Originally posted by apathist
Strong scientism! oh my.
Not scientism at all. Just a basic understanding of what science is. Hint: its not a religion.
tw, you are asked to explain what the term 'supernatural' means for you. Time to step up to the plate.
The only reasonable definition I can come up with is something that is not of this universe.
Of course any supernatural entity acting in this universe would result in events in this universe that could be studied through science. Whether we call those events 'natural' or 'supernatural' would be a tricky question. At best we call call them 'caused but the supernatural'.
Generally I see no real benefit to making a distinction at all and would find difficulty in trying to define what is 'in the universe' and what is not in the universe.
In my experience, people who use the term 'supernatural' actually use it in an attempt to talk absolute nonsense while hiding it under terminology. So basically the same as most religious terms.
'Its supernatural' usually means 'I made it up so don't tell me I'm wrong!'. Or 'it follows whatever rules I make up whether they make any sense or not!'
And so on.
I find it interesting how many people buy into the claim that some events are not within the domain of science. Science is a study of information. Any information. Either the supernatural follows certain patterns or it is totally random. Either way, it can be studied through science. The only things that cannot be studied through science are those for which we have insufficient information about, and even then, science can tell you that you have insufficient information and must claim ignorance.
We cannot, at this stage, study flying toasters on the far side of Jupiter. But we must equally accept that they most likely do not exist, and even if they did, we know nothing about them. It would be in error to say we know something about them but they cannot be studied through science.