Lets take a little break from politics and have us a real atheist conversation.

Personally, I’m open to the idea of the existence of supernatural phenomena, and I believe mainstream religions are actually complicated incomplete stories full of misinterpretations, misunderstandings, and half-truths.

Basically, I think that these stories are not as simple and straightforward as they seem to be to religious people. I feel like there is a lot more to them. Concluding that all these stories are just made up or came out of nowhere is kind of hard for me.

  • ultranaut@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    Supernatural phenomena do not actually exist as far as I can tell. There’s no actual evidence to my knowledge, and plenty of evidence that humans are not particularly good at perceiving or interpreting the universe around us as it actually is. Our brains are not a reliable narrator, supernatural phenomena are most likely a consequence of this rather than anything genuinely supernatural.

    • aLaStOr_MoOdY47@lemmy.worldOP
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      24 days ago

      This argument is a very common one. It’s only valid at a scientific standpoint, since you can’t really scientifically prove something that transcends the laws of nature. However, at a historical standpoint, the existence of supernatural phenomena can be considered. There is also no evidence that supernatural phenomena does not exist.

      • ultranaut@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        I’m not sure what you mean about a historical standpoint. I don’t think there’s anything in the historical record that could be considered actual evidence of supernatural phenomena. History as an academic discipline is a kind of science and generally approaches the subject matter with the scientific method.

  • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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    24 days ago
    • 60% the person experiencing it misunderstood or misinterpreted what they were looking at because they were stupid and gullible, but not maliciously making things up.

    • 35% completely fabricated and never happened and created to legitimately defraud or troll others.

    • 5% something scientific that we simply don’t understand yet.

    • 0% actual supernatural occurrences.

      • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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        24 days ago

        There’s a whole crap tonne about the universe we really don’t understand yet; especially when you get down to the quantum level, spooky action at a distance, wave functions, etc…

        In a very real way, we’re still just cavemen banging on rocks as far as the sum total knowledge of how things work out there in what we call “reality”. So within that vast gap of what we know, and what we don’t know, there’s could be a lot of things going on.

        Is that a ghost? or is that a momentary glitch in the fabric of space-time? Or is it just someone mistaking a cars headlight bouncing of a chandelier and into a door that is ajar at just the right angle. One of those theories is provable using the scientific method and the knowledge that we currently have. One of those theories might eventually be able to be proven with knowledge that we don’t yet possess. And one of those theories is so-called “supernatural”.

        As a reasonable human with critical thinking skills, I’ll put my money on either of the last ones before I’ll put my money on the first.

        • infinite_ass@leminal.space
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          24 days ago

          “Provable”? Nah. I prefer “useful”.

          This desire for “Truth” is strange to me. I see no necessary connection between ideas and phenomena.

          • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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            24 days ago

            I see no necessary connection between ideas and phenomena

            That’s fair enough. You’re welcome to live however you want to. I’m just explaining the difference between science and mysticism. It’s not going to affect the average person’s life in any fashion whether they believe in ghosts or not; they’ll still go to work, buy groceries, get old and die.

            But the rejection of science leads inexorably down to a path where a cult of ignorance starts to form; where those who aren’t intellectually curious but still want to have an opinion on stuff start to think that their opinion is just as valid as actual facts. And we see what happens when that kind of willful ignorance works its way into the public discourse.

            In short, you’re welcome to not differentiate between ideas and actual scientific phenomena. But someone has to, because society only functions when decisions are made by people who share the same basic knowledge of reality.

  • vonbaronhans@midwest.social
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    23 days ago

    I do not currently believe in any supernatural anything, for the exact same reasons I do not believe in gods.

    1. There is no persuasive evidence of anything supernatural
    2. Many supernatural phenomena were discovered to have naturalistic explanations
    3. The only evidence provided for supernatural phenomena is anecdotal

    It’s entirely possible for there to be supernatural stuff, but the time to believe it is when it is demonstrated.

    One point that I don’t see raised a lot is that otherwise perfectly mentally healthy people can experience hallucinations. They may even find them comforting, and some even then do not believe the visions are real. I have a suspicion that a lot of ghost sightings, etc, might be such hallucinations. But I can’t demonstrate that, and I’m honestly not sure how we could, unless we can find a way to trigger such hallucinations on purpose.

