Henke 2022ct

How Does Lundahl (2022m) Know What Supernatural Beings Can’t or Won’t Do?

Kevin R. Henke

September 15, 2022

In Henke (2022b), I wrote the following about verifying history and the supernatural:

“According to his second essay, Lundahl (2022b), there are two ways to verify the existence of the supernatural; namely, metaphysics and history. He is definitely wrong to claim that history is capable of verifying the supernatural. C.S. Lewis (1960, p. 2), a source used by Lundahl (2022a), even agrees with me that “history can never convince us that a miracle occurred.” We can never rule out the strong possibility that “witnesses” to a past “supernatural event” outright lied and made-up a story, or misinterpreted what they saw. These are the bases of Hypotheses #3 and #4 for the Talking Snake, which Lundahl (2022c) utterly fails to adequately address as discussed in Section 5.0 of this essay.

Lewis (1960, p. 87) is also correct when he states that the “progress of science” has not eliminated the possibility of miracles and that science has not demonstrated that miracles are impossible. However, again, Lewis (1960, pp. 17-85) fails to demonstrate that human reasoning or another other process involves the supernatural. He also failed to realize that the burden of evidence for miracles are on those that argue for miracles. Despite his often vague rambling, Lewis (1960) presents no evidence of miracles.

The only way to demonstrate the existence of the supernatural is to have it demonstrated under strictly controlled conditions with multiple investigators from diverse backgrounds. These investigations would certainly involve logic and mathematics, but not any unnecessary pedantic and flawed metaphysical arguments.

As an example, someone might claim that he witnessed a “prophet” raising a cat from the dead. Obviously, this claim could be a lie or a misinterpretation. So, how could anyone confirm that this prophet has the ability to raise animals from the dead? The only reliable way is to test the prophet under strictly controlled conditions. First, you collect a DNA sample from a cat that has just died. Get three veterinarians to independently confirm that the cat is indeed dead. Next, place the cat in a well-secured storage area where it can rot for a week. Then under strictly controlled conditions involving videos, get the prophet to raise the cat from the dead. If the cat comes back to life, immediately collect another DNA sample to confirm that it’s the same cat.

Let’s say that someone was actually able on their own without technological assistance to resurrect a cat from the dead. Perhaps, he lays his hands on dead animals, prays, and in all cases the animals come back to life. Now, some superskeptics might simply argue that the individual has discovered a new, but totally natural, way of resurrecting the dead and that the supernatural remains undemonstrated. For example, someone might argue that aliens from space could have hidden advanced technologies or natural powers that would allow them to resurrect dead animals even after a week. The process would look supernatural to our primitive minds even though natural law was not violated. It is said that advanced technologies appear as “magic” to less technical societies. If this is a genuine concern, have the “prophet” do a bigger task, such as producing a complete solar system from nothing within a light year of Earth. The prophet could be given six days to do it. Now, someone might groundlessly speculate that in a million years people might develop the technology to raise the dead or create solar systems from nothing – ex nihilo creation. Maybe, but if humans every gain the ability through either technology, now unknown natural powers or magic to raise the dead or create entire solar systems from nothing; that is, utterly control space and time, then they might meet the definitions of a god and they might deserve the right to be called gods. However, that doesn’t mean that they deserve worship as gods. Their moral character still may be quite human and flawed. Nevertheless, I’m skeptical that humans will ever be able to do ex nihilo creation and resurrect the decayed dead.

Now, I fully understand that a god, prophet, psychic, ghost, demon, or angel probably would never agree to submit to testing, but this is the only way to verify the supernatural. So, believers in the supernatural are in the unfortunate position of not being able to demonstrate that their claims are real. Too bad for them. Nevertheless, skeptics have no rational reason to lower their standards so that believers’ likely nonsense could be labeled as reality. Advocates of the supernatural have to find some way to meet strict scientific standards and demonstrate their claims.” [my emphasis]

Lundahl (2022m) then comments on the bolded phrase in the above quotation from Henke (2022b):

“Kevin R. Henke: ‘…have the “prophet” do a bigger task, such as producing a complete solar system from nothing within a light year of Earth. The prophet could be given six days to do it.’

That's a task for God, not for prophets - or rather, it is not a task for God. He already did it.”

How does Mr. Lundahl know that God was at all involved in the formation of our Solar System? Where’s his evidence? The scientific evidence indicates that Solar Systems can naturally form and are still forming today without any evidence of supernatural intervention (Beatty et al. 1999; Bennett et al. 2014; Chaisson and McMillan 2005; Freedman and Kaufmann 2002). Assuming that ex-nihilo miracles can ever occur, how does Lundahl (2022m) know that only God can perform such miracles? Also, where’s his evidence that God or some other supernatural being would not produce an ex-nihilo solar system today? Again, Lundahl (2022m) continues to make a lot of baseless proclamations based on his biblical assumptions without a shred of evidence to support them.

Lundahl (2022m) then continues:

“Kevin R. Henke: Now, someone might groundlessly speculate that in a million years people might develop the technology to raise the dead or create solar systems from nothing – ex nihilo creation. Maybe, but if humans every gain the ability through either technology, now unknown natural powers or magic to raise the dead or create entire solar systems from nothing; that is, utterly control space and time, then they might meet the definitions of a god and they might deserve the right to be called gods. However, that doesn’t mean that they deserve worship as gods. Their moral character still may be quite human and flawed. Nevertheless, I’m skeptical that humans will ever be able to do ex nihilo creation and resurrect the decayed dead.

I'm not mildly skeptical, I totally exclude it.”

Besides his unwarranted Bible biases, what justification does Mr. Lundahl have for totally excluding anything? He’s saying that there are some claims that would receive a zero on my Henke (2022b) probability scale for past events. I’m not even willing to give a zero for the far-fetched stories in Genesis 3 and elsewhere in the Bible.

References:

Beatty, J.K., C.C. Petersen, and A. Chaikin (eds). 1999. The New Solar System: Sky Publishing Corporation: Cambridge, MA, USA and Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, MA, USA, 421pp.

Bennett, J., M. Donahue, N. Schneider, and M. Voit. 2014. The Cosmic Perspective: Stars, Galaxies, & Cosmology: Pearson: Boston, MA, USA.

Chaisson, E. and S. McMillan. 2005. Astronomy Today, 5^th ed., Pearson-Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA.

Freedman, R.A. and W.J. Kaufmann III. 2002. Universe: 6^th ed., W.H. Freeman and Co., New York, NY, USA.