Atheism @lemmy.world aLaStOr_MoOdY47 @lemmy.world 13h ago

Besides your belief that there is no higher power, what are your thoughts on supernatural phenomena?

Lets take a little break from politics and have us a real atheist conversation.

Personally, I'm open to the idea of the existence of supernatural phenomena, and I believe mainstream religions are actually complicated incomplete stories full of misinterpretations, misunderstandings, and half-truths.

Basically, I think that these stories are not as simple and straightforward as they seem to be to religious people. I feel like there is a lot more to them. Concluding that all these stories are just made up or came out of nowhere is kind of hard for me.

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what's the difference between higher power and supernatural phenomena?

sounds more like agnosticism to me...
- Supernatural phenomina could mean that psychics aren't shysters, that some magicians are defying physics, or ghosts are real. Doesn't necessarily have to mean there's a god somewhere. I don't believe in any of those things but that's how I read this question.
  
  Yes, that's what I meant.
- Higher power = some kind of god or creator. Supernatural phenomena = anything that transcends/defies the laws of nature.
  
  SUPERnatural means "above" nature
  
  TRANScend means to cross the threshold to a new plane
  
  Those both imply higher powers in their name. You might not consider the higher power to be sentient or good or whatever, but you're literally arguing for a higher power, just under a different name.
  
  But a lot of the time, what they're saying is "look at this photon, it transcends the law that everything has an electrical charge!" No, it doesn't transcend anything: your understanding of natural law is defective. Most of the UFO silliness falls into that bucket: they draw stupid conclusions based on their fanciful interpretation of a few perceived data points, then think that half-assed reasoning is enough to invalidate some real science.
  
  I felt that in the context of the post, OP used Supernatural to mean "weird shit". Nit picking on the definition of the word is just being argumentative, and not participating in the spirit of the conversation.
  
  Exactly. Thank you. Most people in the comments are just trying to sort of erase the word. But if I can't call the phenomena supernatural, what do I call it? It most certainly needs a name.
  
  ...nit-picking is what science IS. There is no way to independently verify the claims if OP can't define what they're even testing for.
  
  Oh, please. You know what I mean when I say supernatural. The extraordinary. Things that defy the laws of nature. Paranormal. Weird shit. You guys are complicating things for unknown reasons.
  
  There's a time and a place for science.

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