Friday, February 18, 2022

The Supernatural

The concept of something being supernatural is often mistaken for the concept of something that is merely strange or unfamiliar, as if all it takes for something to be supernatural is that it is different from what is experienced in everyday life.  What is perceived as normal is relative to circumstances that could have been different to begin with, but it is not always relevant to the issue of supernaturalism.  Suppose an angel appeared to me--this would be abnormal in the context of my life, since angelic appearances are not something I recall being a part of my regular life, but so would seeing a spider with a red body.  Are angels and spiders with unusual coloring (at least unusual as compared to my general experiences seeing spiders) both supernatural or both not supernatural?  The concepts behind them are quite different!

A spider is a small creature with a body of matter native to Earth that may or may not be conscious, with consciousness of any kind being immaterial, or nonphysical, yet animal or human consciousness in a living creature is not what most people mean by calling something supernatural (even though literally anything immaterial is supernatural in the strictest sense because it is not a part of the natural world).  An angel, in contrast with a spider from Earth, might be possible of having a physical body, but it is an explicitly spiritual being.  Its consciousness, if angels do indeed exist, is tied to a more obviously nonphysical side of reality, as the conventional concept of an angel is that of a supernatural servant of a deity which can transcend dimensions, converse with God, and fight demonic entities.

That something is "normal" does not make it natural and that something is "abnormal" does not make it supernatural.  All immaterial things that do or do not exist are supernatural by definition, yet something like the nonphysical laws of logic that govern truth and possibility that confine the material world, the metaphysical space that holds matter, and the human consciousness that perceives matter are not what is typically referred to by the word: many people who use the word supernatural, whether they believe something in this category exists or not, are thinking of something like an uncaused cause that preceded the universe, unembodied spirits that can possess people, or nonphysical energy that can shape the physical world.  It is completely lost on many people that supernaturalism is not inherently religious or theistic.

It is also completely lost on many people that logical proof and not perceptions proves that things are true, and logic is an epistemological requirement to even understand the idea of perceptions and begin evaluating one's own perceptions at any given moment.  Ironically, most claims that something is natural or supernatural are just based on assumptions in favor of various things being exactly as they subjectively appear to someone who has probably never thought about anything with explicitly philosophical or rationalistic intentions.  Proving that there is even a world of matter is far more difficult than the vast majority of people realize, and yet it its existence is taken for granted on unevaluated faith by all but a few who either have recognized the sole way to prove it is there or have refrained from believing in that which they cannot prove or have not yet proven to themselves.

Indeed, epistemological limitations render it impossible to actually prove that most particular events are supernatural or natural in nature, if not both in various ways; reason can prove that both matter and some immaterial things (as alluded to earlier) exist, but even this can be exceptionally difficult when coming to these truths for the first time.  It is still possible to prove that there is nothing impossible about any material or supernatural thing existing as long as there is nothing about its nature that contradicts itself or reason.  Mere perceptions of normality or strangeness prove nothing except that something seems normal or strange.  Only biases, other assumptions, and cultural conditioning of various kinds keep people from just looking to reason and establishing at this much.  It is not beyond anyone's reach.

Logic, people.  It is very fucking helpful.

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