Do you believe in the supernatural?

[Impeesa]

You really think that about the world we live in? Because I don't. Every time I see an entire field full of wildflowers or a really amazing sunset I can't help but think that we live in an amazing world.

I get the same thing every time I see the two-slit experiment, or a magnet floating over a superconductor, or just a picture of a far-off nebula. The more you get to know the world around you, the more mind-bending it gets.

Also, I can move things with my mind. In fact, as I type this, I am moving my hands - with my mind!

--Impeesa--

 

[fusangite]

I basically agree with Umbran here. But I'll just add that the category "supernatural" is a dumb category. In my view, nature=everything; the idea of "supernatural" is based on the idea that human beings and God(s) are not part of nature. If the the supernatural category exists, what does this say about the "natural" category? Does it even make any sense? And what is the boundary between the two categories?

As far as I can tell, the category of supernatural today means things that are not yet explained -- which is stupid. No scientist would argue that we've explained everything we can. So, what happens when something that is supernatural now is explained? Does that mean it has ceased to be supernatural or that it was never supernatural in the first place?

Supernatural: dumb term entailing dumb, incoherent idea.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

It was science, or more specifically Biology that let me appreciate nature. Heh, I meant o look outside my window at a tree and just think of the amount of cells in it is pretty cool.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

I'm with you on that. I'd love it if there was 'supernatural stuff' of almost any sort.*

* - The nice kind - i.e. it doesn't eat my brains, drink my blood, turn me into a killer plant, take over the world, etc.

Stand-up comic Patton Oswalt has a really funny routine about how he wishes zombies were real. Then people of all creeds and colors around the world could finally come together as one to do what God intended of them: kill zombies with shotguns!

I'm kinda in the same boat. Wish it were real, pretty sure none of it is. For one thing, no one's claimed JREF's million dollar prize yet...

 

[Greylock]

Believe in "the supernatural"? Nope.

Now, I've had wierdness in my life. But every thing that could be hailed as mystical or supernatural could also be revealed as a trick of my own mind, or the effect of being entranced by someone else's belief.

Haven't fallen victim to either since my brain finished developing. Mid-twenties I think that was.

 

[Raging Epistaxis]

When I was younger I read a fair bit about ghost encounters, UFO encounters, lost beasts (Loch Ness, Bigfoot), psychic powers etc. Fascinating stuff.

But, I've had no experiences myself that cannot be at least mostly explained by one known phenomena or another.

Like several posters before me I find the 'natural' world to be way more complex, subtle and sublime than my little mind can fathom in any small part, much less its entirety.

As someone once said (too lazy to look up the quote) "The more I know, the more I find there is more to know". There are huge areas where human exploration/experimentation (read: science) has not even begun to scratch the surface. Biologic systems are so enormously complex I can't even begin to describe the simplest organism.

Anyhow to sum up my view of the supernatural I must paraphrase both Fox Mulder and Dana Sculley:
I want to believe, but I need proof.

R E

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I believe in the supernatural, but not necessarily in ESP and such. I'd go further, but that'd get into my religion.