Do you believe in the supernatural?
Again, as with superstitions, it appears many of our local friends do.
What is your take on ghosts, demons (I think this is what the Chinese often mean by ‘ghosts’), aliens (not ME!), sorcerers, bigfoot, vampires, angels, and the like?
How about mysterious places, such as the pyramids, machu pichu, bermuda triangle, atlantis, stonehenge?
Thanks!
I believe I’m a jiu guei.
I had a ghostly experience in Taiwan. But I need to have a few drinks in me before I tell that story.
Yes, I believe in ghosts.
There’s a ghost thread here, Durnis: here
This thread is more like about general supernatural beliefs.
I believe that there is more to this world than we can explain with mere science. In fatc I believe that we are incapable of explaining it. I also reckon that because of our inability to explain it, people’s encounters with the supernatural get interpreted through the framework of their culture and religion, so what oen person sees as a ghost may be an angel, demon, alien, faerie etc to someone else. I’ve experienced the supernatural, but am unable to properly explain it.
Brian
I don’t believe in gods, ghosts, astrology, numerology, feng shui, alien abductions and many other irrational beliefs. I respect other people’s beliefs. I don’t think it is possible to explain everything, but just because we can’t explain something doesn’t mean we should create a fairy tale for it.
One of the books edited out of the Bible was The Book of Enoch. In this Book, it told the story of Enoch, who was shown that one could go to Heaven if the person knew the right names of the guardian angels. I believe that it mentioned that there are nine levels. If I remember correctly there were chants or some meditation involved in order to reach the right mental state. It was thrown out of the Bible because the Church at the time wanted to eliminate “mysticism”.
In the 1600’s(?) there was a rumour in what is now present day Czechoslovakia of Jews using the blood of Christian children to bake Passover bread. This resulted in a pogrom(s?). To counter this threat the head Rabbi reportedly constructed a Golem (he needed some serious muscle to protect the Jewish community)He had gotten the instructions on how to make the golem from some ancient Hebrew manuscript. Every morning, the rabbi would put written instructions into the golem’s mouth. Then the golem would follow the instructions.
There is also a theory that Julius Caesar’s magical sword is also the legendary Excalibur.
Do I believe in all this stuff? Sure, why not…it makes the world a bit more interesting.
I am sure that I have made some mistakes on the “facts”. Please excuse my inattention to the details.
I believe that the universe interacts with out beliefs about it, in such a way as to allow “supernatural” events in conformity with those beliefs.
This makes it difficult to know what is really true. (Which is more real, the world of the red pill or the world of the blue pill? How do we know?) In the end, though, I think we have to decide on our fundamental ideals for ourselves, and not with reference to what the universe may or may not encourage.
I also believe that there is a kind of intelligence behind this, that is capable of guiding us to progressively higher understandings. Not simply as an intellectual exploration, but as a spiritual search. Education, not coercion.
Finally, I believe I could be wrong about all of the above!
I do believe that the Pyramids and Stonehenge exist. Pichu ? My little nephew collects the cards, but I don’t even he thinks it’s real.
“The Bermuda Triangle”, now there is a mystery, how did Barry Manilow have a hit with that ?
I agree with Richard. I like to think of myself as an open-minded septic… ah…skeptic.
Take the Bermuda Triangle; it is supposedly a graveyard for ships and aircraft. Various theories have been suggested as explanations: extraterrestrials, strange magnetic fields and oceanic flatulence (methane gas), bad weather and pirates. The fact is that there is no mystery to solve; there is nothing strange about the number of ships and planes that go missing in the area. The real mystery is how the Bermuda Triangle became a mystery at all. Basically, it was a media creation, a reinforcement among lazy and sensationalist writers.
Of course there are plenty of mysteries in Asia including the location of Genghis Khan’s tomb, the Yeti/Yeren/Almas, Yamashita’s gold, the fate/final destination of Hsu Fu.
http://www.randi.org/research/
James Randi, magician turned fraud-buster, is one of my heroes. If only we had more people like him. He has a million-dollar reward on offer to anyone who can demonstrate some paranormal ability. Needless-to-say, it remains uncollected.