    • aLaStOr_MoOdY47@lemmy.worldOP
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      24 days ago

      I disagree. Supernatural is anything that transcends the laws of nature. Something that transcends the laws of nature is not natural.

  • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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    24 days ago

    There hasn’t been any proof in all of history that any supernatural phenomenon was real.
    Until there is, my thoughts on it are: not real, never happened.

    • aLaStOr_MoOdY47@lemmy.worldOP
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      24 days ago

      There also hasn’t been any proof that supernatural phenomena doesn’t exist. It’s why I choose to keep an open mind about it. It’s a subject that suffers a lot of stigma in the science-centric world we live in, and thus few people talk about it.

      • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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        24 days ago

        There also hasn’t been any proof that supernatural phenomena doesn’t exist

        You can’t prove a negative. Which is why in the scientific method, the onus is on the person making the claim to provide the proof, not the other way around. That’s why we rarely engage in debates with people who don’t grasp that concept, because for the most part they’re argument comes down to “You can’t prove it doesn’t exist, so therefore I’m right.”

      • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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        24 days ago

        There also hasn’t been any proof that supernatural phenomena doesn’t exist.

        You can play that game all day with anything. It’s not a valid argument.

        • futatorius@lemm.ee
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          24 days ago

          Exactly. There’s no definitive proof that winged monkeys won’t fly out of my asshole five minutes from now, but I’m not making plans that assume they will.

              • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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                23 days ago

                I’ve already started my opinion.
                All you’re doing is telling people no. That’s not a debate.

                • aLaStOr_MoOdY47@lemmy.worldOP
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                  23 days ago

                  You haven’t really said anything. You just said that my argument isn’t valid, refused to elaborate why, and when asked to do so, you said that others have told me why, when I’m getting completely different opinions from multiple people. Also, disagreeing with people is literally what makes a debate a debate. What do you want me to do? Agree with everyone even if I don’t? That’s not how a genuine conversation works.

  • snooggums@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    If it can be oberved and explained then it isn’t supernatural. Therefore nothing can be supernatural.

    A ton of real things would fit in with all the supernatural stereotypes if we didn’t already accept them due to science.

    • aLaStOr_MoOdY47@lemmy.worldOP
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      24 days ago

      I disagree. You seem to be unfamiliar with the definition of supernatural. Supernatural is anything that transcends the laws of nature. Not things that can’t be observed or explained. Something that defies the laws of nature is not natural now, is it?

  • RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.com
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    23 days ago

    I think it’s highly unlikely and the universe is amazing and bizarre enough without us imagining outside forces acting on it.

  • VoterFrog@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    Sorry but I’m going to call out what I see as some pretty blatant motte-and-bailey argumentation by the OP and their offense taken to people trying to nail down the definition of supernatural is illustrative.

    They have their bailey, belief in things like the occult, ghosts, demons, etc, that are almost certainly bullshit. To the extent that they can be falsified, they have been. This is the typical definition of what people think when you say “supernatural” and people are right to answer “no” when asked if they believe in it.

    But then you have OP falling back on their motte when this happens, taking a nebulous definition of supernatural and asking rhetorical philosophical questions about reality, perception, and the unknown. The fallacy is that these questions do nothing to strengthen or refute the original argument about the supernatural.

    Nobody is here to argue that nothing is unknown and even unknowable but that doesn’t make the things that people typically call “supernatural” any less bullshit. Demons and ghosts are just not the kinds of things that are waiting around to surprise us. And shifting the conversation from your bailey to your motte to protect your feelings on the former is not a good way to have a friendly debate.

    All that aside, if you are interested in expanding your understanding of the universe then I’d really encourage you to divert the effort you’re putting into the “supernatural” into learning about the actual natural universe instead. Our universe really is fantastic on its own. There’s plenty of interesting, wacky, and unknown things happening all around us that you can learn about without resorting to magic. If anything, magic is the boring answer imo.

    • aLaStOr_MoOdY47@lemmy.worldOP
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      22 days ago

      They have their bailey, belief in things like the occult, ghosts, demons, etc, that are almost certainly bullshit. To the extent that they can be falsified, they have been. This is the typical definition of what people think when you say “supernatural” and people are right to answer “no” when asked if they believe in it.

