, would you insist that at least half the people on the block where it happened agree what happened?

 

[Kulindahr]

^ That proves my point that nothing can be fully understood/appreciated until personally experienced. Unfortunately, it is beyond my control to instruct 'anyone' "on the other side" to contact you. It is also outside my power to grant you the abilities to be attuned to such communications if they may ever be directed your way. Your lack of experience is not my, nor anyone else's, responsibility.

The only thing I can do is share what I have experienced, as best I can. Whether, and or how, you choose to accept that is entirely up to you. It is no more incumbent upon me to prove anything to you than it is for you to believe me.

ESP, or whatever you which to label it, is not the same as religion. One is not necessarily related to the other.

Nicely said.

This reminds me of a science fiction story where humans have just encountered some new aliens and are trying to communicate. They exchange a few universal constants, then run into a problem: there is no way using just radio to tell someone else what "clockwise" means; it's something that has to be experienced to be understood. Even using visuals doesn't work because it's not even possible to tell the other party what "right" and "left" mean, so there's no way to tell them which way to orient the visuals!

Common experience turns out to be necessary in most human knowledge.