Why Do You Believe In The Supernatural?

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I am trying to understand the reasoning behind people's belief in the Supernatural; and by the use of the word "Supernatural", I mean:

(Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary entry on "Supernatural".)

So, assuming that you believe that such a realm exists so as to fit all of these definitions, WHY exactly do you believe in it?

Supernatural is misnomer.

I have in other places tried to explain part of how I see the existence of an outside, but you are setting up to slaughter those paper tiger straw men.

Good luck with that.

I don't believe in the supernatural.

(If you're defining it as 'an order of existence beyond the visible observable universe', well, in that case maybe I do believe in it. There is more than the visible, observable universe, and that's uncontroversial in mainstream science. The term 'supernatural' is not conventionally used so loosely, though.)

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The change of seasons used to be a supernatural event, I don't know if the concept of Supernatural will ever go away, but there is a trend of human understanding replacing the supernatural. Epicureus said that reducing superstitions by gaining knowledge was a way to obtain happiness.

I very much doubt the change of seasons was ever seen as supernatural.

Different analysis of what the natural causation was.

The natural / supernatural dichotomy is a fairly recent "understanding", that I like to think we will grow out of.

Change of seasons is observable though. =/

I'll say i leave the "door" open to supernatural, just in case we "ever" become able (on a large or global scale) to observable what is "currently" unseen. =/ (I'm referring to the first definition the OP stated) Until that time, i'm rather skeptic about whatever is deemed as such. <.<

Because I exist.

Go tell it to the publishers of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. While you're at it, go ahead and inform the publishers of the Encarta, the Encyclopedia Brittanica, the Oxford Dictionary, Wikipedia, and every university professor in the world. THEY are the authorities on this matter, not you.The changing of the seasons used to be considered a Supernatural event, as were the phases of the moon, the wandering of the planets, the weather, and most anything else that people did not understand.

But ever since people started asking questions, experimenting, observing the results, and noticing patterns that could be expressed numerically or mathematically, more and more events are now considered natural.

I'm agnostic on the issue.

While that's said I do tend to see a lot in the notion that there is almost too much out there to think its all BS but, then again, I would be just as fascinated to see a prominent psychology magazine say that the riddle has been solved and that its something inherent about the wiring/brains of certain people that cause internal experiences to project outward at times. If that were the case and it was a sealed deal - it would be a monumental step forward for man's understanding of self.

Other than that - I tend to be somewhat skeptical that we're at the end of 'metaphysical' discovery, ie. if there is such a thing as M-theory or any of that, PEAR's findings wouldn't surprise me. The possibility of psychic phenomena having some reality wouldn't surprise me. The possibility of faith healing wouldn't surprise me. Would it be 'supernatural'? Supernatural is inherently a receding label, if something is found at some point and scientifically quantified it ceases to be 'supernatural'. Heck, I wouldn't even necessarily rule out ongoing life past the human body, I personally don't find reason to believe it happens but then again it wouldn't surprise me if the whole adage that we're all points on a central pool and that we go back to this pool, something that likely evolved in tandem with everything else from the big bang - I wouldn't bet money on it, just as much there'd be no way to quantify an outcome, just that it wouldn't necessarily shock me either if it turned out to be true.

Actually, in many cases people have had a very good understanding of the physical cause of a phenomenon, but still attributed supernatural explanations and supernatural significance to it. I don't think the declining belief in the supernatural can be explained simply by the fact that society has developed natural explanations for things (in fact, I suppose some might argue that the causation is in the other direction - that we developed this vast trove of powerful natural theories, in contrast to lacking supernatural theories, because of the declining belief in the supernatural).

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I've had an extreme interest in the supernatural since childhood. I particularly enjoy reading stories of apparent hauntings. The ironic thing is that, even though I believe in them, I wish that I never experience a supernatural event myself.

It's the opposite for me. I don't believe in the supernatural, but I think it would be very cool if most supernatural things were true, and I'd love to experience ghosts, psychics, telekinesis, telepathy, and suchlike.

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It would be interesting to experience a real supernatural event, if only to observe, record, and study every aspect of it. Unfortunately, all of the events that others have claimed were supernatural, and I've witnessed and/or participated in, turned out to be staged and utterly fake.

Just one simple demonstration of a supernatural event or paranormal ability would be all that it would take to convince me,

I'd just love to see the deal sealed in one way or the other - ie. either have science find an inroad to what's been previously deemed 'supernatural' in quantifying and validating it or - scientifically validating and documenting exactly what makes by-experience believers see what they see or experience what they experience. Either would be monumental.

I don't believe in ghosts and monsters, but I'm afraid of them.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Depends on what supernatural occurrence you're talking about and what you mean by belief.

For example I don't believe that ghosts are the spirits of dead people, but I believe that dead people live on after death through the memories of those who cared about them, and as such I do believe it is possible that ghosts can be a psychosomatic response, or a poltergeist may be a persons emotions effecting the area around them - the latter is getting closer to being supernatural, but I do believe at some point a scientific explanation will come to explain this.

I am a SLIDER, I have had multiple experiences with ghosts, I am religious (although whether I believe in gods, demi-gods, elemental's, etc. would be a whole other very long discussion - I believe in them, but again perhaps not as others do). I'm a logical person, although I've had experiences so in a way must therefore believe in some sense, I believe there must be logical or scientific explanations for the supernatural.