Would not the recent study showing the healing power of prayer serve as
proof of the existence of supernatural forces, or at the very least
substantial evidence in favor of their existence?
> [Original Message]
> From: Richard Wein <rwein@lineone.net>
> To: <evolution@calvin.edu>
> Date: 07/02/2000 8:06:23 PM
> Subject: Re: The Question of Starting Point Premises, and the Burden of
Proof for Non-Naturalism
>
> Thanks for the essay, Chris. I'd just like to nit-pick on one point. You
> wrote:
>
> >Naturalism is minimal; it assumes only the already-known natural world.
>
> This statement seems ambiguous to me. It could be taken as meaning that
> naturalism assumes no more than what we already know. But naturalism
*does*
> assume the existence of not-yet-known entities and mechanisms in the
natural
> world. For example, naturalism assumes that a natural mechanism for
> abiogenesis exists, even though we don't know what the mechanism is.
>
> I would say that naturalism extrapolates from the fact that we have
natural
> explanations of many phenomena to the assumption that there are natural
> explanations for all phenomena. Given the enormous past success of science
> in finding natural explanations (often for phenomena which were previously
> claimed to be supernatural), this seems a reasonable extrapolation to
make.
>
> On the other hand, supernaturalism does not just extrapolate. It
postulates
> an entirely knew type of phenomenon. That's why it carries the burden of
> proof, as far as science is concerned.
>
> Richard Wein (Tich)
>
--- Terry Trainor
--- tandjtrainor@earthlink.net
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