I thought they were supposed to be reasonable people of science, yet they make unscientific conclusions. How is it they form a belief without evidence when they are the people that are against beliefs without evidence?
Update:@torpex I'm not saying one should necessarily believe, however it's unreasonable to dismiss a case as untrue simply because one believes it to be "extraordinary". If it was something like the spaghetti monster, then yes, however being that paranormal accounts are consistently similar, universal, independent, and from people with nothing to gain, Isn't it unreasonable to deny the possibility of the existence of the paranormal? If you think of why multiple and unassociated people would lie...
Update 3:@Pukka I agree, everything is natural. Even paranormal cases are simply natural events that are not understood. Our current science is not capable of properly studying such events due to their infrequency.
Update 5:make of it's possibility. Even if anecdotal, it'd be foolish to ignore this evidence because it'd make no psychological sense for these unaffiliated people with nothing to gain to lie.
Update 7:@Obi Wan Knievel
Yeah, I like to think that atheists can be reasoned with, but I'm realizing they have striking similarities to people of faith. I don't blame them though, I can see why they believe what they do.
Even after all paranormal phenomenon I've experienced, I would still have doubt to their authenticity if i hadn't myself been able to consciously astral project and confirm what everyone else has experienced
Update 9:...through meditation.
These techniques can be personally tested by anyone, and even if one doesn't manage to achieve a full astral projection, if one achieves some result, than it can be at least a basis for some credibility to give to the person that claims astral projection, and by extension, the paranormal is real.
Update 11:p.s. I have to go do things for a few hours right now.
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Atheists? There are plenty of atheists who believe in the paranormal. And plenty of non-atheists who "dismiss" many paranormal claims. Your starting point for this question is ridiculous.
And "dismiss without evidence" makes little sense. Perhaps you mean "dismiss without looking at the evidence"?
Alas, any rational, critical thinking person who looks at the evidence for the paranormal soon realises there is no good or compelling evidence whatsoever.
If there were, it wouldn't be paranormal anyway, correct?
First, this has nothing to do with atheism, aside from the fact that atheists tends to be critical thinkers. It has everything to do with how reasonable you are in evaluating dubious claims.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. If a paranormal claim has no evidence that withstands scientific scrutiny, it SHOULD be dismissed. Why waste time on wild goose chases when you don't even know that the goose exists? However, if scientific evidence supporting the claim does exist, then it shouldn't be dismissed.
Nota bene: neither Youtube videos, personal testimony, nor personal claims that "the Russians did it" have EVER appeared in ANY legitimate scientific journal as supporting evidence of ANY claim, hypothesis or theory. For good reason.
The statement about evidence above is Hitchens's razor, an epistemological razor which asserts that the burden of proof in a debate (the onus) lies with whoever makes the (greater) claim; if this burden is not then met, the claim is unfounded and its opponents do not need to argue against it. It is named, echoing Occam's razor, for the journalist and writer Christopher Hitchens, who, in 2003, formulated it thus:"What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."
Hitchens's razor is actually a translation of the Latin proverb "Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur", which has been widely used at least since the early 19th century, but Hitchens's English rendering of the phrase has made it more widely known in the 21st century. It is used, for example, to counter presuppositional apologetics. This quotation appears by itself in God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, a book by Hitchens published in 2007.
Writer Richard Dawkins formulated a different version of the same law at a TED conference in February 2002: "The onus is on you to say why; the onus is not on the rest of us to say why not."
<Why do atheists dismiss paranormal [phenomena] without evidence?> What does atheism have to do with it? The vast majority of paranormal phenomena could exist even if gods don't. Kindly set up your straw man arguments about atheism somewhere else.
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That said, yes, I will dismiss paranormal phenomena that don't have evidence. Wouldn't anyone? Or are you absurdly asserting that it's up to skeptics to prove that paranormal phenomena *don't* exist? That's called "shifting the burden of proof". If you have any paranormal claims, it's up to you to prove that they do. That's the same as claiming there is an alien spaceship depot on Pluto, and if you can't prove there isn't, then there must be one.
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<I thought they were supposed to be reasonable people of science, yet they make unscientific conclusions. How is it they form a belief without evidence when they are the people that are against beliefs without evidence?> What makes you think atheists are anything other than people that don't believe in gods? Here's the total definition, just for you: Atheism: the lack of belief in gods, period.
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Regardless, what evidence are you talking about? I haven't read the other answers, or your replies to them. There's no need to. If you are this irrational that you think that someone who doesn't believe in leprechauns has to come up with some good evidence why they don't believe in them, then you are aren't worth talking to. Maybe I'll come back to your questionable question if I get bored, or maybe I won't.
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Because there in no paranormal phenomenon with evidence to dismiss. Come to think of it shouldn't anything without evidence be dismissed?
If we "see" Obama shaking an aliens hand on TV we will believe it. If Queen Liz "tells" us she shook an aliens hand alone in a cornish field, not so much.
Atheists reject anything, even the existence of a Creator, and that is God!
The paranormal phenomenon used to the presence of spirits is directed at the Demons are spiritual beings, but not all of these beings are manifested.
I met Atheists who after their experiences with these spirits they changed their minds, but they are few unfortunately !!
For any way they forget to avoid losing your time behind the Atheists, and then, after the end of this world will realize that the spirits exist, but it will be too late for them. Ok!
"Why do atheists dismiss paranormal phenomenon -without evidence-?"
Answered your own question there.....
"How is it they form a belief without evidence"
It's a disbelief due to said, lack of evidence. Are you picking up what I'm putting down?
There are two sides to this answer, and both of them are pretty important.
First, there is no actual evidence of paranormal phenomena. Actual evidence would make it a normal not-phenomenon, because evidence is something that can be studied and later explained. But there ain't any.
I believe in paranormal stuff myself (well, some of it), but I know god blasted well I can't prove it. I can tell you some cool stories and insist that they're true, but stories aren't proof. I could show you photos or videos (if I had any), but that's not proof either. Fake photography is as old as photography itself, and 'ghost' images are the easiest thing in the world to fake. I have no photography or editing skills at all, and I could fake up a real-looking ghost pic in less than five minutes. And just like that, there goes the credibility of any photo / video evidence.
On the other side, you have to realize something about atheists: They're just as narrow-minded and annoying as any other religion. Just like the born-again Protestants or Jehovah Witnesses who bang on your door, they won't shut up about their beliefs until you either join them or beat them unconscious.
True atheists 'know' that nothing is real unless a) they can pick it up and throw it against a wall or b) some scientist says it is. Even though real scientists openly admit that they don't know everything, hardcore atheists ignore that part and insist that they do. Does that sound a bit like total blind faith to you? It should.
Reported phenomena that do not seem to conform to the known rules of logic or science must be dismissed as merely insignificant tales unless they can be perceived and recorded and / or measured in some way. Science is about "knowing". Seeing or hearing or feeling something unexpected is merely the first step toward proving that it is something genuine and significant. In science, the burden of proof is on the observer..
Atheism is a "Belief system" too. Every intelligent person knows that Science does not know EVERYTHING yet.--But the Atheists BELEIVES Science will ONE DAY answer all the questions in the universe, the ones that matter anyway.
Most Atheists are NOT Scientists anyways--They just have a Belief in or a "confidence " in Science It is all they have. What they accept or deny depends on the level of their Science education. Of course many are into atheism to justify their desires to shed the "restrictions" of religious "morality". or as an adverse reaction to being raised in an overly strict and often hypocritical "Fundy" household.----
Define paranormal. There are ONLY natural phenomenon, rare natural events that occur so infrequently that science is unable to carry out the testing necessary to explain them adequately.