Does the Supernatural Exist?
Spoiler alert: science says "yes"
Yes, the supernatural does indeed exist.
At least, following the science leads us to see there is something “supernatural” in the universe.
We’ll get to that (perhaps controversial) claim, but first let’s define what we’re actually talking about in terms of the supernatural.
What is the “Supernatural”?
Supernatural comes from the Latin word supernaturalis. It is made up of two words:
super: which means “above, beyond, or outside of”
natura (nature): which implies what is normal, typical, characteristic, observable, and provable
So supernatural means anything that is outside of what can be observed, tested, and proven. You can check Merriam-Webster to see it’s not just me saying so.
Some people say they do not believe in the supernatural.
By definition, these people do not believe that anything outside of nature exists. They say they accept what can be observed, tested, and proven.
And they reject everything else.
Here’s how one person with such a belief system put it:
Nothing can exist outside of nature. Anything science discovers will be judged, valued, and controlled by the natural laws of the universe. Therefore, the supernatural cannot exist. [source, https://www.quora.com/Can-you-give-proof-that-supernatural-things-exist]
This way of thinking begins with a firm belief that nature is all there is. It hinges on a deep trust in science to understand everything in the universe. And inevitably rejects the supernatural, because science can’t prove or disprove anything outside of nature.
But just because some people believe this, it doesn’t make it true.
Nor does it mean that there needs to be a conflict between belief in the supernatural and science.
Conflict Between Supernatural and Science?
Personally, I don’t find a conflict between science and the supernatural.
I believe science is real while also not believing that everything in the entire world is provable by science.
I believe there are truly things that are supernatural, outside of science and that will never be proven by science.
If God is real, He is the Creator of all things. That includes science. If God is real, it’s not hard to imagine that He developed physical rules and scientific laws that govern the natural world around us.
We can see these rules in disciplines like physics, astronomy, math, and chemistry where humans continue to discover principles that point to an underlying structure and order to the physical world.
A naturalistic worldview says these rules are all there is. A Biblical worldview says these rules are part of a broader picture.
That’s how I “believe in science” while also not believing that science is the supreme arbiter of all truth and reality.
But here’s my broader thesis:
No one, not even the scientific atheists, actually believes everything in the world can be proven by science.
Let me give you one example.
The Beginning
According to science, something can not come from nothing.
There is no known mechanism within the natural world that allows for something to arise from an absolute lack of anything.
And yet, here we are. Existing in a something. Sitting on a something. Surrounded by some other things.
The Big Bang, first proposed by Catholic Priest and Belgian cosmologist Georges Lemaitre in 1931, suggests that the universe emerged from a singularity, a state of infinite temperature and density.
The singularity was followed by the Planck epoch. This is the earliest period of known time in the history of the universe that science can deal with.
During the Planck epoch, the temperature and average energies within the universe were so high that even subatomic particles could not form and even the four fundamental forces that shape our universe were combined and formed one unified fundamental force [source]
But science has no answers for how the infinite density of matter and energy sprang into being before the Planck epoch.
In fact…it is impossible, according to a strict application of the laws of science. It cannot be. Energy coming from nothing violates the conservation of energy.
Something from (Almost) Nothing
But wait!
Some science defenders may claim the Big Bang doesn’t actually violate the conservation of energy.
Perhaps we just aren’t thinking about “nothing” properly. According to quantum mechanics, the “quantum vacuum” or “empty space” may be full of paired particles and antiparticles that appear to spontaneously emerge from nothing. Empty space may not be empty!
It’s a predicted phenomenon called the Schwinger effect where a strong enough electric field creates the paired particles and antiparticles that appear to spring into existence. And in 2022 scientists observed it actually happening.
Matter had seemingly emerged from nothing. But on closer inspection, that was not true.
What about that electric field? Could it emerge from nothing?
Well….no. Not according to science.
But the theory does give hope that perhaps something can emerge from almost nothing. And maybe some day we’ll get a scientific explanation for an even smaller almost nothing.
But as far back as you go, you’re left with the scientific reality that almost nothing is still very different from truly nothing.
Trust the Science!
Some say that science is only waiting for an explanation that will explain how matter, energy, life can spontaneously emerge from truly nothing.
But any explanation must, by definition, violate the laws of science because science also says there cannot be such an explanation.
Science can expand and evolve, the naturalist might say. It might be able to expand and contradict its current rules while not being contradictory.
And many people do, in fact, say this.
Yet belief that this is possible rests on faith. A faith in discovering something that is outside of the laws of nature. Something truly supernatural.
Terence McKenna, an ethnobotanist, philosopher, and renowned advocate for psychedelics, described the situation this way:
Modern science is based on the principle: ‘Give us one free miracle and we’ll explain the rest.’ [source]
And in reality there are even more miracles that science needs besides all this something emerging from nothing.
How can an orderly universe arise from an unguided Big Bang? How can life emerge from non life? How can consciousness emerge?
Science has no good answers. They are, by definition, outside of science. They are supernatural.
Planck’s View
Max Planck, the namesake of the Planck epoch, did believe in God.
Here’s what he had to say about that (emphasis mine).
All matter evolves and there is only one force, which causes everything from the oscillation of atoms, up to the smallest solar system of the universe [the atom] to hold together. Since there exists in the whole universe neither an intelligent force nor an eternal force, and humanity has not succeeded in discovering any long-awaited cause of perpetual motion — so we must hypothesize a deliberate intelligent spirit behind this force. This spirit is the foundation of all matter.
A visible but not corruptible matter is real, true, authentic, because matter without the spirit cannot be — but the invisible, immortal Spirit is the reality!
Also since a spirit cannot exist by itself, but every spirit belongs to an entity, we are forced to assume that there exist spiritual beings. However, since spirit beings cannot come into being by themselves, but must be created, so I am not shy to designate this mysterious creator, as him, whom all civilizations of the earth have called in earlier millennia: God!
In this, the physicist, in dealing with the subject matter of the will, must travel from the kingdom of the substance to the realm of the Spirit. And so that is our task in the end, and we must place our research in the hands of philosophy. [Max Planck, source]
Max Planck died in 1947.
He joined a long line of scientific thinkers like Arthur Compton, Werner Heisenberg, Blaise Pascal, Isaac Newton, and Louis Pasteur who were Christians. Francis Collins, who led the Human Genome Project from 1993–2008 and was director of the NIH from 2009–2021, is also a believer.
These people all believed in the reality of science. And in the existence of a transcendent reality.
A Supernatural World
If Planck, Pascal, and Collins are right then are indeed in a world that is bigger than we typically grasp.
We’re in a world governed by rules and principles that we can usually understand in the natural realm…but one where sometimes supernatural things happen.
Next week, we’ll look at one such supernatural encounter.
Thanks for the deep dive, Zack. I'm sure you've also read about the multiverse theory, which looks like an attempt to kick the problem of the universe's origins back a step. But the problem you identify remains.
Such a great reminder that science and faith are not in opposition to one another. It is encouraging to be reminded that many of the brightest scientists have had no problem integrating faith with the laws of the natural world.