Hey Jrmy I'm just curious because I've never really taken time to talk to an Athiest. What exactly do you believe?   See 22 other replies

thats how ive learned to be especially on the inTROLnet, i respect those who show respect, if someone wants to be ditz, then ill try to bring em down to earth a little harsher than i normally would, but not to their level.looks like we are good on all topics except the ghost stuff. i guess its just one of those cases where you have to experience it. in terms of proof, there are plenty of ghost hunters that track and have ways of providing evidence of paranormal activity in both scientific and of course more human ways. the best evidence is fist hand experience cause in many cases, you can have all the proof in the world but you can still be in that "ill believe it till i see it" camp. there is a definite difference from someone being genuinely crazy and/or drugged out to the point where they see all this stuff, and someone who has an encounter with something that is potentially unexplainable. i might refrain from putting both in the same category. anyone who thinks differently from one another can make the same types of assertion of the other who thinks different and name calling or categorizing does nothin but widen the gap of understanding one another. i know your just goofin, but for those sensitive ppl out there...meh, you know how that goes   See 22 other replies

Oh, and Mauricio: Your cool head in the face of being potentially called a weak and stupid person is an example more people should follow, especially on the internet, where most people are simply trolling or - at best - having one-way conversations with technological ether.   See 22 other replies

Ghosts: Most people who experience hauntings of some sort have heard a spattering of the details of past hauntings beforehand (i.e. staying at a hotel haunted by the spirit of a former prostitute... SURPRISE! You see a prostitute!). There's obviously no way to definitively prove anything DOESN'T exist. I can say my cat spoke fluent German up until its death and no one here can prove it false. I'd have to prove it true before anyone would lend me any credibility for such a humongous claim. Anecdotal evidence does not satisfy the extraordinary burden of proof required for the extraordinary claim of poltergeists being real and present. I'll do a complete 180 if someone can provide scientific, tested, falsifiable proof that ghosts exists. Until such time, you're all in the loony bin :P   See 22 other replies

Faith: There you go... faith as a source of power. That I have no issue with. At all. All strength comes from myth, whether it's belief in God or simply the belief that you can pull through this no matter the odds because that's "who you are." "Who you are" really has no meaning, but empowering yourself to push through rough times with a positive attitude and your nose to the grindstone... that can have truly awesome results. If that's what your faith is for you - a source of strength - and never a source of judgment of others, then you're really not the kind of person I was talking about. And yes, faith can play a huge role in changing the world... for the better OR the worse. 9/11 should be all I need to say about that. What it comes down to is not religion as a concept, but religion as the person utilizes it. Literalists utilize it to justify their own bigotry. Priests utilize it as a vehicle for their natural desire to serve their community. Perverted priests utilize it as a vehicle to exact their pedophile fantasies, and get the whole thing covered up by people who utilize religion for their own power and prestige. The average person utilizes it as a source of comfort in a very complex and seemingly chaotic, sometimes cruel world.Churches are, after all, human organizations. They are neither good nor bad.My point up there was not that religion IS or ISN'T bad, but instead that it shouldn't take a moral imperative from a God for a person to decide to be generous and loving. If it does, then I value your compassion less, because you're doing it to get to heaven, not to make the world a better place.   See 22 other replies