I was just curious to know.

I know there is no actual proof of souls, but I know that many athiest believe in ghosts. And ghosts are lost souls trying to pass over right?

I just wanted to see what their thoughts were on this subject.

stevetcg

I doubt that many true atheists believe in ghosts, since the general idea (I think) of atheism is that they only believe in what can be proved and there is no proof of ghosts.

NeedKarma

steve is on the mark. I'm an atheist and whether there is such thing as a "soul" makes no difference to my life or the way I live.

Choux

Soul is a theological word, a religious word. There is no such thing as a soul except in the world of BELIEF/FAITH.

The way many people look at that now is human beings have consciousness and all the aspects thereof.

I'm an atheist(Secular Humanist) and I have never heard that atheists believe in ghosts....quite the contrary! lol

Atheists are ALL ABOUT rationality and not about blind faith in anything.

Best wishes,

N0help4u

Atheists do not believe in a soul but basically soul means the non physical attributes of you that makes you who you are.....your thoughts, your beliefs, your conscience, your free will, emotions, intuition, etc.....
Watchman Nee teaching.

kiragira

:P I was an Atheist, but because of the ideas of most people I now call myself Pagan.

Atheism is the absence of a belief in a deity. A spirit/soul/ghost/whatever is not a deity--or, at least, not in any religions I've heard of. In other words, saying "an Atheist can't believe in a soul or spirit" is completely untrue.

I was an Atheist believing in ghosts/spirits for a while, so I'm sure there are a lot of us out there. I used to be the "proud Atheist" type, though, and wouldn't admit a belief in anything I couldn't prove existed. XP So a generalization like that... well, the answer should be obvious. Some: yes. Others: no.

KatieH

I only said that many athiests believe in ghost believe in ghosts is because I went to a college where I had some athiest friends. And they told me that they believed in ghosts because of the whole energy never stops, or dies subject. And they told me that many athiest beleived this. So I just assumed.

TristaNicholle

Does atheist not mean denying the existence of (a) god? If so, where is it said that an atheist cannot believe that one goes on to another plane of existence after the body dies? Also, if one cares to research the subject, there are instances of evidence such as EVPs, etc that may lead one to believe there is some credibility to "life after death." I don't see how this belief contradicts an atheist's position on a God or Supreme Being...

Ren6

When I think of "soul", I think of an immortal personality- something that never dies and moves on to other levels of being in other places. In other words, a fictional thing.

I believe we have personalities, the part of us that makes us who we are. I believe that when the body ceases to live, the personality dies with it.

ScottGem

Actually that is agnosticism. An agnostic does not believe in anything that can't be proven to their staisfaction.

Atheism is the absence of a belief in a deity.

Whether there are ghosts or not has little to do with whether there is a deity.

The concept of soul has many definitions. People believe or don't believe in a soul depending on their definition of it.