RE: Can't prove the supernatural God
June 1, 2016 at 5:03 am
(This post was last modified: June 1, 2016 at 5:18 am by robvalue.)
Okay, well I think we've played this one out, thank you 
No, I wouldn't expect an ant to be able to understand general relativity. But if it did, I wouldn't label this occurence "supernatural", I'd simply call it "unexplained". The explanation may seem obvious in the future, or to someone with a more objective viewpoint than humans can ever have. If it happened, it was possible. Simple as that. If you're saying "X is impossible, so if X happened it would be supernatural" you've contradicted yourself. If it's impossible, it can't happen at all. The premise was wrong.
Nothing of any practical use is gained by calling it supernatural. It's just giving up all hope of finding an explanation. And predicting that if such a thing happened we could never explain it is similarly of no practical use. It's just subjectively ranking it against our current understanding, and noting unusual occurences.
Other than trying to make it sound more like something "God" might do, what is ever to be gained by use of the word? We can't ever distinguish a supernatural cause from another supernatural cause; or from no cause at all.
I appreciate you're not trying to defend supernatural occurences, but I respect that you believe they happened nonetheless.

No, I wouldn't expect an ant to be able to understand general relativity. But if it did, I wouldn't label this occurence "supernatural", I'd simply call it "unexplained". The explanation may seem obvious in the future, or to someone with a more objective viewpoint than humans can ever have. If it happened, it was possible. Simple as that. If you're saying "X is impossible, so if X happened it would be supernatural" you've contradicted yourself. If it's impossible, it can't happen at all. The premise was wrong.
Nothing of any practical use is gained by calling it supernatural. It's just giving up all hope of finding an explanation. And predicting that if such a thing happened we could never explain it is similarly of no practical use. It's just subjectively ranking it against our current understanding, and noting unusual occurences.
Other than trying to make it sound more like something "God" might do, what is ever to be gained by use of the word? We can't ever distinguish a supernatural cause from another supernatural cause; or from no cause at all.
I appreciate you're not trying to defend supernatural occurences, but I respect that you believe they happened nonetheless.
Feel free to send me a private message.
Please visit my website here! It's got lots of information about atheism/theism and support for new atheists.
Index of useful threads and discussions
Index of my best videos
Quickstart guide to the forum
Please visit my website here! It's got lots of information about atheism/theism and support for new atheists.
Index of useful threads and discussions
Index of my best videos
Quickstart guide to the forum