Unbelief in God doesn’t necessarily entail unbelief in
other supernatural phenomena. Atheists and (less so)
agnostics exhibit lower levels of supernatural belief than
do the wider populations. However, only minorities of
atheists or agnostics in each of our countries appear to
be thoroughgoing naturalists.
A lengthy but interesting academic study into what atheists and agnostics do and do not believe - [research.kent.ac.uk]
8
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Of course. From the time we're children, we're fed a bunch of bullshit, either to make us feel better or to protect us from painful truths.
Once our parents are done, we start doing it for ourselves.
Athena
Level 8
June 1, 2019
1
This is very true
Interesting study, with some unexpected (for me) results, particularly the high numbers who identify with a religion, and as non-believers.
I would like
- to see the study results from a predominantly muslim country
- to get the original data and see the spread of results by regions compare city vs rural, northern vs southern, etc - just to see the spreads in comparison with international variations.
ShadowAmicus
Level 8
June 1, 2019
0
Look at China. Almost entirely athiest. Very superstitious.
MrBeelzeebubbles
Level 7
June 1, 2019
0
I find it hard to understand how any rational person can believe in any variety of supernatural 'spirit' beings for which there is no evidence whatsoever. I suppose you could be an atheist and still believe in the tooth fairy but it is the sort of thing you grow our of.
CeliaVL
Level 7
June 1, 2019
1
perhaps some people have seen or experienced evidence
@CallMeDave Unlikely to be what the scientific community would consider evidence. See Hume 'On Miracles'.
@CeliaVL the scientific community has discovered that particles behave differently depending only upon whether or not they are observed. So the dogma of rejecting anything that cannot be reproduced in a sterile lab environment strikes me as silly.
@CallMeDave But that behaviour is reproducible whereas supernatural phenomena never are.
@CeliaVL really? that's all you got?
@CallMeDave It's not that particles behave differently between observed and unobserved, it's that the act of observation changes the particles behavior. Think about it.. how can one know how something acts when it is unobserved? You can't, because you're not observing it. You can only extrapolate from what you observed.
@FatherOfNyx Thank you Father may I have another
Jnei:
Wait... you're saying the Tooth Fairy isn't real?
@TheMiddleWay I'm not sure what point you are making here. Yes, I agree, things we now explain quite simply used to be considered supernatural because knowledge has advanced and this has taught us to be sceptical of supernatural claims. Because I see things differently from someone else it doesn't demonstrate anything about the thing. Itself, only about the viewers.
In my last post, I quoted Lon Milo DuQuette (“My life with the spirits&rdquo
, who fervently denies the existence of god, but at the same time believes in all sorts of spirits, “demons”, angels, etc. Though I don’t agree with him, I think it is possible, and acceptable, to believe in some kind of non-material reality, even if one is an atheist.
COGITOERGOSUM
Level 6
June 1, 2019
0
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