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Metaphysical or Supernatural
- Thread starter idav
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Gjallarhorn
N'yog-Sothep
If magic exists, it is most certainly natural.
Anything in the metaphysical or supernatural realm not easily explainable.
It should at least defy the odds.
Bob Dixon
>implying
People believe all sorts of things.
Just because you're educated enough and have a wide enough worldview to be able to build enough critical thinking to question and, ultimately, dispel beliefs like this, doesn't mean that everyone else has had such opportunities, run on sentence.
I think people are generally skeptical unless they see it for themselves which is why people search out the paranormal. People want it to be true but it almost seems as though reality just isn't as fantastic as we want it to be.
Infinitum
Possessed Bookworm
What actually defies the odds? If an event has a chance of one in a million, that's still 300 people (in US) who experience it every day. I agree with Gjallarhorn that if magic exists, it has to be natural. The simple explanation for that is that the moment something is real, it is natural by default.
By that definition, then, I don't believe in magic. What I call magic is metaphysical, perhaps preternatural, but not supernatural and is quite explainable by those who study it. What you're describing to me is a strong miracle. I do not believe in strong miracles (aka, events that defy the laws of nature).
Ill let this post speak for me but personaly im more of its all symbolic self mind ****
PolyHedral
Superabacus Mystic
The scientific apparatus isn't (yet) omniscient, so of course there's going to be edge cases that have no apparent solutions.
By 'magic' you clarified later that you are referring to things commonly referred to as
miracles/paranormal/supernatural/etc.
Yes, I believe these things happen and not just among the known religious figures of history.
The existance of such things leads me to believe our current science is a long way from fully understanding this universe
particularly regarding these mysteries called 'life' and 'conciousness'.
For example I'm going to bring up GHOSTS. A strict materialist would have to take the position that ghosts do not exist
and that every single alleged encounter in the history of the human race with a ghost eventually has a natural
explanation. Multiple independant sightings of basically the same thing in basically the same area are hard to dismiss
(but admittedly not impossible to naturally explain).
Science has not been able to prove the existance or non-existance of ghosts or unicorns. Science needs to be
conservative. However, I believe in the Court of My Common Sense, ghosts exist and unicorns don't exist. In cases where
science cannot answer a question, it is correct to believe our common sense. It would impoverish the human intellect if
we could not speculate on things unproven by science.
Defying the odds would mean that there is a one in a million chance yet someone is hitting it 80% of the time with his "magic". Another example would be someone constantly winning the lottery, I want some of that magic.
So we are passed the point of calling something paranormal as magic because the explanations are easier to grasp with more knowledge. The unexplained pretty much covers it.
I believe in Magick not Magic
outhouse
Atheistically
*rasies hand*
What does "metaphysical realm" mean?
Nothing that does or can happen is supernatural. It's all natural. But magic (besides psychological "magi(k)" is very interesting. It seems unlikely that it would be real, butblook at rain dances that bring rain, some voodoo, some crazy stuff happens. That is why I would not consider Occultism to be pseudoscience, just far from being understood.