The term supernatural literally means "transcending the natural". Generally, it involves the belief in forces that cannot ordinarily be perceived except through their effects. Sometimes it is used to characterize or explain events that people consider extraordinary (see also preternatural or paranormal.
A concept of the supernatural is generally identified with religion, although there is much debate as to whether a conception of the supernatural is necessary for religion (see The nature of God in Western theology and Anthropology of religion. Generally, people contrast the supernatural to the natural; some believe that these two concepts are compatible or complementary (in other words, religion and science fulfill different but equally valid functions), and some believe that they are incompatible and in competition.
The neologism supernaturalize, meaning "to make supernatural", is sometimes used to describe the process of ascribing supernatural causes to natural events. This process may also be referred to as mythification or spiritualization. Because the assumption of the skeptical reader is that supernatural events cannot or are unlikely to occur, their description is seen as the result of a process of deliberate or unconscious mysticism, thus, "supernaturalization".
Modern skeptical readers of the Bible hold that Christians gradually reinterpreted specific natural events in the life of Christ as supernatural. It is held that important supernatural beliefs in his life were not present or not universal in Christianity from the beginning, and that evidence for their more or less gradual appearance can be found in the New Testament itself. These supernatural beliefs include:
"Supernaturalization"
Supernaturalization in the Hebrew Bible
J. Keir Howard of the Diocese of Wellington Institute of Theology, New Zealand, notes that:Supernaturalization in the New Testament
The hypothesis of creeping supernaturalization makes the prediction that more supernatural events will appear in later manuscripts of the New Testament than in early ones. This means that the hypothesis is falsifiable: if fewer supernatural events appear in later manuscripts or there is no change, the hypothesis has to be discarded or modified. However, even if the hypothesis survives this test, it is not proved, because a failure to falsify a hypothesis is not the same thing as proving a hypothesis (see falsifiability).
However, the Canadian skeptic Earl Doherty, in his book The Jesus Puzzle, asserts the opposite, namely, that the earliest Christians believed in a Jesus who lived on a strictly supernatural plane, and that the historical Jesus did not exist until he was invented by the authors of Gospels late in the first century. More specifically, he believes that the New Testament epistles of Paul were written well before the Gospels, and that Paul did not have in mind a historical Jesus at all, but rather a Jesus who lived in some supernatural plane; this would be consistent with some contemporary Greek philosophies. Doherty asserts that the Gospel writers later thought that Christianity would have more credibility and appeal if it were associated with an historical person, so they invented such a person and placed his activities just far enough back in the past that readers would not be surprised at the lack of eyewitnesses to verify the Gospel writers' accounts.
The Virgin Birth is mentioned in two Gospels, Matthew and Luke and nowhere else in the New Testament. Matthew and Luke are believed to be partly based on Mark and are therefore among the latest parts of the New Testament (see Markan priority and Synoptic problem).
All four Gospels describe the empty tomb and resurrection but they do not describe it in the same way. If passages from the three Synoptic Gospels are laid out in what is believed to be the order of their composition, it is apparent how the supernatural has increased as time passed:
One skeptical hypothesis is that Christ's prophecy failed and his disciples reacted by becoming evangelical (a reaction predicted by the theories of Leon Festinger), with the enormous advantage that the failure of the prophecy was not spectacularly obvious, or even obvious at all once a little time had passed and Christ was safely in heaven. Evidence for this interpretation of the resurrection can be seen in the New Testament, where the resurrected Christ is not easily recognized by his disciples:
The Virgin Birth
The Resurrection
Granting that Mark is earlier, we can observe how his νεανισκος, neaniskos, or "young man", becomes Luke's later ανδρες δυο εν εσθησεσιν αστραπτουσαις, andres duo en esthesesin astraptousais, or "two men in shining garments" and Matthew's αγγελος, aggelos, or "angel" (literally: "messenger") descending from heaven. Note too the way in which the women discover the stone already rolled away by some unknown agency in Mark and Luke, but see it rolled away by a supernatural agency in Matthew.
Their failure to recognize Christ is explained supernaturally: their eyes were "holden". The story continues like this:
Notice the way they reinterpret the meeting after the event. It is now accepted in psychology that memories are not fixed and can be altered radically by later events and emotions. A similar failure of recognition happens in the Gospel of John:
Skeptics therefore suggest that the disciples, in their acute grief, anxiety, and disappointment, were seeing Christ in strangers, and so relieving themselves of their acute grief, anxiety, and disappointment. That they should have been prepared to die for this belief is not mysterious: it is very difficult for human beings to admit that they are wrong, particularly when the consequences of disbelief are very negative and the consequences of belief very positive. If Christ's disciples admitted that they were wrong they continued to suffer acute grief, anxiety, and disappointment; if they convinced themselves, consciously or otherwise, that they were right, they could expect eternal joy in heaven. Skeptics say that a similar process took place after the deaths of Nero, Hitler, Elvis Presley, and Princess Diana, all of whom are said to be have been seen alive after the announcement of their deaths. If one hopes or fears strongly enough that such an announcement is untrue, one can begin to see the dead person in strangers.
See also: Religion, SupernaturalSupernaturalization in Islamic writings
(to be added)Supernaturalization in Bahai writings
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