The Paranormal
The Parapsychological Association defines the “paranormal” as:
“Any phenomenon that in one or more respects
exceeds the limits of what is deemed physically
possible according to current scientific
assumptions.”

“Glossary of Psi (Parapsychological) Terms (L-R),” accessed
October 30, 2014.

http://archived.parapsych.org/glossary_l_r.html#p
The “Paranormal” vs.
the “Supernatural”
“Natural” Paranormal Phenomena
“Supernatural” Paranormal Phenomena
What is the “natural”?
?
What is the “supernatural”?
?
Physicality
“One obvious candidate for what is meant by the term
‘natural’ is physical. The earliest forms of naturalism,
in fact, were versions of materialism or physicalism
which maintained that everything that exists is
physical. As I have construed naturalism, simple
(reductive) physicalism maintains that everything that
exists within nature is physical and solely influenced
by physical causes.”
•
•
•
Keith Augustine
“A Defense of Naturalism.” Master’s thesis, University of
Maryland, College Park.
http://infidels.org/library/modern/keith_augustine/thesis.html
Problems
Can all natural states be
described in physical terms?
What about supernatural
phenomena that are
physical?
Supervenience
Augustine continues:
“In the contemporary philosophy of mind, an attractive alternative to
reductive physicalism is some version of nonreductive physicalism or
property dualism. According to nonreductive physicalism, mental states
are not simply identical to certain physical states (such as brain states),
as reductive physicalists hold; rather, mental states are supervenient
upon those physical states … To say that mental states supervene upon
physical states is to say that there can be no differences between mental
states without a physical difference between the objects which
instantiate those states … For our purposes, it is sufficient to say that for
a mental state to be supervenient upon a physical state entails that a
mental state is dependent upon and determined by that physical state
without necessarily being identical to it.”
Supervenience = lower order states determine higher order states
Uniformity
“Naturalism in [a] minimal sense can be identified with what has
historically been called ‘uniformitarianism,’ which is the
assumption that the same general causal principles obtain for all
events.”
What then is “supernatural,” if the “natural” is defined by the uniformity of
nature?
“The most obvious example is the belief in “miracles” defined as
supernatural interruptions of normal cause-effect relationships. A
miracle, in fact, has usually been defined as an event that is caused
totally and directly by God, without the use of any (‘secondary’)
causes.”


David Griffin
Religion and Scientific Naturalism. Albany, NY: State University of New York
Press. 2000. 12-13.
Lack of Uniformity
“Natural laws have implicit ceteris paribus conditions … In other
words, natural laws assume that no other natural or supernatural
factors are interfering with the operation that the law describes.”
• William Craig
• In Strobel, L. The Case for Faith. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House. 2001. 63.
Ceteris Paribus = “All other things being the same.”
Closed vs. Open Systems

Natural phenomena occur within a “closed system,”
without any supernatural intervention.

Supernatural phenomena — such as the miracles
discussed previously — involve external interference,
and imply an “open system.”
Mental Objects &
Properties
“Naturalism is true iff everything that exists is either ontologically
reducible to the nonmental, or causally reducible to the nonmental,
or both … For A to be ontologically reducible to B, there must exist
nothing in A that is not made up of elements of B … For A to be
causally reducible to B, it does not have to be ontologically reducible
to B or to anything else, it only has to be entirely causally explained
by B or some arrangement of B … A mental object is any object that
is distinctive of the contents or activity of a mind, in contrast to
what we do not consider as such. The most obvious examples of
mental objects in this sense are thoughts, perceptions, and
emotions.”
•
Richard Carrier
•
“On Defining Naturalism.” Free Inquiry 30, no. 3 (2010): 50-51.
Mental Reducibility
“Natural” mental states are contingent upon
physical states (or non-mental states), and
are emergent properties of those states.
“Supernatural” mental states are
irreducible to physical states (or
non-mental states), and are thus
ontologically basic.
Teleology
“Religion is that worldview, that paradigm, which sees
nonhuman/superhuman minds/wills/intentions at work
and which ‘explains’ events and legitimizes relations and
institutions in terms of these beings and their wills.”
•
•
David Eller
“Is Religion Compatible with Science?” in Loftus, J. ed. The End of
Christianity. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. 2011. 257-278. 274-275.
While the “supernatural” is not synonymous with “religion,” both concepts
are heavily related.
Teleology = the study of goal-oriented, purpose-driven phenomena
Τέλος = goal/end
Blind Nature
Whereas “supernatural” phenomena tend to involve minds, wills, and intentions,
“natural” phenomena are often characterized by blind, accidental, and mechanical
processes. In other words: “nature is blind.”
Natural = non-teleological
Supernatural = teleological
For example, the origin of life:
•
“Natural” abiogenesis and evolution is caused by accidental, chance events
(non-teleological).
•
“Supernatural” creation involves the willful intent to create and design life,
often with some purpose in mind (teleological).
What about “natural”
agency?
Human behavior is willful and thus teleological, but a “natural” origin of
humankind still reduces human teleology to non-teleological causes.
Thus, human agency is still reducibly non-teleological.
In contrast, ghosts, God, souls, and angels are not typically represented as
the result of accidental, chance mutations and gradual evolution. Such
supernatural minds/wills/indentions are thus irreducibly teleological.
•
Unnatural = teleological, but reducibly non-teleological
•
Supernatural = teleological, and irreducibly teleological
The “Superhuman”
•
Often times “supernatural” phenomena involve
“superhuman” abilities (e.g. breathing fire, flying, etc.).
•
However, “superhuman” abilities can still be “natural,”
if they are reducible to non-teleological causes.
The “Natural” vs.
the “Supernatural”
“Natural” phenomena tend
to be:
1. Physical (or supervenient
upon the physical)
2. Uniform
3. Causally Closed
4. Reducibly Non-Mental
(mental states are
contingent and emergent)
5. Non-Teleological
“Supernatural” phenomena
tend to be:
1. Non-Physical (or
supervenient upon the
non-physical)
2. Irregular
3. Causally Open
4. Irreducibly Mental
(mental states are
ontologically basic)
5. Teleological