This post by Chris got me thinking...Do you believe in ghosts? Myths such as the Loch Ness Monster, big foot, etc? UFO's?

I've got this feeling that I don't want to believe in it all, for fear of the unknown I guess, but there is a niggling feeling that tells me it's all true...

What are all your views?

shapes in clouds are real, only when certain world events happen u see the really clear ones, I even got photographic proof

loch ness monster is made out of PLASTIC

UFO's are definatly real (IMO) ive seen too much evidence not to belive in it

Ghosts: Yes.
Loch Ness: Maybe, but maybe not.
Big Foot: Actually a pretty wide spectrum of phenomena around the globe, my heart says yes, but it varies in it's nature from place to place. If they find something in the USA, it's not the same thing as what's going in Russia or the Yowie, for instance. Ooh stink apes too. They're real.
UFOS: Yes, there are Unidentified Flying Objects. Are they from space, Earth, another dimension, man made, alien, atmospheric - could be any of the above. Depends on the instance.


Thing is about all of this stuff, is that most of it isn't anything at all. However, there may be a handful of instances where there is something going on, and you mustn't throw the baby out with the bath water.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fort

My answer has to be "maybe". Hard to believe in anything without evidence, but without proof either way it always has to be "maybe"



Semantically speaking, UFOs are real....every time I see something in the sky and I don't know what it is, that's a UFO. Aliens and spaceships though? Well plausible but still unprovable with today's "evidence"

i thought this was turning into a REM song

"do you believe" they put a man on the moon...

no.. ok

But what about this photo of actual wreckage from Roswell? Surely no-one would make this sort of thing up?


And it seems some Mexican folk have caught a chupacabra here:


I've always thought that once you weed out the crackpots (and the just plain mistaken) that there are too many incidences of UFO sightings by people well-versed in aerial phenomena to dismiss it all.

Aliens? Sure.
Ghosts: Having seen some, sure.
Nessie? No.
God? No.
Big foot? No, I only believe in the Hendersons.

I believe that the human mind is a wonderful place, but the phenomena are just tricks of perception, I don't believe aliens will/have ever visited earth, I don't believe in ghosts, it's just suggestion, fear and shape/movement-processing. I do however believe that the Apollo moon landings could have been faked by NASA.

Did you pull that one off Snopes, Paul?

I wouldn't class myself as a skeptic, I'd like to believe. I just haven't seen anything that I can't easily dismiss.

That tends to suppose that there is nothing left for us to explain or understand in the universe.
It also doesn't answer many of the reported cases.

Theory of infinity dictates that there must be aliens. Simple as.

I believe that there are aliens, though whether they've visited earth or not is a completely different matter. And I don't really care to be honest. Trying to understand my girl-friends is hard enough, let alone another species!

'Believe' is too strong a word for me. I believe there is more than one plane of existence, even on earth. Hence, whilst I don't believe there are ghosts, I reckon they do exist.

Loch ness - probably thought it existed when I was a child, but now probably less so. I reckon such a creature may have existed in the past, but not currently.

Big foot - this may be a mutated/deformed human. Unlikely that there's a family of them, hence if one did exist, it'd probably have died out by now.

UFO - as stated above, anything not readily identifiable becomes 'unidentified'. I reckon most of them are man-made, probably military, with some as a result of nature. If aliens did visit earth, I reckon maybe only a handful of sightings are because of them.

Aliens - I believe life exists on other planets, though probably as primative 'sludge' rather than the anthropomorthological beings we all think when considering aliens. They may be more advanced than us in some aspects, but not in others. They could easily have mastered space travel but whether they can travel far enough is a different matter entirely.

God - yes, I believe that we were all created through evolution by a supreme being. IMO this being, although our designer and creator, doesn't necessarily have to interact with its creation. Nor, do I believe, has it any 'human' qualities. Perhaps more akin to a robot than a human.

I have been conned and have conned myself too many times over the years to believe in much of this stuff.

Myths are stories. There is no hard evidence for Nessie yet, therefore no reason to believe it. The same goes for Big Foot and space aliens.

Gut feelings are all very well. Casinos rely on such "evidence" to make a living. Human guts are the most deceptive of things.

CC

I voted yes, but I actually wanted to vote: I believe that there are too many instances of the unexplained for there not to be something but I'm not joining the Tin Foil Hat Brigade until I have some actual experiences of my own.

First of all, I apologise that I will probably be unable to answer any response you give as I am about to go away on hols for 2 weeks. But knowing the rest of this crowd, someone else will amply provide the same counter-questions/statements I would have made

If you believe in evolution, in all liklihood due to the wealth of evidence for it, why do you believe in an initial intelligent "creator" who started the whole process? What first triggered that belief in your mind? Actual experience which led to an individual belief unrelated to dogmatic prompting, or was it studying the beliefs of others and taking on their beliefs without an evidential basis?

[edit]Just to add my point, I answer "maybe" to any unprovable hypothesis....not limited to, but including the Loch Ness Monster, aliens, Chupacabra, God, orbiting teapots, invisible pink unicorns....I like to maintain a healthy, sceptical mind on pretty much any topic that I am asked to comment on. I will however express levels of "maybe" on a sliding scale from 99% (aliens) to 1% (orbiting teapots)....or even 0.01% (god) [/edit]