      You say that people are right to answer “no” when asked if they believe in this stuff. That is just not true at all. That’s because that as much as good evidence can be hard to come by for supernatural stuff, there is also no official evidence whatsoever that proves that such things do not exist. Therefore, the most accurate answer should really be “I don’t know”, because of the subject’s unfalsifiable nature, and how it’s outside scientific testing. You still have a right to say “yes”, or “no” though.

      But then you have OP falling back on their motte when this happens, taking a nebulous definition of supernatural and asking philosophical questions about reality, perception, and the unknown. The fallacy is that these questions do nothing to strengthen or refute the original argument about the supernatural.

      That “nebulous” definition of supernatural that I keep using IS the literal definition of the word. You even described it yourself how I described it on your second paragraph, first line. Yes, I have been “asking philosophical questions about reality, perception, and the unknown”. And why can’t I do that? My post is an open-ended question. This means that the conversation can go anywhere, provided that the context continues to match the topic of the post. What do you mean by “original argument about the supernatural”? Again, this post is meant to be an open-ended question where others contribute their thoughts on the supernatural, I share my opinions on their thoughts, and we agree, or disagree. There is no “original argument about the supernatural”.

      Nobody is here to argue that nothing is unknown and even unknowable but that doesn’t make the things that people typically call “supernatural” any less bullshit. Demons and ghosts are just not the kinds of things that are waiting around to surprise us. And shifting the conversation from your bailey to your motte to protect your feelings on the former is not a good way to have a friendly debate.

      Actually, people here have argued such, as supernatural phenomena is a mysterious topic. Nowhere have I declared that there are no BS claims in the supernatural world. However, saying that all supernatural claims are complete BS without evidence supporting it is a biased take. Some are debunked, and some aren’t, which is how we end up with unexplained claims that are beyond rational explanation. A scenario like this is the reason why we should stay open-minded about supernatural phenomena, instead of completely denouncing it.

      • VoterFrog@lemmy.world
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        21 days ago

        I’ll tell you why I say the answer is no to whether or not the occult, demons, or ghosts exist. There’s a phenomenon in statistics where if you were to select a random element from an infinite set of equally probable elements, the probability that a specific element will be selected is 0%. Not close to 0, literally 0.

        These kinds of supernatural phenomena that have no evidence belong to an infinite set of equally unlikely phenomena with no evidence. Their likelihood of being real is 0%. Only when phenomena has some tangible evidence explaining it can we elevate it to a finite set with a non-zero likelihood of being real.

  • weariedfae@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    I have experienced weird things and I think it is something that is an explainable natural phenomena that humans attribute to the supernatural in their ignorance.

    Like the “ominous feeling” of a basement being stuff like radon or unshielded wiring, things that are explainable without the supernatural.

    • aLaStOr_MoOdY47@lemmy.worldOP
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      24 days ago

      A feeling that something is watching you? Some people end up experiencing supernatural phenomena after having such feelings. Especially if it’s accompanied with a sense of dread.

  • Halasham@dormi.zone
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    24 days ago

    Seconding custard_swallower. Strict naturalism. I see no reason to believe in any supernatural claim of any kind.

    Relatively recently I had a new hypothesis for some of the feelings people attribute to hauntings; bad vibes. I know someone who smokes indoors in their home. Before I had purged supernatural beliefs of all kinds from my worldview I thought there was some kind of curse or haunting wrong with the place. No, it’s the ill effects of third-hand smoke.

    Belief in non-theistic supernatural phenomena appears to be a crutch for theistic supernatural belief; it gives a convenient explanation for something so that you don’t exercise your rational faculties to find the real reason and then have the kind of experience that can contribute to unraveling god-beliefs.

    • aLaStOr_MoOdY47@lemmy.worldOP
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      24 days ago

      Of course, there are rational explanations to things that people think are supernatural, but some things transcend rational explanations, and remain unexplained. This is where we may start to consider the supernatural.

