Anyone who believes that they "know" is susceptible to being mislead by their own hubris and emotional needs. This applies equally to religious fanatics and atheists. Both believe theories, just like those who believe in ghosts and spirits.

I reject nothing until scientific and observable phenomena prove the reality one way or another.

We always have to remember that beliefs once upon a time have now been proven to be inaccurate and erroneous. Beliefs are not proof.

I am an existantialist and I completely reject any concept of spirituality in my thinking and in my life. And I find it so liberating to free myself from all that nonsense.

No soul, no spririt, no ghost, no angel, no devil, no god, no satan, no kind of afterlife or anything paranormal whatsoever. We are matter and energy, period. And when we die, that's the complete and total end of it and everything from us decomposes and scatters away.

If there is anything we can't explain, it doesn't mean it's unexplainable.

To be open minded is one thing. To fall for some bullcrap is another.

I think that we need to have an open mind about things we do not understand scientifically, at least not yet but eventually we will develop the tech to measure and determine just what these phenomena are. There are certainly plenty of incidences of people encountering this sort of phenomena. Relegating the experiences to tin foil hat territory does nothing to improve our understanding of what these things are and what are the scientific laws that govern them.
Yes I have experienced phenomena like this, yes I am an Atheist and no I don't know what they are or how to rationalize them scientifically. I just don't think it makes sense to relegate things we don't understand yet to superstitious explanations and ridiculing what we can't yet comprehend. Ditto for UFO's

Technically I don’t believe in ghosts, however I have had an unexplainable experience

I have this problem also. How can I believe in anything supernatural if gods are beings with no evidence of their existence? If you believe in ghosts, aliens, bigfoot, etc. your belief system is simply a pick and choose with no logic or evidence playing any part of it.

My brother had an old hose in Denver where you could hear some one walking around upstairs when no one was upstairs. I had a friend I worked with in Louisville, Ky who was the head of the art dept at the newspaper. He had two experiences in his house in the bedroom where the previous owners young son had died.One night their daughter called from them and pointed at the bedroom window where they could see the silhouette of a young boy. Bob went outside to see if there was something to cause a shadow and found nothing. Another time she called him to her bedroom and the temperature was considerably colder than the rest of the house. He went to get his wife and when they returned the temperature was normal. He was lost for an explanation. He was not fooling around. He was dead serious. No pun intended. No one knows how the universe works, not theologians, not scientists, no one.

I'm hopeful that there are "ghosts" or whatever the phenomenon is. I'd love to have a chat. I've got questions! My daughter and I love spooky things!
But the bottom line is that I think it's just wishful thinking for me. I don't believe in ghosts. I've become an intolerant Atheists over the years.

No I agree. I don't understand how they rationalise it ‍

I'm an atheist who does believe in the idea of ghosts. My reasoning is two fold. One is I'm pretty sure I've seen a few in my day. And of course my experience is my own. And that in itself has no tangible way to prove. My second reason, which has been a source of contention for some. Is that we are in part, creatures of energy. And physics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed. But only changed into something else. Thereby at least in my opinion. That the energy that is left behind. Manifests itself into a form of electrical version of ourselves. Does this energetic form of ourselves have an intellect? I cannot answer this one way or the other. Or if so, just how much there would be. But to be able to say that ghosts do or do not exist. I'd say the potential for them does exist.

It's like being a vegetarian who still eats chicken -- it contradicts one's own position. Ghosts are a supernatural concept and there's no evidence the supernatural is real. If it were there would be evidence for it.

Real things come with evidence that confirms their reality. If there's no evidence for a thing, then, ostensibly, that thing doesn't exist until such time as evidence is provided.

I believe the Predator is real...he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad (uses guns/hunts etc) or good (not worthy of hunting) so be good for goodness sake...wait a minute...Is Santa Claus the Predator?

(And when I say predator, I don't mean sex predators/offenders...I mean the only real predator, the one from the movies that Arnold, Danny Glover, Adrian Brody fought).

