Supernatural

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For other uses, see Supernatural (disambiguation).
For criticism see Criticism of Supernatural
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Supernatural literally means transcending the natural. Generally, it involves the belief in conscious forces that cannot ordinarily be perceived except through their effects. Sometimes it is used to characterize or explain events that people consider extraordinary (see preternatural, paranormal) and Anomalous phenomena.

A concept of the supernatural is generally identified with religion, although there is much debate as to whether a conception of the supernatural is necessary for religion (see The nature of God in Western theology and Anthropology of religion). Generally, people contrast the supernatural with the natural and some believe that these two concepts are compatible or complementary (in other words, religion and science fulfill different but equally valid functions), while others believe that they are incompatible and in competition.

The supernatural is also a topic in various genres of fiction, such as fantasy and horror. Some examples of supernatural phenomena are miracles, ghosts; psychic abilities like telekinesis and telepathy are better classified as paranormal than supernatural.

Contents

Arguments in favor of supernaturality

Following are some common counter arguments to the above.

  • By its own definition, science is incapable of examining or testing for the existence of the supernatural. Science concerns itself with what can be measured and seen through normal human observation, often with the help of instruments. If supernatural phenomena or beings were to exist, scientific methods would not detect them consistently. So the lack of scientific evidence does not matter. Scientists counter that if this is so, then believeres in supernaturalism themselves would be utterly incapable of witnessing any supernatural phenomenon or miracles; all human senses are limited by the laws of physics, and can only sense events occurring in the natural, physical world.
  • Applying Occam's Razor is useful when looking for an explanation of specific events, but the likelihood of a natural or supernatural cause is determined largely by whether a person believes in the supernatural in the first place. Using this argument against the existence of the supernatural is circular. Theological claims generally do not claim or attempt to be scientifically provable.
  • Much of modern biblical scholarship is based on the assumption that the supernatural does not exist, or that God is far less involved in the world than commonly supposed (deism). This assumption biases their results just as much as the religious believers' assumption that God does exist and interacts with the world biases the results of their research. However, we should note that religious Jews do not accept the claims made in the Christian New Testament; similarly, religious Christians do not accept the supernatural claims made by the Koran, the sacred book of Islam, and so on. scholar of religion John Drane observes vis-�-vis a rigidly hegemonic naturalistic understanding of the nature of 'truth' and 'reality:'
Not unrelated to this is a more general philosophical scepticism towards any document whether ancient or modern, that appears to give credence to the possibility of the occurrence of unique, or apparently miraculous happenings. Academic biblical study still generally operates within a mechanistic world-view, according to which the universe is understood as a closed system, operating according to rigidly structured 'laws of nature' which are entirely predictable and never deviate. By definition, therefore, the unpredictable cannot happen, and on this view it is inevitable that the gospels should be seen as something other than history, for they do contain accounts of a number of unique happenings which appear to violate the 'laws of nature' as set out by Newtonian science. Physics, of course, no longer operates on that paradigm, and the work of more recent theorists has led to the emergence of a far more flexible understanding of what might be possible within the physical universe. Philosophers and theologians frequently have a lot to say about the emergence of so-called postmodernity, but on the whole they have yet to accept its implications, not least because it would put their own work in a wider context, as just one possible way among many others of understanding the nature of reality.
  • Proponents of supernaturalism claim that their belief system is more flexible. Their belief system allows them polyvalent diversity in terms of epistemology. For example, scientists accept the consensus that the Earth and universe are many billions of years old. Among members of the Christianity theological communities, however, there is a far wider range in terms of epistemological positioning, ranging from those who accept a literal interpretation of Genesis as normative and perceive the earth and universe as 6000 years old, to those who accept as normative the results of science and perceive the earth and universe as many millions of years old in terms of age.
There is similar epistemological diversity among members of the Christian theological communities vis-a-vis evolution, and some scholar of religion express the hope that the more nuanced and sophisticated range of belief-positioning available in terms of supernaturality may influence science. As the John Drane again observes vis-�-vis the centrally-positioned role of science in perpetuating normative ideologies of racism and xenophobia (Postmodernist drivel):
To say that unique events can never happen, or that the supernatural does not exist, when most people of most ethnic groups at most points in history have claimed otherwise, is merely to perpetuate the intellectual arrogance of previous generations of Western thinkers, and far from providing an answer to the questions raised by history it merely begs larger and more important questions about the nature of Western intellectual culture.

"Supernaturalization"

The neologism supernaturalize, meaning "to make supernatural", is sometimes used to describe the process of ascribing supernatural causes to natural events. This process may also be referred to as mythification or spiritualization. Because the assumption of the skeptical reader is that supernatural events cannot or are unlikely to occur, their description is seen as the result of a process of deliberate or unconscious mysticism, thus, "supernaturalization".

Alleged instances of supernaturalization

Until there was any proper understanding of the causative factors in disease and the actual disease processes themselves, there was a tendency to see sickness as a result of divine visitations and punishment for wrongdoing. (Oxford Companion to the Bible (1992), entry for "Medicine and the Bible")

The supernatural in monotheistic religions

Many modern skeptical readers of the Bible hold that its authors gradually reinterpreted historical and natural events as miraculous or supernatural. The article on The supernatural in monotheistic religions thus concerns itself with the junction between monotheistic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and the supernatural.

See also

  • Supernatural/2009
  • Dualism, the view that the mental and the physical have a fundamentally different nature as an answer to the mind-body problem.
  • Idealism, any theory positing the primacy of spirit, mind, or language over matter. It includes claiming that thought has some crucial role in making the world the way it is.
  • Magical thinking, including the fallacy that correlation equals causation.
  • Monism, the view that the mental and physical are ultimately part of the same super-reality which both the physical and non-physical world(s) compose. The view that differing realities are not the end-all-be-all in themselves. Monism can involve material monism, the view that only the physical is real and all else are manifestations of the physical; idealist monism which holds that only the mental is real and all else are manifestations of the mental; or neutral monism.
  • Miracle
  • Paranormal
  • Preternatural
  • Vitalism, the doctrine that life cannot be explained solely by mechanism. Often, the nonmaterial element is referred to as the soul, the "vital spark", or some kind of spiritual energy.
  • Quantum physics / quantum pseudo-telepathy: a measurable occurrence that seems to demonstrate some kind of communication has taken place between people when none has.
  • God of the gaps, the ascription to a supernatural cause of that which science does not explain.
  • Ex nihilo
  • Supernatural fiction


References

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