Science study supernatural? (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, April 09, 2013, 16:51 (4045 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID has drawn our attention to an article that discusses science's attitude towards the "supernatural". -http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11191-012-9574-1-Tony: I have always wondered why science was that way. I mean, from a theological standpoint, God and other spiritual creatures MUST exist within the laws of nature. That we do not recognize WHERE or HOW exactly does not make it less true.-DAVID: But if God makes the laws of nature, He is outside of them as well as within them. An atheist scientist doesn't even want to go there as it weakens his philosophic position. Methodological materialism and reductionism are much safer for the tribe of Dawkins. They don't want to think 'out of the box'.-Very few people with firm opinions on anything are willing to think 'out of the box'. Firstly, I don't see how anyone can categorically dismiss every single one of the billions of psychic experiences that have been reported through the ages. No matter how many fakes, delusions and misperceptions there may have been, no-one is in a position to dismiss all cases as such. Secondly, if we accept that, for instance, people have acquired accurate information by means of a psychic experience, it is misleading to call this "supernatural" ... it simply means that there are elements of Nature we do not understand. Thirdly, belief in events that appear to defy scientific explanation does not have to be equated with belief in any kind of god.
 
I keep an open mind about the authenticity and possible causes of "gods, ghosts, spirits, and extrasensory or psi phenomena", but would like to offer an 'out-of-the-box' hypothesis for discussion. (I offered it a few days ago, but no-one took any notice.) If intelligence is energy within matter, and is not the product but the cause of cells interacting, it could survive the death of the cells whose actions it triggers. It could also, in people with heightened sensitivity, communicate with other intelligent energies, independently of its physical containers, which theoretically could even mean independently of time and space. It's a variant of what is known as "panpsychism". That should set a few teeth gnashing.