Supernatural

For other uses, see Supernatural (disambiguation).

The supernatural (Latin: super- "above" + nature) pertains to entities, forces or powers regarded as beyond nature, in that they cannot be explained from the laws of the natural world. Religious miracles are typical of such “supernatural” manifestations, as are spells and curses, divination, the notion that there is an afterlife for the dead, and innumerable others. Supernatural themes are often associated with magical and occult ideas.

Controversy

Adherents of supernatural beliefs hold that such occurrences exist just as surely as does the natural world, whereas opponents, typically brights, empiricists, and materialists, argue that there are natural, physical explanations for all such occurrences, summed up as

Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so."

— Galileo

If we subject everything to reason, our religion will have nothing mysterious or supernatural in it. If we violate the principles of reason, our religion will be absurd and ridiculous."

— Blaise Pascal

According to the strict materialist view, if something 'supernatural' exists, it is by definition not supernatural. Are there forces beyond the natural forces studied by physics? Are there ways of sensing that go beyond our biological senses and instruments? Science would say "No"; some mystics, believers in religion or the occult, might say "Yes". Certainly there may always be things outside of the realm of human understanding, as of yet unconfirmed and dubious in existence, and some might term these 'supernatural.'

Argument and controversy has surrounded the issue on both sides. One complicating factor is that there is no exact definition of what “natural” is, and what the limits of naturalism might be. Concepts in the supernatural domain are closely related to concepts in religious spirituality and metaphysics or spiritualism. The term "supernatural" is often used interchangeably with paranormal or preternatural — the latter typically limited to an adjective for describing abilities which appear to exceed possible bounds. See the nature of God in Western theology, anthropology of religion, and Biblical cosmology. Likewise, legendary characters such as vampires, poltergeists and leprechauns would be considered supernatural.

Views on the supernatural

Speculative views on the "supernatural" include that it pertains to:

Distinct from nature	Some events occur according to natural laws, and others occur according to a separate set of principles external to nature. For example God (in most definitions) is considered to be the ultimate creator of the universe and the natural laws. Those who believe in Angels and Spirits generally assert that they are super-natural entities. Some religious people also believe that all things which humans see as natural, only act the same way consistently because God wills it so, and that natural laws are only an extension of divine will.
A higher nature	Others assert that God, miracles, or other putative supernatural events are real, verifiable, and part of the laws of nature that we do not yet understand. See Protoscience.
A human coping mechanism	Others, particularly among the skeptical academic community, believe that all events have natural and only natural causes. They believe that human beings ascribe supernatural attributes to purely natural events (eg. Lightning, Rainbow, Flood, Origin of Life) in an attempt to cope with fear and ignorance.
Magic	Many people have sought to use both magic and science in hopes of empowering humanity for an improvement and to achieve a clearer picture of humanity's place in the cosmos. In the earliest Christian art (from the 3rd century) Jesus Christ is portrayed as a bare-faced youth holding a wand as a symbol of power, as the centuries passed. (See: Images of Jesus) There may be a persistent link between supernaturalism, the paranormal, and the desire for immortality
A word for unexplained events	Before the scientific method was used, everything was believed to have a supernatural cause. "Supernatural" today is in this sense merely used as an inspiration for more scientific knowledge tomorrow, through observation and analysis.

Arguments in favor of a supernatural reality

Many proponents believe that the complexities and mysteries of the universe cannot be explained by naturalistic explanations alone and argue that it is reasonable to assume that a nonnatural entity or entities resolve the unexplained. Proponents note that many of history's greatest scientists, including Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, Faraday, Mendel and Maxwell appear to have believed firmly in a supernatural God. By its own definition, science today is incapable of examining or testing for the existence of things which are untestable. Science concerns itself with what can be measured and seen through observation, logic, and scientific reason. Proponents of supernaturalism claim that their belief system is more flexible, which allows them more diversity in terms of epistemology (ways of understanding knowledge). William Dembski writes: For the theist attempting to understand nature, God as creator is fundamental, the creation is derivative, and nature as the physical part of creation is still further downstream. [1]

Arguments against a supernatural reality

Some thinkers suggest that if a phenomenon is by definition outside of the realm of science, it therefore cannot be experienced and has by definition no impact on our lives.

• Our knowledge of the world is continuously increasing. Some occurrences, once assumed supernatural, can today be explained by scientific theories.
• In fact, some scientific theories, such as quantum mechanics, are much more contraintuitive than most supernatural concepts. But many claimed supernatural phenomena vanish when they are examined closely. There have been, for example, various studies on astrology, most of them with negative results (a single positive result cannot outweigh many negative ones, as it can be expected by mere chance).
• Supernaturality may be a remnant of a static world view. It comes from a time when the growth of human knowledge was appreciably slower than at present. The Aristotelian Mechanics were considered valid for more than a thousand years.
• If a bush suddenly burst out in flames, and the fire would not consume it, a scientist might not call it supernatural, nor deny that this is happening, but might curiously examine it. Immediately assuming a supernatural explanation could be a logical fallacy, or an example of junk science or pseudoscience.
• A majority of supernaturalists of any given religion only believe in a very narrow subset of all supernatural explanations of reality when all the supernatural beliefs of all religions, past and present, are taken together. For the vast majority of Christians today do not think that we are reincarnated, nor do the vast majority of today’s Hindus think that everyone permanently goes to heaven or hell when they die. This differentiates a Hindu from a Christian. Since for both groups in this example the reasons for their particuar choices do not differ in any discernable way, to then make claims about the "truth" of their own beliefs and the "untruth" of the opposing beliefs would not be fair and honest. Either accept all religious claims for the same reasons or reject all religious claims for the same reasons.

