Skip to chapter I: Supernaturalism I

 

TL; DR:

Supernatural claims are based on old stories with dubious content, tradition, authority, intuition, and a telephone game, all methods that are fallible to a very high degree. There is no such thing as a supernatural epistemology, only methods that have proved to be mostly wrong again and again.

Big claims, no results, nothing can be proven or disproven. All claims are immunized against criticism, which should raise a red flag. There is not even an internal logical consistency, because all claims, in the end, claim that one knows what one cannot know.

The term supernatural is therefore either meaningless or a synonym for the unknown. Basically, all supernatural claims are based on knowledge about that which one cannot know. This is the reason belief and faith play a large role in the realm of the supernatural. There is no logical, causal, rational, or statistical connection between I believe that X is true and X is true, unless there is evidence. But all evidence is systematically excluded. Instead, old stories, subjective experience, tradition, authority and intuition are used as a base.

These approaches fail in the natural world most of the time. There is no reason why they should work better in a realm beyond the world we live in.

Our knowledge has gaps, and inserting supernatural claims whenever we do not currently know yields no gain. Supernatural explanations explain nothing and predict nothing, but they are comforting because you can make the world seem like you wish it to be. Wishful thinking is the biggest motive to entertain supernaturalism. This turns supernaturalism into a big and very profitable business model to exploit gullible people.

All these claims are the result of my investigation. Don't believe me; think for yourself, and read my arguments to bolster the claims I made.

 

Why is this text 10 chapters long?

Because of Brandolini's law:
The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.

A famous statement made by Alberto Brandolini.

Start reading here: Supernaturalism I

 

Table of contents:

Supernaturalism I
Start of this series, an introduction defining the term supernaturalism.
Supernaturalism II
Investigating the claims of miracles made by supernaturalists.
Supernaturalism III
Common objections made against the exploring of supernaturalism.
How to falsify naturalism
Supernaturalism is unfalsifiable, but isn't naturalism well?
Immunization against criticism
Explaining why immunization against criticism is an ideological maneuver.
Münchhausentrilemma
This is an introduction to the big problem why we do not have a truth criterion.

Supernaturalism IV
Exhaustive list of cases between supernaturalism and our naturalistic world.
Supernaturalism V
What is modern supernaturalism?
Supernaturalism VI
Supernaturalism and magical thinking explained.
Supernaturalism VII
Why claims made by supernaturalismen cannot be disproved.
Supernaturalism VIII
Why people will stick to supernaturalism, and finally, naturalism defined.
Supernaturalism IX
The realm of ideas and its relationship to supernaturalism.
Supernaturalism X
The major problem of supernaturalism, a finishing blow.
Start reading here: Supernaturalism I