I’ve always thought it should be referred to as “supranatural,” but I guess there is no such word.
Richard wrote:
“I don’t believe in gods, ghosts, astrology, numerology, feng shui, alien abductions and many other irrational beliefs. I respect other people’s beliefs. I don’t think it is possible to explain everything, but just because we can’t explain something doesn’t mean we should create a fairy tale for it.”
But how do you know when you’re creating a fairy tale, Richard? At one time it was perfectly evident that the earth was flat and if you sailed too far you’d fall off the edge and get eaten by dragons. Just as it was once perfectly clear that the universe revolved around the earth.
So what makes it any more certain today that the earth revolves around the sun, or matter is composed of atoms which are made up of protons, neutrons and electrons? How do you know people won’t laugh at those ideas as fairy tales some day in the future? What makes you so certain that your reality is reality?
Use the scientific method. It’s not perfect. You do the best you can. Nobody is laughing at Newton, even though he was not entirely correct.
Most important is what would Mr. Spock do? He is, after all, half human.
Maybe no one’s laughing at Newton today, Richard, but they tried Darwin and Galileo for heresy. It’s easy to compliment someone’s wisdom hundreds of years after the fact.
You say one should just use the scientific method to distinguish between facts and fantasy. Well, sometimes one can and sometimes one can’t. If I see jesus in a burning bush but I can’t prove it scientifically does that mean it’s a fairy tale? If I’m absolutely certain that I saw him, i don’t care what you say, I will know it was true. Ok, so maybe I’m a nut case. How about if 1 billion chinese people claim that keeping a pet goldfish will bring them money and one can’t figure out a scientific method to prove the truth of their assertion – is it still a fairy tale? Maybe scientists just haven’t figure out how the power of goldfish works yet.
It’s my understanding that no one knows for sure what causes gravity. Einstein had his theory that it’s caused by mass, but I believe that theory isn’t universally accepted. Is it therefore reasonable to refer to Einstein’s theory of gravity as a fairy tale? And even if Einstein’s theory was universally accepted, of course it’s perfectly possible that some day it will be proven wrong. So all reality is subjective. There is no such thing as objective scientific truths. All of life is fairy tales. Good night, I’m off to visit the dream fairies.
Galileo was not tried by people who followed the scientific method. Darwin is continually attacked because his theory doesn’t follow the fairy tale of the Old Testament. You are free to believe in anything you wish Mother but your observations in a burning bush are your own beliefs and however many people you can convince to beleive them is dependent on your powers of persuasion and not science.
I respect people of faith and know there are many sincere believers in the world, but it is also my belief that religion is the worlds oldest con game.
Science is very flexible; it continually self-examines and corrects itself as our knowledge develops. Of course, there are limitations to what we can learn and understand, and history teaches us we should not be too dogmatic in our beliefs. However, surely one of the wonders of life is actually how much we do know and understand about the world we live in. I find religion very dull by comparison - give me the epic of evolution over “He created the earth in six days” any day of the week.
I didn’t mean to lead us astray onto the subject of religion. My point is that even science is just a bunch of conclusions drawn by human beings based on subjective observations that will inevitably be overturned in the future when further knowledge is acquired. There really is no such thing as an objective fact; everything is based on subjective observations, opinions and experiences – even science.
Perhaps we’re not even having this discussion. Perhaps you, Richard, are asleep in Carnegies dreaming that we’re having this discussion. Or maybe you don’t even exist. Maybe, you’re a cockroach scurrying across the floor of Carnegies imagining that you’re Richard having this discussion. And you, Almas John, the Great White Yeti hunter, perhaps the reason you never found a Yeti is because you are a Yeti imagining that you’re John. Sure, you may feel I’m playing silly games, but can you prove that the reality you believe in is actually real?
Come to think of it, aren’t there in fact many different realities? You have your reality and I have mine and both in fact are real (for each of us respectively)? Why do witnesses to an event often describe it so differently? They’re not necessarily lying – it’s just that based on their experiences, personalities, powers of observation, etc., reality is different for each of them. Given that, is it possible that feng shui and astrology are real . . . although maybe not for you?