Why believe in the SUPERNATURAL?

by Terry 41 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  VoidEater

  WHY DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE SUPERNATURAL?

  I think many believe in something beyond the observable because it's a convenient way to explain things beyond their ken. They like to overindulge in the need to have everything explainable, and through the sleight of hand of "supernatural" the unexplained gets categorized (which seems like it being explained).

  But this is no different than an Objectivist insisting everything is reducible to the analytical realm. Different poison, same results.

  The realm of experience often seems to require a non-objectivist context.
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  Terry

  The realm of experience often seems to require a non-objectivist context.

  In other words, there are some subjects we should not be rational about when thinking??

  Hmmm, how does that work?
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  gubberningbody

  Actually we can only know that thoughts exist.

  

  And they are changed and even obliterated when they take the form of our own.
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  mindmelda

  Oh, crap, you mean there's no Loch Ness monster? LOL

  I'm just open to new possibilities. But, I know the limits of current knowledge and am a little reluctant to go beyond it without some serious proof.

  I think most of the stuff we call "supernatural" will someday be explained one way or another, either debunked, or accepted as just "natural" rather than supernatural...merely things we can't understand yet.
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  mindmelda

  I think people of a thinky sort sometimes forget that experiencing and doing are also forms of learning...not all learning takes place by being thinky.

  For example, you can read a lot of books about sex and analyze it, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't replace DOING it as a way to find out what it's really like. Not everything we do can be reduced to an objective analysis and that be it's best expression.
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  gubberningbody

  I don't know if there is or there isn't or wasn't. Likely someone experienced something at some time and interpreted as some sort of cryptozoological creature.

  In my own case, I know I'm in mercenary money mode right now, so I'm spending my time pursuing those things.

  A person can have a zillion ideas, but failure to follow through accomplishes nothing.

  On the other hand, if a person wants to examine things from the perspective of game theory, this is a good place to start.

  http://www.amazon.com/Superior-Beings-Exist-Would-Incomprehensibility/dp/038748065X
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  Deputy Dog

  Terry

  I see. So if Terry doesn't "know about the identity of that which is" it just should be ignored.

  Gee, did I say that?

  These are your words aren't they?

  To assert the existence of another Nature is to create what is unnecessary.
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  Meeting Junkie No More

  Why NOT?! Just because I can't explain something or prove something, doesn't mean it might not be there...in fact, my view is that PRECISELY because I can't explain it and my brain is not capable of fathoming all its secrets, therefore I do most definitely believe in the SUPERNATURAL. I prefer a sacramental view of the world.
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  THE GLADIATOR

  My fear of demons vanished along with my belief in their existence.

  It got me thinking; Could the imagination really be that powerful? Was the mind able to produce real fear or emotion simply by imagining that something existed? Had my mother really been plagued by demons or had it all been in her mind? Had my fear of demons been caused by my imagination?

  If so, what other tricks of the mind was I enslaved to? Could the God I lived in fear of, also exist only in my mind?
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  Terry

  I see. So if Terry doesn't "know about the identity of that which is" it just should be ignored.

  Gee, did I say that?

  These are your words aren't they?

  To assert the existence of another Nature is to create what is unnecessary.

  And those two statements are identical? What if I substituted the word "superfluous" for "unnecessary"?

  To me, in the spirit of OCCAM'S RAZOR, asserting the existence of an imaginary "nature" beyond the real one is not only unnecessary and

  superfluous it is confusing, as well.

  For one thing, since the SUPERnatural can be anything anybody wants it to be--there is a chaos of competing imaginations being asserted as real. How does that benefit anybody?