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Those things are compatible with the materialist philosophy.
An example would be believing in ghosts but no gods.
Oh, that is supernaturalism then. Right then, most people that go through the trouble of calling themselves atheists seem to indeed be naturalists.
Because almost everything called religion has elements of belief involving supernaturalism.
It almost is, but I agree; it isn't completely limited to materialism.
Are you talking about Anton LaVey's church of satanism? Well he was a weird guy. Pretty metal. He did it for the same reason many death metal bands use satanic imagry in their lyrics and designs. Lets not pretend that satanists don't want a little shock value. And satan is just such a tantalizing character isn't he? Not to mention the whole point of the church of satan is to moch christianity and other similar worldviews. So satan seems the obvious choice given that Christianity is the religion that is dominant in the western world. Had he existed in India he would have chosen probably a very different figure.
Oh I see.
"a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creationof a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moralcode governing the conduct of human affairs."
Why would believing in ghosts make someone not a materialist? Is there something about ghosts that implies that - if they existed - they can't have a material basis?
The term 'materialism' includes the idea that everything that exists is composed of physical matter and energy including consciousness. This term is a philosophy intended to exclude belief in spiritual or non-physical realms. We have had this debate a few times before and your expanded view of materialism is not what the term was created to mean.
I, of course, strongly disagree.
That is because some people believe Nessie is a physical animal, hence something that would not contradict the materialist philosophy. If they claim that Nessie is a ghost that sometimes materializes then that would contradict the materialist worldview.
It's not how YOU use the term, but you aren't some sort of authority on the proper use of "materialism".
... right now. Other times, you've acknowledged the poor quality of evidence for ghosts by making excuses for why it's poor and criticizing those who ask for the evidence for ghosts to meet a reasonable standard.
How so? Plenty of physical phenomena materialize and dematerialize. Why would that make Nessie immaterial?
An archetype can work either way. As many of us may know Satan means "Adversary of Opposer," "the one who questions." I regard Satan as the adversarial opposer of light itself. Satan can stand for many things symbolically, for one thing he represents Pride, Carnality, Liberty, and in my own version greed, and wrath as well. As a Satanist myself I regard him to be a force in nature, a force that drives man to survive. When Satan represents "the one who questions," I regard this statement to be connected with the Satanists mindset including that of others of the WLHP. You might not have experienced what I have experienced myself through months of initiation and magickal study and practice, but once one practices magick for practical use to ones Internal self it changes the persons destiny and mindset along the path. The person starts to question certain things of the use of faith and its technology if its either practical or not practical. Some of us may experience Set as well, I view Set as the god of Isolation, Set can be used as an archetype as well, for he is the "cutter of dissolution and weakness," for he is chaotic in man and he symbolically isolates the initiate from many things to the objective Universes including mans fellow beings or friends.
Your mileage may very, I believe in the black flame itself the very gift of realization and questioning over other conventional ways whether they are practical or impractical.
