ForumsWEPRAtheism and the Paranormal

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Pois0nArr0w
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Pois0nArr0w
2,053 posts
Nomad

I started looking into this after reading one of the comments in the "Is Atheism a Religion?" thread. The paranormal is what is not yet explained or considered normal, which leaves room for it to become normal or gain an explanation, so I figure it wouldn't be hypocritical for an atheist to believe in. I play with the idea of the paranormal sometimes, but I wouldn't say that I believe in anything like that other than UFOs and ghosts/spirits.

What about any other people out there? You don't have to be an atheist to answer, though this is aimed more towards them than others. I'm sure religion would cause conflicts with the paranormal as well.

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MageGrayWolf
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MageGrayWolf
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Farmer

Evidence? Paintings, drawings/sketchings, stories with much detail, figurines, and a full set of measurements, all concerning spaceships. Plus a helluva a lot more.


You mean stuff like this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_astronauts#Scientific_consideration

or this?

http://ancientx.com/nm/anmviewer.asp?a=12&z=1

It's clear these are just sightings of Santa and his elves through out history just being mistaken for gods and in more modern times aliens.

I'm just saying, you're dismissing something you don't have knowledge about. Sounds familiar, really.


As pointed out the evidence is sketchy at best. Most of which is nothing more then speculation and assertion.
Asherlee
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Asherlee
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Shepherd

Here is what is convincing to me that something we don't know or understand lent a metaphorical hand:

1. Puma Punku - Located in the Bolivian highlands, Puma Punku is a field of stone ruins scattered with giant, finely carved blocks. Such precise workmanship on a massive scale would have been nearly impossible without modern tools and machines, yet the ruins are more than 1,000 years old. Ancient alien theorists have hypothesized that extraterrestrials with advanced engineering techniques created the site or advised the people who built it.
http://www.history.com/images/show/article/ancient_aliens/ancient-aliens_puma-punku.jpg

2. Pascal's Sarcophagus - Pacal the Great ruled over the Mayan city of Palenque, in what is now southern Mexico, during the seventh century. Upon his death, he was buried inside a pyramid called the Temple of Inscriptions. The intricately carved lid of his sarcophagus has become a classic work of Mayan artâ"and an oft-cited piece of evidence for ancient alien theorists. In their view, Pacal is pictured in a spaceship during takeoff, with his hand on a control panel, his foot on a pedal and an oxygen tube in his mouth.
http://www.history.com/images/show/article/ancient_aliens/ancient-aliens_pacals-sarcophagus.jpg


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I, for one, have to admit these things are a bit odd.

holt24
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holt24
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Nomad

Sure it's odd but certainly not convicting evidence.

Asherlee
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Asherlee
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Shepherd

Holt, you're jumping into the middle of the discussion.

The point I was making is that HaHiHa immediately dismisses notions without adequate knowledge. It really doesn't even have anything to do with the notions being sound or not. It's the principal.

Now, I am in no way saying I believe aliens visited our planet. I'm just saying that there are a number of instances that I can't decide which side of the fence it belongs on.

holt24
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holt24
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Nomad

Well I am not necesarily entering into youre discussion I am just saying what I think about them.

MageGrayWolf
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MageGrayWolf
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Puma Punku - Located in the Bolivian highlands, Puma Punku is a field of stone ruins scattered with giant, finely carved blocks. Such precise workmanship on a massive scale would have been nearly impossible without modern tools and machines, yet the ruins are more than 1,000 years old. Ancient alien theorists have hypothesized that extraterrestrials with advanced engineering techniques created the site or advised the people who built it.


This indicates to me a method of architecture that has since been lost to us. It would defiantly not be the first ancient method of doing things that results in appearing as if it required modern methods to achieve. For intense we don't have any real idea how Stonehenge was constructed, and only recently have we been able to come up with a plausible method using technology that would have been available at the time.
So what's more likely? It's a construction method that these people developed but was lost over time, or aliens did it?

2. Pascal's Sarcophagus - Pacal the Great ruled over the Mayan city of Palenque, in what is now southern Mexico, during the seventh century. Upon his death, he was buried inside a pyramid called the Temple of Inscriptions. The intricately carved lid of his sarcophagus has become a classic work of Mayan artâ�"and an oft-cited piece of evidence for ancient alien theorists. In their view, Pacal is pictured in a spaceship during takeoff, with his hand on a control panel, his foot on a pedal and an oxygen tube in his mouth.


I suspect this is just simply a case of Pareidolia. It's quite likely it's just interpreting the image in a completely different way then what the Mayas would have seen.
Really unless it's pointed out to me specifically I don't really see the man flying the spaceship in this.

