A ghost made an atheist murderer believe in God

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MercyWarrior88

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We can’t discount the fact that all over the world, and since time immemorial, countless people had claimed that indeed, they saw ghosts.

I had read a true-to-life story of an atheist murderer, who, after killing a woman, began seeing her tormented ghost. He was shaken to the core, and truly baffled how this woman, whose physical body he had already killed, could manifest itself to him and severely torment him. How could her soul, which is supposedly invisible, partake of a tangible quality in an effort to seek justice?

He began to think that if ghosts are real (and real it is because he saw it with his own naked eyes), then GOD IS ALSO REAL. He then began to believe in God. This experience of his is an inexplicable phenomenon. He simply must believe in God.

From a philosophical standpoint, can we then consider the presence of ghosts as one of the proofs that GOD does exist?
 
I personally don’t think we can “prove” the existence of God, but even if we somehow could “prove” that God exists, the supposed presence of ghosts would be very poor/ weak evidence on which to base such a proof.

Regarding the example you gave, the murderer may have seen a ghost, or he may have simply been mentally disturbed and hallucinating, or he may have been suffering from extreme emotional stress/ guilt and his imagination ran away with him, or he may have been under the influence of substances, or having a lucid dream, etc.

The Catholic Church does not teach that ghosts exist or that God sends ghosts to earth. The only “ghost” we hear about in Church teaching is the Holy Ghost. There is also no logical connection in the murderer story between “I saw a ghost” and “God is real”.

So, while it’s good that this sinner found God for whatever reason and now has a chance at repentance and redemption, I do not see any good evidence here that ghosts can prove the existence of God or even that ghosts exist.
 
Hi, thanks for replying. I had read this true-to-life story online.
 
there will be no verification its real, a real story. take it as a poor piece of fiction.

start reading the Gospels
 
Having lived the life I have, I can’t agree with the idea that we can’t prove Gods existence, albeit likely that a ‘global proof’ will not happen soon.

I must agree though, that most testimonies should be taken with a grain of salt. Not because people somewhere, may not be being honest but rather healthy skepticism does more good for faith and reason at large - when you can’t be sure or prove a point as fact to others.

Let’s say I have a particularly supernatural experience. How am I going to prove that to anyone?

Video? Likely doctored. Personal testimony? Likely exaggerated. And so on.

Peoples ‘honesty’ is one of the most fickle things out there. Just bare that in mind.
 
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yes, I agree with you. There’s no REAL proof this story is genuine, although it’s said to have happened in real life. I was just curious how you people here would react to this. I’m also wondering why Catholic teachings say the devil is real but continue to not acknowledge the existence of ghosts, which many people all over the world have claimed to have seen. Just wondering.
 
the devil is an angel who rebelled against God and was thrown out of heaven. the devil is not a ghost.

we believe once a soul dies it goes to hell, purgatory or heaven, depending on God’s judgement. at the final Judgement our bodies are resurrected for final judgement.

so we believe dead people’s souls are busy in one of those three places.
we do think that demons- other fallen angels, can manifest as all sorts of things including ghosts
 
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Well bare in mind some people are ‘required’ to believe certain things in order to qualify for their particular faith or beliefs.

In my experience, that doesn’t mean they actually do.

Whilst a little contrary to the idea of ‘faith’, the good majority only tend to believe what they have seen with their own eyes.

A good stance perhaps when examining your bank balance or how much someone is going to pay you for your work lol.
 
I’ve heard that it’s possible that God allows souls to come back as some part of their purging. That it is a Grace for them…
 
MercyWarrior88 said:
I’m also wondering why Catholic teachings say the devil is real but continue to not acknowledge the existence of ghosts
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Simple answer: We believe that the Devil and demons wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls, just as angels are in the world seeking to protect humans and do other tasks that God wants them to do. These creatures are not human.

However, when human souls die, we believe that the soul goes immediately to be judged and to be placed in either Hell, Heaven or Purgatory. Therefore, having a “ghost” hanging around on earth after the person has died and should have gone off to judgment is a bit contrary to Church teaching.

While it is possible that God might allow some souls to say a quick final goodbye as they leave Earth, or to briefly return to Earth for some purpose, perhaps to ask someone on Earth for prayers to get them out of Purgatory, or to serve some Purgatory on earth, these types of stories, told by persons such as Padre Pio, St. Nicholas of Tolentino, Maria Simma and many others, are considered private revelations. A Catholic is not required to believe in them and it’s not part of the teaching of the Church that this happens. Furthermore, these souls generally aren’t called “ghosts”, they’re souls, and they aren’t just hanging around earth indefinitely; the stories have them briefly manifesting for some specific purpose and when they have completed it, they are gone back to Heaven or Purgatory (or in the case of one story, Hell).

With respect to the reports of people seeing “ghosts”, there are several possible explanations:
  1. they are making it up or have their imaginations working overtime
  2. they did see something but it’s natural phenomena
  3. they did see something but it’s demonic
  4. they saw a soul briefly as Padre Pio used to see.
As none of this is part of the official teaching of the Church, a Catholic could believe any of (1) through (4), but a Catholic also needs to be careful that he is not veering off into the thinking of divination, witchcraft or other areas prohibited by the Church.
 
Thank you so much. You, indeed, are very learned. I’m grateful for all the information you have just given me. Thank you for taking the effort to enlighten me. You’re a blessing to this site.
 
If it was helpful, then it was God helping me to write you a good answer, so all glory to Him. I’m sure I will write 2 or 3 stupid or uncharitable responses elsewhere before the day is out to make up for it. God bless.
 
People need to keep in mind that with God all things are possible. Even if no one else sees the “ghost” as another person might does not make it untrue. Angels can appear in different forms and shapes and also be visible only to certain individuals, it is whatever God allows for His intended purpose.

The word “ghost” has been so watered down, over exaggerated, or commercialized that most people lose sight of the actual spiritual warfare going on every second of every day.

This is a great topic.
 
MercyWarrior88 said:
Thank you so much. You, indeed, are very learned. I’m grateful for all the information you have just given me. Thank you for taking the effort to enlighten me. You’re a blessing to this site.
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Yes, yes she is! 🙂
 
MercyWarrior88 said:
From a philosophical standpoint, can we then consider the presence of ghosts as one of the proofs that GOD does exist?
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You have evidence that demonstrates ghosts exist? Cool, tell us more!

But, no, existence of ghosts would not be evidence of existence of a Deity.
 
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