[TV] Derek Acorah RIP.

[portlock seagull]

Thought it was some Ghanian footballer when I saw the topic. Luckily it wasn't.

On the topic of ghosts, communicating with the dead etc... who knows. Humans are nothing in the seemingly endless universe. We know nothing. Our minds and senses are very limited. Try to imagine a colour that doesn't exist. It's impossible, but that doesn't mean there aren't any other colours in the whole universe. Same could be with ghosts or whatever - for all we know there could be living dead everywhere all the time, we just can't see or measure their presence.

It's sort of like with atheism (And I say this as an agnostic), stating it as a fact that there is no God is every bit as fundamentalists as saying there is one. It's a fat ****ing self-overevaluation to think we know jack shit about the mechanisms of the universe.

That’s the same argument conspiracists use and the great thing about conspiracies is you don’t need any proof!

Come on, we all have friends who ‘believe’ this shit and those that do, well, love em as I do they’re also a bit ‘on a spectrum’, they’re never the most normal friends. That’s validation enough for me, never mind the real weirdos like DA who made a fortune out of such rubbish.

 

[Carrot Cruncher]

One less charlatan and con man in the world.

 

[Carrot Cruncher]

At least the grieving family will have a tidy little inheritance out of his preying on the vulnerable.

 

[Dick Swiveller]

Many years ago, I went on holiday with my mates and one of mates' family. We were sat in the bar and his uncle told us to watch as he pulled a pack of standard playing cards and went up to a couple of women and went through the whole tarot card routine. All I remember is that they were suitably impressed and he was crowing about how easy cold reading was. This would have been about 30 years ago.

Imagine my surprise when my mum mentioned what this guy does now. Psychic Medium and Clairvoyant, apparently.

 

[Mellotron]

Atheists do not say that they know there is no god they say that they have no reason to believe that there is.

I'm sorry but there are a LOT of atheists who will say that they know there is no God, and that is their belief, which they are entitled to.

 

[Dick Swiveller]

I'm sorry but there are a LOT of atheists who will say that they know there is no God, and that is their belief, which they are entitled to.

Correct - I would suggest his description was agnostics rather than atheists.

Edit - here you go. Agnostic atheism as a thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnostic_atheism

 

[Pavilionaire]

One less charlatan and con man in the world.

I don't see why Acorah should get all the grief. There's a lot of money to be made from the paranormal - spare a thought for Most Haunted presenters Yvette Fielding and Karl Beattie.

<Wikipedia> She is very fond of cars and owns 3 Aston Martins, a Land Rover, a Range Rover and a London Taxi (which she uses in Ghosthunting with...), Porsche 911 and a Porsche Chesil Speedster (which Karl, her husband, gave Yvette as a 40th Birthday present in America).

 

[cheshunt seagull]

Correct - I would suggest his description was agnostics rather than atheists.

Edit - here you go. Agnostic atheism as a thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnostic_atheism

Fair enough, we will have to agree to disagree. My point was that agnosticism is about knowledge and atheism is about belief and that these are completely different things. I used to call myself an agnostic, usually to try and end the conversation, until I realised that it isn't a scale that runs from belief to agnosticsm to atheism. I would say that no-one can actually know whether a deity exists but many have a belief system based the existence of deities. Christians don't believe in Thor or Vishnu or any of the 100s of other gods that are worshipped, as an atheist I just go one further and don't believe in any of them but I can't possibly know that I am right.

 

[Baldseagull]

Fair enough, we will have to agree to disagree. My point was that agnosticism is about knowledge and atheism is about belief and that these are completely different things. I used to call myself an agnostic, usually to try and end the conversation, until I realised that it isn't a scale that runs from belief to agnosticsm to atheism. I would say that no-one can actually know whether a deity exists but many have a belief system based the existence of deities. Christians don't believe in Thor or Vishnu or any of the 100s of other gods that are worshipped, as an atheist I just go one further and don't believe in any of them but I can't possibly know that I am right.

For me, I can't say with absolute certainty that there was/is no creator, so in that sense I am agnostic, but as for a God as portrayed in any religious text, I am an atheist as you describe.

 

[Knocky's Nose]

I reckon we're all just a train set for aliens...

 

[Raleigh Chopper]

I don't see why Acorah should get all the grief. There's a lot of money to be made from the paranormal - spare a thought for Most Haunted presenters Yvette Fielding and Karl Beattie.

<Wikipedia> She is very fond of cars and owns 3 Aston Martins, a Land Rover, a Range Rover and a London Taxi (which she uses in Ghosthunting with...), Porsche 911 and a Porsche Chesil Speedster (which Karl, her husband, gave Yvette as a 40th Birthday present in America).

And I bet she screams her head off at the slightest knock from the engine, or says that it's gone very cold all of a sudden until someone points out that she had the air con on.

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

For me, I can't say with absolute certainty that there was/is no creator, so in that sense I am agnostic, but as for a God as portrayed in any religious text, I am an atheist as you describe.

Watch the Simpsons episode "Homer the heretic" -

Homer to Apu "No offence Apu but when they were handing out religions you must have been out the back taking a whizz"

Homer to Marge "But Marge, what if we chose the wrong religion? Each week we just make God madder and madder.”

tells you all you need to know about religion in 25 minutes.

 

[Russconha]

James Randi on Psychic Fraud

The skeptic's skeptic. Amazing man.