Friday, July 7, 2017

Well Said: No such thing as supernatural

There's no such thing as the supernatural. Everything, by definition, is natural. But you have to find out what the rules are.
Jack McDevitt, The Devil's Eye

2 comments:

  1. That's clever, but he splits hairs unnecessarily, methinks. Take "everything is natural" too literally, and you've locked yourself into materialism. Or, to put the matter differently, angels (for example) are "natural" to heaven, but "supernatural" on Earth, else Old and New Testament stories of "entertaining angels unaware" (Hebrews 13:2) would feature only dimwitted people. If location is one of the "rules" you have to figure out, the quote might still make sense, but I think McDevitt is just being a contrarian.

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    1. I inadvertently published this today so will be taking it offline until next week.

      However, in response to your comment ... it's a sf mystery. I myself liked the quote, which will make more sense in context, I'm sure. Regardless of that, I think it works. All is natural to God, although we'll never understand the rules ... though we will have a delightful eternity of learning more about them continually ... and that's what I was thinking of.

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