From wiki
The large carved stone sarcophagus lid in the Temple of Inscriptions is a famous piece of Classic Maya art. The widely accepted interpretation of the sarcophagus lid is that Pakal is descending into Xibalba, the Maya underworld. Around the edges of the lid are glyphs representing the Sun, the Moon, Venus, and various constellations, locating this event in the nighttime sky. Below him is the Maya water god, who guards the underworld. Beneath Pakal are the "unfolded" jaws of a dragon or serpent, which Pakal is escaping from, ascending towards the world tree. This is a common iconographic representation of the entrance to the underworld. Other examples of this imagery are found in sculpture on Monument 1 "El Rey" and Monument 9 at the Olmec site of Chalcatzingo, Morelos, on Altar 4 at the Olmec site of La Venta, Tabasco, and in recently discovered murals at the Late Preclassic Maya site of San Bartolo, Guatemala.
gigmyster
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gigmyster
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Nomad

I consider myself an athiest yet I have had a couple paranormal experiences. Really freaked me out. But oddly enough the experience never made me consider that there was a god. hmmph?

MageGrayWolf
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MageGrayWolf
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I consider myself an athiest yet I have had a couple paranormal experiences.


I think this is something to keep in mind about paranormal experiences. Here Randi tlks about an out of body experience, but this could just as easily apply o things like ghosts and aliens.
James Randi @ Caltech - My Out Of Body Experience
MRWalker82
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MRWalker82
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Personally I am an atheist because of my skeptical nature. When something occurs, or is told to have occurred, which has no immediate cause I am compelled to research it and look for explanations and other possibilities.

This applies also with the paranormal activities people claim to experience. I have personally had several 'experiences' which could be attributed to the supernatural or paranormal, however after researching them and looking for alternative causes I have invariably found that other, less outrageous, explanations could be applicable.

While I may never know for sure the exact cause of some of these I can say with great certainty that the least plausible explanations involve ghosts and magic. Having heard many other people's stories I have also seen that there are multitude possibilities which could have caused these 'henomena' and again, none are as outrageous or unlikely as supernatural forces.

While I cannot say with certainty that paranormal stories (i.e. ghosts, UFO's, etc.) are completely false or completely impossible, after looking at many of them I have found that the probability of a simpler, decidedly natural explanation, is the most likely.

Asherlee
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Asherlee
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My views are very close to yours, Walker. I am a skeptical person by nature. However, I won't dismiss things entirely, because we really just do not have all the knowledge to make that kind of judgment.


Now, switching gears a bit. Have you ever noticed that MOST (not all) of the people that become possessed, have a demon enter them, etc are all Christians...? And remarkably it takes Christian ritual rights to do away with the evil. Very odd...

holt24
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holt24
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Nomad

Have you ever noticed that MOST (not all) of the people that become possessed, have a demon enter them, etc are all Christians...? And remarkably it takes Christian ritual rights to do away with the evil. Very odd...


I noticed that to and tend to stay away from the nut jobs who claimed to be possessed.
HahiHa
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HahiHa
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Ok Ash, you made a point. I have to leave the benefit of doubt to all theories that haven't been directly proved wrong. I still think that any 'aranormal' thing has a simple and logic explanation behind it, and that the chance of it actually being paranormal is ridiculously small. But I won't dismiss completely.

One of the reasons I'm so skeptic about things is because I know that if we look for something, we're sure to find something that satisfies our own hypothesis, and are prone to making the mistake of not looking further behind things. The pictures you posted for example; sure it's odd, but are there any other theories about those, or is the ancient alien thing the only one they have come up with?

Now, switching gears a bit. Have you ever noticed that MOST (not all) of the people that become possessed, have a demon enter them, etc are all Christians...? And remarkably it takes Christian ritual rights to do away with the evil. Very odd...

I think to be able to experience something like a possession etc, you have to believe in such things first. Nothing comes from nothing; if you don't believe in them, then, if I can express myself in that way, you lack of the 'data' in your mind to enable your brain to provoke such experiences. It's the same reason why people who see the ghost of a grand-parent often see them in the same clothes as in one picture they remember (for example).
MageGrayWolf
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MageGrayWolf
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Farmer

The pictures you posted for example; sure it's odd, but are there any other theories about those, or is the ancient alien thing the only one they have come up with?


Read my post about three or four down from those pictures.
thepossum
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thepossum
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@Mage:A lost technique? You do realize of course, that said technique would have to be far superiour to the technology that we have now? And what about moving these giant blocks? Some of them way so much that it would take several of our heaviest-lifting machinery to lift them, and that's modern technology. @Asherlee:I find the whole possession thing to be rather stupid, and don't believe a word of it myself.

Freakenstein
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Freakenstein
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And what about moving these giant blocks? Some of them way so much that it would take several of our heaviest-lifting machinery to lift them, and that's modern technology.


Well, the ancient peoples also had cranes which were lifted by large groups of people, which were either workers or slaves. You can throw mathematics out of the equation, because this was the time in which this area was growing. I suppose the way in which these blocks were crafted were from a similar concept on how we make concrete. Then, we could have just molded and separated them, then, after hardened, built them together.

The idea is in the ball park, but we have no idea the direct methods in which they performed it.
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