Has The Supernatural Hypothesis Failed?

Hi Straggler If we ever do get evidence for something that is currently classifed as "supernatural" (E.G. if an entity revealed itself to us, and demonstrated in a most convincing manner how it created the universe), would that not just be a new and possibly better natural explanation of things, in exactly the same way as Einstein's theories superseded Newton's?I.E. Is "supernatural" just a word meaning "something we don't understand at this time" and if we ever do understand it, then it becomes re-classified as "natural"?

Ah, but does magic overturn the laws of nature?Maybe what we call "magic" or "supernatural" simply uses laws of nature we have not yet discovered.If we don't know what magic or supernatural actually are, then how can we say that they do not use laws of nature?If something "supernatural" created the "natural" universe that we know, then the supernatural must have some connection to the natural. So one is just some kind of extension of the other. They can't be separate if they have some connection - quite literally!

I guess I just don't get what "supernatural" means, and what separates it from "natural".I guess something like magnetism would seem magic or supernatural to many people (including myself!) in the sense that I can't see how it works. But we now have ways of detecting it, and laws that define it, so we say it is part of the natural world.If an entity created the universe, it must have had a mechanism for doing so. If we found out what that mechanism was, why wouldn't it be classified as "natural" just as things like magnetism, gravity and electricity are?If it could never be defined as natural, why is that? What is the dividing line between supernatural and natural?

Why do you consider it "insane" to believe that we can tell a lot about the past from evidence we observe in the rocks and atmosphere today, yet you don't consider it insane to believe in something you claim happened in the past and for which there is no evidence whatsover?

If Yahweh (whatever that is) could deliberately make things happen by "will", surely there must be some mechanism or process between the act of "will" and the desired consequence.E.G. If Yahweh wills the birth of Jesus from a virgin, there must then be some mechanism or process that occurs to ensure the desired conception and birth of Jesus - and not some undesired consquence such as a tree falling over!Even if such process is unknown to us, if it affects objects within the natural world, why is it not a natural process?Or to put it another way, how do you differentiate between "some quirk of biology not yet discovered", "the will of Yahweh", or "a miracle"?