Things You Don't "Get"

[Marka Ragnos]

Atheists ... who believe in ghosts.

And deity-believers ... who don't believe in them.

In my mind, I'm like, "Pick one, you. You can have one or the other, not both."

It's puzzling to me, and then it's not, too. Maybe it's merely a sign of how a person's convictions and their delusions sometimes intermingle and aren't always so easily disentangled in some minds? I encounter the phenomenon from time to time with the college-age students I teach. I feel like it's something that's been more common since the mid-2010s or so?

Edited August 2, 2023 by Marka Ragnos

[fruitvilla]

42 minutes ago, Marka Ragnos said:

who believe in ghosts. ...

In my experience, people in general are capable of believing all sorts of weird stuff and it's not just one particular camp so to speak.  I get the sense (don't have the data) but as people are losing their religiosity they are picking up on all sorts of alternative beliefs.

Footballers coming onto the pitch crossing themselves etc. I suspect we are all one step away from a weird belief: eg free will for anyone?

[Stevo985]

4 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said:

Atheists ... who believe in ghosts.

And deity-believers ... who don't believe in them.

In my mind, I'm like, "Pick one, you. You can have one or the other, not both."

It's puzzling to me, and then it's not, too. Maybe it's merely a sign of how a person's convictions and their delusions sometimes intermingle and aren't always so easily disentangled in some minds? I encounter the phenomenon from time to time with the college-age students I teach. I feel like it's something that's been more common since the mid-2010s or so?

I'm not religious but I don't think believing in God means you should automatically believe in ghosts. There's quite a separation.

I agree on your first point though. In fact anyone who believes in ghosts I don't get. 

Surely if anybody actually thinks about it properly for more than 5 seconds they'd realise ghosts definitely aren't real

[mjmooney]

5 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said:

Atheists ... who believe in ghosts.

And deity-believers ... who don't believe in them.

I can understand that it's not quite as binary as that, but yeah, I always smile at religious types who disapprove of 'superstition'. 

[BOF]

35 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

5 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said:

Atheists ... who believe in ghosts.

And deity-believers ... who don't believe in them.

In my mind, I'm like, "Pick one, you. You can have one or the other, not both."

It's puzzling to me, and then it's not, too. Maybe it's merely a sign of how a person's convictions and their delusions sometimes intermingle and aren't always so easily disentangled in some minds? I encounter the phenomenon from time to time with the college-age students I teach. I feel like it's something that's been more common since the mid-2010s or so?

I'm not religious but I don't think believing in God means you should automatically believe in ghosts. There's quite a separation.

I agree on your first point though. In fact anyone who believes in ghosts I don't get. 

Surely if anybody actually thinks about it properly for more than 5 seconds they'd realise ghosts definitely aren't real

I think believing in ghosts and being an atheist are not mutually exclusive depending on what your definition or explanation for what a ghost is. I can imagine some might have a physical/electrical explanation.

You gotta leave room for the secular nutjobs too.

[sidcow]

it's all a question of ectoplasm.

[chrisp65]

I’ve both seen a ‘ghost’ and I do not believe in ghosts.

Bought our first house, it was pretty shoddy and run down, I was staying there on my own whilst it was made habitable. Heard a noise upstairs, went to the foot of the stairs and looked up and there was an old lady. My reaction was to say hello, and can I help you. She moved away out of site and I jogged up the stairs saying hello, I think you’re in the wrong house.

There was nobody up there. So clearly my brain has had some sort of short circuit somewhere and shown me pictures that couldn’t have been real, I can’t explain it, I really did see someone up there, more detail than a shadow or a shape, it was an old lady. But clearly that didn’t really happen.

 

Oh yeah, separate incident, we both heard the baby crying over the baby monitor. Except the baby was out with my mum. That was an unpleasant experience, the baby is crying and the room is empty. Couple two doors down had the same monitor system as us.

 

[Stevo985]

13 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

Oh yeah, separate incident, we both heard the baby crying over the baby monitor. Except the baby was out with my mum. That was an unpleasant experience, the baby is crying and the room is empty. Couple two doors down had the same monitor system as us.

 

I've picked up a couple of things on our monitor before too. It's very unsettling. I think our was a police radio or something. You could just about make out that it was someone talking. Scary

[Anthony]

People who stand on the platform right in the middle of the doors when a train comes in. They are then surprised that people want to get off. Every. ****. Time.

[BOF]

1 hour ago, Anthony said:

People who stand on the platform right in the middle of the doors when a train comes in. They are then surprised that people want to get off. Every. ****. Time.

"I am the main character"

[legov]

9 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said:

Atheists ... who believe in ghosts.

And deity-believers ... who don't believe in them.