It completely baffles me. I have always sustained that being an atheist does not mean just not believing in god or the existence of god, it is to reject magical thinking it he widest meaning of he term, which then includes not believing in a magical being called god. So, perhaps those that call themselves atheist and believe in ghosts are highly limiting the scope of the word. Saying that one believe in ghosts waters down one’s claim of atheism.

I suppose they regard themselves as open minded. But of course as the old saying goes. If you are too open minded, your brains can drop out.

The main, and most important, thing though, which separates the sceptical, from the religious mind is whether or not, you believe in dogma, the rest is trimmings. That's why though technically atheist, I always call myself a board church sceptic, and am willing to embrace even deists.

It is only hard to comprehend when you try to make atheism mean more things than it does. Atheism only means a lack of belief in a god or gods. Atheism does not mean a lack of belief in anything supernatural.

A person can have their personal experiences that gives for them to have evidence necessary. This does not mean they know how to convey or give verfication for the direct evidence they have.

This is a core divide of most all atheist and theist.

Theist has their form of evidence but to pass their evidence to another person in a manner of only testimony is not sufficient evidence for atheist.

The human brain is made of millions of cells with electro-chemical connections. I suspect those can be influenced /changed by a wide assortment of drugs, diet, trauma, fear, movies, books etc... so until you get verifiable evidence, consider the possibilities.

Most likely, the ghost concept is not what they are really believing. What is the driving force behind the unsubstantiated belief? Fear of non-existence? People believe unsubstantiated claims for a reason, usually it is fear, willful ignorance, or a lack of resources (education, courage, understanding, etc.) that causes someone to embrace unsubstantiated beliefs.

"Humankind has evolved to the point that they are conscious of their own mortality."/

"Religion is not a matter of God, church, holy cause, etc. These are but accessories. The source of religious preoccupation is in the self, or rather the rejection of the self. Dedication in the obverse side of self-rejection. Man alone is a religious animal because, as Montaigne points out, it is a malady confined to man, and not seen in any other creature, to hate and despise ourselves." - Eric Hoffer

To completely refute the possibility of ghosts is pretty close minded and ignorant considering we lack the necessary sensory perception to properly observe this phenomonon. Consider the mantis shrimp, it observes light on 10 different spectrums, we only see 3. Also, giving the middle finger to the people that know what they experienced is fairly close minded as well. Listen better with an open mind to eye witness accounts. Look into their eyes as they recall the experience. It will change your mind. It is not just an emotional mass hallucination, many were skeptics before their experience. Most seem to repeat, or are a one time thing.Recreating an apparition is not possible, considering the possibility of ghosts is real. The state they exist in is not something we can observe, meaning when they appear to us briefly, it is not their current natural state and most likely requires a build up of some kind of energy over time. That is all we can really gather from eyewitness accounts. The rest might be proven over time when we come up with better ways to observe light on different spectrums and detect electro-magnetic anomalies. Also, I wouldnt want to communicate with annoying people asking stupid questions all the time, I would most likely not waste my energy on them and just wait for them to go away. Just something to consider. We really don't know for sure. I will try to find the same videos I have seen. Providing a link may not be possible, so do your own research, if you are such a stout skeptic. Stop being an arm-chair critic, the "ghosts arent real because I can't see them"rhetoric is more mundane and pointless to me than religion.

I only believe in batman

Just because someone uses a word, don't mean that they use with the same meaning as you.
A lot of people uses atheist as "non organized religion" instead of the most general "no supernatural stuff at all". It is just a discussion about meaning of the words. I would love that people research a bit to understand the meaning but it won't happen, they will use the words that they think are correct.

Skinwalker Ranch

Believing something and it being factual and having demonstrable proof are two completely different things. People, even atheists can believe in anything they like, that doesn’t make it so, but it is certainly not rational to believe anything without evidence.