RE: Is there objective Truth?
October 20, 2016 at 10:29 am
(This post was last modified: October 20, 2016 at 10:32 am by The Grand Nudger.)
Meh, my understanding of the difference between natural and supernatural has nothing at all to do with possibility and isn't even remotely arbitrary. It's possible that supernatural things exist. Possibility is a low bar. My understanding of the difference revolves around whether or not something can be explained by reference -to- the natural. The tendency to assign things to one of two categories, to -perceive- something to be supernatural (like gravity, for example)...imo... boils down to our noted and common logical ticks, to preferring dichotomy over uncertainty. We seem to instinctively exclude a third category when we make such attributions. To me, the natural simply refers to your everyday shit, the unknown is unknown, and supernatural is something that exceeds the everyday shit.
To use your other example, psi, if it did exist..and we ended up explaining it by reference to some ability that a human body had that would, ofc...make it natural. It was always natural...at some point it may have been unknown, but it was never supernatural. Now, in fairness, I do suspect that supernatural as we use it is an empty set....but hey, I can't prove that, so it remains a possibility. I just don;t think it;s a good idea to use the supernatural as a trashcan to dump everything we don't know or can't currently explain with confidence.
If someone want's to discuss the supernatural...find me some supernatural to discuss, not the unexplained...the -inexplicable-. The difference is subtle, but important.
To use your other example, psi, if it did exist..and we ended up explaining it by reference to some ability that a human body had that would, ofc...make it natural. It was always natural...at some point it may have been unknown, but it was never supernatural. Now, in fairness, I do suspect that supernatural as we use it is an empty set....but hey, I can't prove that, so it remains a possibility. I just don;t think it;s a good idea to use the supernatural as a trashcan to dump everything we don't know or can't currently explain with confidence.
If someone want's to discuss the supernatural...find me some supernatural to discuss, not the unexplained...the -inexplicable-. The difference is subtle, but important.
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