In my mind, I'm like, "Pick one, you. You can have one or the other, not both."

It's puzzling to me, and then it's not, too. Maybe it's merely a sign of how a person's convictions and their delusions sometimes intermingle and aren't always so easily disentangled in some minds? I encounter the phenomenon from time to time with the college-age students I teach. I feel like it's something that's been more common since the mid-2010s or so?

Ooh cool where do you teach out of interest?

[tonyh29]

7 minutes ago, legov said:

Ooh cool where do you teach out of interest?

College  would be my guess 

[legov]

Just now, tonyh29 said:

College  would be my guess 

He lives in Pennsylvania, I personally know some people living around that area...

[tonyh29]

33 minutes ago, legov said:

He lives in Pennsylvania, I personally know some people living around that area...

only 13 million people living there , he's bound to know them  

 

 

 

[Marka Ragnos]

1 hour ago, legov said:

Ooh cool where do you teach out of interest?

DM sent. 

5 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

I’ve both seen a ‘ghost’ and I do not believe in ghosts.

Bought our first house, it was pretty shoddy and run down, I was staying there on my own whilst it was made habitable. Heard a noise upstairs, went to the foot of the stairs and looked up and there was an old lady. My reaction was to say hello, and can I help you. She moved away out of site and I jogged up the stairs saying hello, I think you’re in the wrong house.

There was nobody up there. So clearly my brain has had some sort of short circuit somewhere and shown me pictures that couldn’t have been real, I can’t explain it, I really did see someone up there, more detail than a shadow or a shape, it was an old lady. But clearly that didn’t really happen.

 

Oh yeah, separate incident, we both heard the baby crying over the baby monitor. Except the baby was out with my mum. That was an unpleasant experience, the baby is crying and the room is empty. Couple two doors down had the same monitor system as us.

 

Wow, these stories gave me the heebee-gee-bees!  

[TheAuthority]

On 01/08/2023 at 14:46, sidcow said:

So I very occasionally contribute to another website  forum and I've been having the mother of all ding dong battles with another poster. He's antivax, anti global warming, anti any kind of clean power and EV's. 

He describes himself as a free thinker who doesn't go with the narrative.   You know the sort. 

What I don't get is what is it ALWAYS this type of person who get so angry. Absolutely enraged about anyone who tries to promote anything they don't agree with. 

It seems to be a trait in that kind of person that they are intrinsically aggressive. 

Serves you right for cheating on us.

[rjw63]

15 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said:

DM sent. 

Wow, these stories gave me the heebee-gee-bees!  

Stop Jive Talkin’ and try to keep Stayin’ Alive. Take a nice trip to Massachusetts maybe, nice part of the World I hear

[BOF]

On 01/08/2023 at 21:46, sidcow said:

So I very occasionally contribute to another website  forum and I've been having the mother of all ding dong battles with another poster. He's antivax, anti global warming, anti any kind of clean power and EV's. 

He describes himself as a free thinker who doesn't go with the narrative.   You know the sort. 

What I don't get is what is it ALWAYS this type of person who get so angry. Absolutely enraged about anyone who tries to promote anything they don't agree with. 

It seems to be a trait in that kind of person that they are intrinsically aggressive. 

Conspiracy theorist has been shown to be a personality type. People who believe in one tend far more often to believe in others. I lost a mate to Q Anon. An intelligent mate too. Not a smooth-brained window licker. He called himself a "critical thinker". They tend to only 'critically think' about (i.e. reject) anything they deem to be mainstream. You find that the critical thinking tends to be switched off the more obscure the source material or the closer to what they'd like to be true. There's no talking to them. Do your mental health a favour and walk away.

[Stevo985]

1 hour ago, BOF said:

Conspiracy theorist has been shown to be a personality type. People who believe in one tend far more often to believe in others. I lost a mate to Q Anon. An intelligent mate too. Not a smooth-brained window licker. He called himself a "critical thinker". They tend to only 'critically think' about (i.e. reject) anything they deem to be mainstream. You find that the critical thinking tends to be switched off the more obscure the source material or the closer to what they'd like to be true. There's no talking to them. Do your mental health a favour and walk away.

Guy at work is like this. Believes every conspiracy theory going. Pro Trump, anti climate change, anti-moon landing, the lot.

You'd never know it to work with him. He's very intelligent, good at what he does.

But dig deeper and he's a sandwich short of a picnic

[Rds1983]

11 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Guy at work is like this. Believes every conspiracy theory going. Pro Trump, anti climate change, anti-moon landing, the lot.

You'd never know it to work with him. He's very intelligent, good at what he does.

But dig deeper and he's a sandwich short of a picnic

I don't believe in the moon landing. 

Spoiler

It's clearly still floating up there in the night sky for anyone to see.