Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

… we heard you singin ‘in the wires

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Overheard, on the “supernatural” and design in nature:

… the supernatural is not necessarily a religious idea.

Metaphysics was founded by Greek ancient philosophers and it has nothing to do with religion in the sense that it does not deal with concepts born out of Revelation but out of pure rationlity. Antony Flew ended up embracing rationality and intelligence in Nature but remained agnostic.

The supernatural is a metaphysical, rational concept., and ID is not a system of thought aimed to “prove” the existence of the God of theism, but just to infer the necessity of causality outside Nature.

To what extend this is friendly to religious convictions (life after death etc.) is another issue.

(Note: supernatural = beyond, above, or outside of nature. In one sense, numbers are supernatural. We perceive them only when instantiated in things: two men were going to a village, three days’ grace, four seasons). Nowhere in nature do we perceive the numbers themselves.

Comments
Numbers are supernatural? That's a stretch. Are manufactured items not found in nature "supernatural"as well? My chair has a supernatural feel to it right now. Nowhere in nature can you find my chair.grizzfan
April 8, 2011
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