Ramblings on the Supernatural

I am a realist, naturalist, materialist, atheist... I'm not sure what to call myself. It's a difficult thing to explain to most people, but I will do my best. Everything in the universe happens because of cause and effect, governed by physics and mathematics. There is nothing outside of this. This comprises the whole of reality. Anything beyond this view of the universe is what I call supernatural. This includes ESP, magic, ghosts, souls, gods.. anything I can't explain with a mathematical model.

In prehistoric times, everything around us was beyond our abilities to explain. Why does it rain? Because the rain god sends rain. Ahhh, it feels good to have an explanation. But eventually we discovered that clouds were made of water vapor and that when they reach the dew point they condense into water which falls out of the sky because of gravity. Well, who made the earth and sun and sky to make all that possible? Musta been God! Ahhh, it feels good to have an explanation. But eventually we discovered that the earth and sun and sky were created by swirling gasses left over from a supernova 5 billion years ago in the Milky Way galaxy, and that that was a result of the original Big Bang which created all matter and time in the universe. Oh! But somebody must have set off the Big Bang. That musta been God. Ahhh, it feels good to have an explanation. It's only a matter of time before we can explain the Big Bang, and then the supernatural will be pushed back even farther. To put it in math terms, the limit of God, as knowledge approaches infinity, does not exist.

I believe science is the process of converting what is perceived to be supernatural and making it natural. As we learn more about the universe, the need for God disappears. As we learn more about the mind and body, the need for a soul disappears. I believe that if we could continue learning forever, we could do away with all things supernatural. Most people are not comfortable with this. They feel it reduces us to mere automotons, biological computers that can't make independent decisions. I don't argue that that is what we are, but I don't think that reduces us. It is still a wonderful and amazing thing to be alive, to be Human, to think and feel and love and hope and be the wonderfully complex beings that we are. Just because it's the result of physics and chemistry doesn't make it any less real. This is the whole of reality, there is no higher consciousness for us to aspire to, so what are we being reduced from? If you believe in angels and gods and souls than of course being just a series of chemical reactions is unromantic and depressing. An example would be if we lived in 2-dimensions, everything flat. The entire universe was 2-dimensions. What need is there to invent a 3rd dimension and then lament the fact that we can't attain it? Or to pretend that what we can't explain happens in the 3rd dimension. I think everything is explainable in the world we are in, and that nothing fantastical needs to be invented to explain it any better. And I wouldn't be depressed by the realization that I was only a 2-dimensional being, because to me, two is all there is. Sure if you believe in 3, then thinking that you will only ever be 2 would be sad... you wouldn't want to accept it.

But just because I don't believe in the supernatural doesn't mean I don't think it's possible. Anything is possible, but some things are much more probably than others. A meteor could crash into me and kill me right now, yet I have no fear of that happening. It's possible that there exists a separate set of rules that govern the universe, that has no observable impact on my life, no proof of existence, and yet could account for God, souls, and everything else. It's possible that some people can detect this, and some can't, and that I am one who can't. All of this is possible. But I were to accept everything that is possible, it would be the same as not believing anything. I have to take what I know to be the most probable explanation of the universe and treat that as the truth, even if it's possible I am wrong.

I don't believe in a soul-mate. I don't believe that there is just one person who you are meant to be with, and no one else can make you as happy or complete as that person. I believe everyone is different, and that we each have relationships in different ways, we each compliment each other slightly different. I believe that finding someone who makes you truly happy is a rare and wonderful chance, and that when you find it you should hold on to it. If you lose it, it's true that it is possible to find it again. But you might take years to find it, or you may never find it. And certainly, the experience will never be the same. It will be a different person, a different connection, a different time in your life. So when you find someone that makes you truly happy, happier than you've ever been before, someone who compliments you in ways you didn't think anyone could, you hold onto that, you fight for it, as if they were the only ones you could ever feel that way about.

I could have any number of possible lives. Some of them happy, some of them sad. Every day I make choices about what to keep and what to change in my life. Every day I make choices that could lead me down different paths. In an infinite universe, anything is possible, even the supernatural. These paths can take me to any place I want to go.

And every day, I choose you.