Naturalization vs. supernaturalization

Some people believe that supernatural events occur, while others do not.

"Naturalization"

The neologism naturalize, meaning, "to make natural", is sometimes used to describe the perceived process of denying any supernatural significance to events which another presumes to be supernatural. This perceived process may also be referred to as reductionism or deconstructionism. It rests on the believer's presumption that supernatural events can and do occur; thus, their description as "natural" by the skeptic is seen as a result of a process of deliberate or unconscious denial of any supernatural significance, thus, "naturalization".

(This should not be confused with naturalization, the process of voluntarily acquiring citizenship at some time after birth.)

"Supernaturalization"

The neologism supernaturalize, meaning "to make supernatural", is sometimes used to describe the perceived process of ascribing supernatural causes to events which another presumes to be natural. This perceived process may also be referred to as mythification or spiritualization. It rests on the presumption of the skeptic that supernatural events cannot or are unlikely to occur; thus, their description by the believer as supernatural is seen as the result of a process of deliberate or unconscious mysticism, thus, "supernaturalization". Supernaturalization can also mean the process by which stories and historical accounts are altered to describe supernatural elements.

The subjective nature of the issue

Two people may come to completely different conclusions based on identical evidence. One "screens out" possible explanations simply because they conflict with one's paradigm and create dissonance. For example, to make oneself "look good" to others thus avoiding isolation, and perhaps the desire to imitate personal heroes. Generally we criticize and question the picture of reality held by others. It is rare to question one's own, rarer still to admit our own is distorted.

Competing explanations and criteria of preference

For some people it is not a matter of supernatural events versus natural events. They are all events but there can be many competing explanations. The question then becomes what criteria shall one use to prefer one explanation over another. One must be careful not to confuse the phenomenon with the explanation. We may agree that a bush has burst into flames, where we may differ is in the explanation of that event. The supernaturalist in that instance prefers the supernatural explanation based on one or a number of criteria of preference. It could be because the explanation includes constructs such as an immortal soul and other purported phenomena such as it rising to a place of great joy upon being released at death and they find this very attractive. The naturalist may prefer the natural explanation because such explanations are required to have predictive power, and being able to predict in a reliable way what will happen when a certain set of circumstances is present is something they find attractive. There are many people that are comfortable with accepting both explanations to satisfy several preferences such as a supernatural explanation that provides comfort from the thought of death and the natural explanation because of its utility in being able to reliably control fire, for example Christians that accept the Theory of Evolution but still explain reality as a deliberate creation of their god. A person may be a naturalist because they are driven by the preference of predictability rather than comfort whereas another person may be a supernaturalist because they prefer explanations that make them feel better about their eventual death rather than how useful they are on actual reality.

Alleged instances of supernaturalization

• The Tunguska Event reported as an instance of supernaturalization through an examination of the bible and compared to historical events published in the contemporary public record.
• English Protestants believed that the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 was a sign of God's favor for their cause.
• Some fundamentalist American Evangelicals have interpreted the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on 11th September, 2001 as a sign of God's anger at various and sundry things, including secularism.
• In Japan the scattering of aggressive Mogul-Korean fleets in 1274 and 1281 was attributed to the kamikaze or "divine wind".
• Some "fringe" religious groups such as the Westboro Baptist Church routinely expound supernatural explanations for contemporary events, such as the September 11, 2001 attacks, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and even soldier deaths in the Iraq war, typically framed as some form of divine punishment.

Believers respond to the many instances of supernaturalization by arguing that the fact that supernaturalization often occurs does not refute the existence of the supernatural any more than the fact that scientists often make errors refutes the existence of the natural universe; and that the supernatural by its very nature cannot be explored through science, and must therefore be explored through different means, such as spirituality. Nonbelievers counter that the two forms of explanation cannot be equated, because erroneous naturalistic claims, such as those made for the existence of phlogiston or N-rays, are routinely and often rapidly corrected by reference to nature, while erroneous supernaturalistic claims such as the above are impossible to correct by reference to supernature or by any other widely accepted objective means.

And then there are the practical considerations. Explanations based on supernatural constructs have consistently been found to be no better than no explanation at all at predicting outcomes before the fact. Simply on the basis of choosing which explanations work best at not only accounting for reality but predicting it before the fact, natural explanations are to be preferred.

Supernatural in Fiction

The supernatural is also a topic in various fictional genres, especially horror fiction and fantasy fiction.

See also

• Dualism (Philosophy of mind) - the view that the mental and the physical have a fundamentally different nature as an answer to the mind-body problem.
• Idealism (Philosophy) - 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.
• Miracle
• 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 a kind of spiritual energy.
• God of the gaps - events originally ascribed to a supernatural cause move into the natural realm when explained by science.
• ex nihilo

Compare with

• Naturalism (Philosophy) - which rejects the validity of explanations or theories making use of entities inaccessible to natural science.
• Materialism (Philosophy) - the view that the only thing that can truly be said to 'exist' is physical matter and energy; that fundamentally, all things are comprised of 'material'. Materialism is typically contrasted with dualism, idealism, and vitalism.
• Scientific method - a meticulous means of building a supportable, evidenced understanding of our natural world. The ability to repeat an experiment and obtain the same observed results is held in high regard.

Quotations

• "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"-- Arthur C. Clarke
• "Theology is not what we know about God, but what we do not know about Nature"-- Robert Ingersoll

References

• Wonders of the Invisible World, Cotton Mather, Boston, 1693
• More Wonders of the Invisible World, Robert Calef, 1700
• Secrets of the Occult, documentary, see http://www.myspace.com/155766403