Questions Dealing With Ghosts
There’s been times when I’ll sit down and watch a show dealing with ghosts like Ghost Hunters and I’ll always have questions going through my head while watching them. There are so many things that simply don’t make sense to me, which is why I don’t believe they exist. I figured I’d go ahead and list a few of these questions here.
- What are ghosts supposedly made of?
- Why are ghosts seen in pictures and fleetingly in person only at certain times but not constantly seen?
- How can these things move objects and effect them if they no longer have a physical body?
- Why are ghosts represented in the media in so many different forms? For instance shadows, glowing globes, transparent outlines, and solid outlines. Why isn’t there any consistency?
- How can humans “sense” ghosts? What supposedly sensory do we have that causes us to get those ominous feelings that make so many people believe there’s a ghost nearby?
- With so many people who have died, why aren’t we constantly seeing ghosts?
- Why hasn’t someone trapped a ghost to be studied?
- Since ghosts can be seen, do they produce light or reflect it?
- Are ghosts affected by gravity? If they aren’t, then are many floating about in space exploring strange new worlds and civilizations?
These are just a few questions I have dealing with ghosts. I’m sure there are people who can give there own opinion on some, but no matter what I find the whole thing a bit hard to swallow. I will admit I’ll leave a very small possibility to there being ghosts, just a very small one. I give it a more likelihood to being true if someone can capture a ghost that I can see and interact with. That would be a start, but there are still other things I’d need, like proof this thing isn’t an illusion and the ghost was that of a person who actually lived, then died. I’m sure there are even more concerns I’d have if someone could fulfill those, but I doubt anyone could even do what I suggested for proof.
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Comment by Doug Reardon on July 16, 2012 at 8:36pm -
There's not a ghost of a chance.
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Comment by James Cox on July 17, 2012 at 1:01am -
Sadly, my wife and I have had funny things happen around our house for years, but nothing that indicates actual meanness:
The TV turning on by itself. I have actually been in the room when it happens, just about creeps me out!
Our dogs barking at nothing!
Doors opening and closing, with no one there!
I figure that maybe the TV digital decoder is weirding out. Our puppies want to play. And I just did not notice the door opener, wife, cat, etc at the time.
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Comment by Reg The Fronkey Farmer on July 17, 2012 at 3:44am -
They look like aliens but it would take a miracle to find one!! Like faith in gods seeing ghosts are just objective experiences. In reality they do not exist.
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Comment by Heather Spoonheim on July 17, 2012 at 9:33am -
I would like to jump in on on question #5...
"How can humans “sense” ghosts? What supposedly sensory do we have that causes us to get those ominous feelings that make so many people believe there’s a ghost nearby?"
There are two aspects of our psychology that cause us to 'sense' the presence of an 'other'. One is hyper-active agency detection. Dr. Andy Thomson lectures about evolutionary psychology and how we wound up with religious thought/magical thought. Essentially, when the bushes shake, it is statistically in our best interest to assume that there is something there (tiger, monster, rapist) shaking the bushes rather than just writing it off to the wind. We will default to believing in a conscious, most likely dangerous agent in almost any instance where we do not have enough information to accurately surmise what is there.
The other aspect of our psychology that creates ghosts are 'false positives'. Daniel Dennett lectures on the magic of consciousness, revealing just how the simplest 'misfires' can lead to phenomenon such as deja vu. Following his explanation, when we ask ourselves if we are alone, sometimes our brain fires out the wrong answer. Our imagination fills in the rest.
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Comment by kOrsan on July 17, 2012 at 10:31am -
Next up: How much gold is in a leprechaun's gold pot? Why do they wear green? Why qwed.a..dqw....asdcad....
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Comment by James Cox on July 17, 2012 at 11:45am
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Our day to day, crisis to crisis lives, sometimes leave much to be desired. What is a little more drama, fantasy creatures, or TV's turning themselves on, compair to that? Atleast there 'could' be something out of the ordinary! This might be one reason why it will be hard to delete religion, people really want that little 'something' outside of normal experience. Sadly, I have known people where that little 'something' is the norm. I wonder what is up with that?
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Comment by archaeopteryx on July 17, 2012 at 12:23pm -
Who you gonna call --?
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Comment by Dale Headley on July 17, 2012 at 1:41pm
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Try this: just substitute the word “god” for the word “ghost” in each of the questions. Get the point?
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Comment by archaeopteryx on July 17, 2012 at 2:03pm
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I believe that's one of the things that helps sustain some religions - I know that there have been people in my life, that I have loved and lost to death, that I would love to see again, hold again, tell them things I neglected to say while they were alive, and if I were religious, I would be reluctant to give up the delusion that one day, that will happen.
I don't believe I've ever watched an episode of "Ghost Whisperer," without tearing up, because I WISH such things were possible, but wishing doesn't make it so.
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Comment by archaeopteryx on July 17, 2012 at 6:39pm
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archaeopteryx unmasked! Good call, Blaine!
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