The Dark Lord

Sure, atheism is not believing in a god, (or, as the dictionary puts it, 'Denying the [obvious] existence of [Our Lord] God [the Almighty],' or something like that) what other things are there that you do not believe?

For example... intelligent life on other planets? UFOs and the Men in Black (not Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones)? Magick? Ghosts?

Could some of these exist, but have some other explanation, rather than referring to a divine being?

As for the existence of a god, I strongly disbelieve. However, I'm not quite sure where I stand on other things...

Radcliffe Emerson

I don't believe we're being visited by aliens from other planets. Life may exist on other planets, but they're not wasting their time visiting this rock.

Coragyps

There are quite a few things that I disbelieve - ghosts, Men in Black, and the high moral character of Richard Nixon among them. And sadly, TDL, I also disbelieve your sig: Texas and Oklahoma, at least, would love to be like Kansas. (Lizard, one of our posters here, appears to be one of the noble individuals who recently helped save Kansas from "being like Kansas." May her tribe increase!)

vagrant

Why should/do you treat these other issues differently? Why do you not belive in the exitence of a god? Lack of evidence? Certainly, none of these other things have any compelling credible evidence so why consider them possibilites?

I am not saying (as no thinking person should) that you should completely close your mind to these things, but simply go by the evidence.

For example, I do not believe that aliens have visited our planet. I have seen no evidence that would lead me to believe they had and in my understanding of the issues involved in travelling such a great distances make is highly unlikely that it is even possible. Should evidence be presented that contradicts that, I will investigate and modify my position as appropriate based on the quality and nature of said evidence. That is the process of skeptical thought.

tronvillain

While UFO's and Men in Black are rank slightly higher than ghosts and magic, I don't believe in any of them. It's possible that they exist, but I consider the possibility small enough to be ignored.

braces_for_impact

Well said vagrant! Your words will lessen my reply to a short post. No belief in supernatural, consider life on other planets plausible, but seriously doubt them visitng this planet.

Jamie_L

As I've said to my friends: I am a hard-core skeptic. All my disbeliefs grow out of that. I'm not an atheist first, with other disbeliefs that follow. My skeptical assessment of gods is: there's little if any reason to believe they are real. Likewise ghosts. Likewise psychics. Likewise UFOs. Likewise "grand" conspiracies.

The end result is my new, self-annoited title: hard-core skeptic, naturalist, materialist. (Atheist is implied, I should think).

Develop a good set of bulls*&t detectors, and the rest should follow.

Jamie

Kvalhion

Wouldn't it be fun to troll as an atheist who believes in everything but religion? Ghosts, aliens, psychic powers, reincarnation, out of body experiences, etc. Everything but God.

Although I know it would be lost on 99.9% of the theists, such a thing would probably be kind of amusing.

Koyaanisqatsi

I don't "believe." I either know, don't know or haven't been convinced yet.

Marduk

"For example... intelligent life on other planets? UFOs and the Men in Black (not Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones)? Magick? Ghosts?"


Could some of these exist, but have some other explanation, rather than referring to a divine being?"

With the possible exception of Ghosts I don't see what the other things have to do with a divine being. There is nothing supernatural about life evolving on another planet, are we supernatural? I consider this a possibility though I don't really 'Know'.
If UFO's are alien aircraft, that would not be supernatural either, is the space shuttle supernatural?
Same thing for the MIB, if real they are just more annoying secret gov't BS.
We have Magick, it's slight of hand illusion unless you mean like Merlin that would no doubt be supernatural and I doubt it very much.
I know people who cliam to have seen UFO's and MIB and other than for these claims seem quite rational and normal, since I wasn't there I don't really know what or who they saw, but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up as a possibility.
I like what Koy said "I don't "believe." I either know, don't know or haven't been convinced yet"