      • Halasham@dormi.zone
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        24 days ago

        I’ve yet to find any such thing and those that have been presented to me tend to be in the ‘we have insufficient information’ category for why it can’t be clearly determined what happened. People love to wedge the supernatural into those crevices in spite of still not being a good fit.

    • aLaStOr_MoOdY47@lemmy.worldOP
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      24 days ago

      You look at it too literally, but yes, that’s what it looks like. It’s actually a symbolic painting supposed to represent the pursuit for mystical knowledge.

      • futatorius@lemm.ee
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        24 days ago

        It’s a bad Victorian picture of their defective understanding of the medieval mystical world view.

  • futatorius@lemm.ee
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    24 days ago

    There are no supernatural phenomena. There are things that really happen (which are natural) and hallucinations and delusions (which also arise naturally). That’s all. Most of the woo I see is either the result of deliberate deception or stupidly implausible interpretation.

    • aLaStOr_MoOdY47@lemmy.worldOP
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      24 days ago

      Let me ask you a funny question, and see where this conversation takes us.

      Do you think that the current reality we experience as humans is true reality?

  • Aiala@lemmy.world
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    23 days ago

    “Natural” simply means “real”. Any phenomena that does exist, known or not, is by definition natural.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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    24 days ago

    I think there may be some scientific explanation for a variety of things that are attributed to the supernatural; and not necessarily just mundane things like knocks and creaks in your house, paradolia causing images of faces in image noise and shit like that. For example, with how places that have unusual geomagnetic activity tend to also have higher than average ghost sightings, I think some people may just be extra sensitive to magnetic fields which causes them to hallucinate.

    So many myths and monsters are basically caused by misunderstandings, not seeing something clearly enough to identify it, or even exaggerating a story that’s been passed down verbally over a long time. Not to mention things caused by mental illness in times before advanced medicine and psychology. Many alien abduction stories and succubus sightings are almost certainly the result of hallucinations induced by sleep paralysis.

      • RichieAdler 🇦🇷@lemmy.myserv.one
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        23 days ago

        I’m not the person you asked, but is no “fun” if you intend to be educated by each of your interlocutors without even attempting to investigate anything yourself. It’s lazy and disrespectful, and reeks of sealioning.

          • RichieAdler 🇦🇷@lemmy.myserv.one
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            23 days ago

            You are not “talking” to people if you do that, you’re requiring that they educate you because you’re lazy.

            And besides, your assumptions are faulty.

            You’re discounting misperceptions, allucinations, altered states, and plain simple lies (for entertainment or for profit). Why do you exclude all those possible reasons for reporting supernatural experiences?

            • aLaStOr_MoOdY47@lemmy.worldOP
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              22 days ago

              What are you on about lol. I asked people about their thoughts on the supernatural, and I’m sharing my thoughts back. Conversation. I also haven’t denied that there are false claims out there. You sound like the many argumentative pseudo-intellectuals I usually meet on Reddit. Always looking to start shit. You’re really crashing out because I asked bro what a hallucination is. I know what it is. I’m just trying to talk to him, but unfortunately, you hijacked our conversation for unknown reasons.

              • RichieAdler 🇦🇷@lemmy.myserv.one
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                22 days ago

                I also haven’t denied that there are false claims out there.

                You have this reversed.

                Before entertaining conversations with you, you need to prove that the phenomenon is true, something nobody has done.

                Always looking to start shit.

                You confessed to enjoy trolling people in the other subthread. Your horse is so high you can call him Pegasus.

                I asked bro what a hallucination is.

                There is a known definition that’s easily googleable. Fucking do it and stop trolling people.

      • A phantom sense of something that isn’t actually there. Be it feeling a touch, seeing something, hearing something, smelling something, etc. As real as it may seem to the brain experiencing it, it’s entirely a product of that brain and can be caused by all sorts of things from illness and physical trauma to chemicals, lack of sleep, or even simply being deprived of stimulation.

        • aLaStOr_MoOdY47@lemmy.worldOP
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          24 days ago

          So, a hallucination is not real, right? But how can we tell if we aren’t even sure if the current reality we’re currently experiencing is true reality?

  • AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    Idk about “supernatural” but there definitely seems like there’s a lot of undiscovered psychological phenomenon we haven’t figured out. It’s hard to research and quantify subjective experiences.