Why Religion, Spirituality, and Theology is important to me.

[Old Viking]

Damn it, MD, you can't explore something that doesn't exist.  If it exists, it's natural.  And hypothetically, if the supernatural exists we would be utterly incapable of knowing it in any manner.  By definition it is above or outside of nature, hence unknowable.

[Distind]

I think Viking's got it.

If there's no proof something exists, no solid inference it could, and no way to explore the possibility beyond a thought exercise, what's the point in believing in it? Personally I find there's plenty that I can look directly at and try to figure out, I don't need something I can't even see. Occasionally things which humans aren't even supposed to be capable of visualizing. Lots of 'intangibles' can be found and shown in patterns, or measured with things more precises than the basic human senses, but we haven't really found anything that actually makes sense to attribute to some force that we cannot possibly understand.

In fact every instance not specifically religious I can think of someone claiming we couldn't possibly understand, we now do to some extent or it's been exposed as a hoax.

[Material Defender]

Damn it, MD, you can't explore something that doesn't exist.  If it exists, it's natural.  And hypothetically, if the supernatural exists we would be utterly incapable of knowing it in any manner.  By definition it is above or outside of nature, hence unknowable.

What I'm saying is that anything that is unknown can be considered, to a degree, supernatural, and scientific discovery can pull it into the natural. Like ancient people thinking the sun was unknowable and supernatural. Now we know it's a big nuclear furnace. That's what I meant by "Science makes the supernatural Natural." I could always try semantics with "what is nature" but that'd be dumb and I'm certain we both know what's being referred to.

I tend to treat spiritual thought, beyond bridge building with allies in the religious realms, as a thought experiment. We may be able to see through patterns or further expansion of scientific research technology... something very interesting. But then again, science is endlessly fascinating. Whether the answers turn up something naturally spiritual or not is just a fun thought experiment. I tend not to give a lot of belief towards what I conjecture.