rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen) (09/15/84)
> NATURALISM: the features that are present have arisen wholly > from present laws and processes; > SUPERNATURALISM: present laws and processes are inadequate to > explain current features; therefore, supernatural > intervention must have occurred. Could someone please explain the fundamental difference between natural and supernatural? I mean, if a deity exists, it's part of the physical universe. (Or, if you say "it's not" ["IT'S NOT!!"], thank you, then doesn't that simply mean that our definition of "the universe" needs to be expanded to include it?) If it "does" something, doesn't what it does qualify as a physical event? You may say "but we humans can't observe it with our senses, thus it's beyond the physical". But that's just an anthropocentric copout: whatever "we humans" can observe is physical, and everything else is paraphysical and supernatural. (The same arguments apply just as readily to other paranormal supernatural phenomena.) If it happens in the physical universe, it's a physical event with physical causes. Does anyone have a definition for the "non-physical universe"?? -- "Now, Benson, I'm going to have to turn you into a dog for a while." "Ohhhh, thank you, Master!!" Rich Rosen pyuxn!rlr