Why are people still interested in or afraid of the supernatural in a scientific age?

Question

pls try as much as possible to provide examples to support your points..

Answer 1

because supernatural will tear science to shreds :), man, science has been around for a couple of centuries but mysticism, the supernatural has been around since man first learned to make fire, it is the unexplained something that rational thinking isn't capable of understanding...take ghosts for example or demons, no one can prove their existence through scientific methods because scientists want proof in order to understand them but can you capture a ghost or a demon to show the scientists that they are real?...no...and therefore science will dismiss their existence, they will brand demons and ghost as belonging to the supernatural or folk tales not something real when we all know that they do exist and have a nasty habit of wreaking havoc in mysterious ways that science does not understand. people are afraid of what they do not know or understand it is in their nature to be so.

Answer 2

People will always be interested in things they don't understand, it's what makes us human. We are naturally inquisitive. whether it can be explained by science or not, and until the supernatural can be explained by some means or another there will always be people investigating and interested.

Answer 3

Because, science STILL can't explain everything.

Answer 4

People are facinated and curious about the unknown.

People are also scared of things they cannot understand.

Answer 5

The best scientific mind is an open one. The world was flat until someone dared to suggest otherwise.

And as science can only ever prove the existence of something, and not the non-existence of something, science does not override the supernatural.

Can you define the word 'supernatural?' Literally it means 'above nature' and so perhaps something out of our control. It stands to reason a scientifically-evolving world would show an interest in the things out of our control and current understanding.

I think the answer to your question is that we are a species that has thrived on learning, and evolved through it, it would not feel right to say, 'ok, I know everything, I'm done now!' We still have a thirst for knowledge, and that naturally starts with an interest in knowledge we don't already have.

A fear of the unknown is also an evolutionary thing, the unknown often meant danger to our primitive ancestors, and the ones that took caution with things were the ones that survived.

These feelings will stay in our humanistic nature until such times that we no longer need these aspects, and then who knows? Maybe the evolutionary process will cause us to abandon such notions, or maybe we'll be stuck with them forever.

Answer 6

Concrete examples?  Okay, Look up String Theory in Physics.  You will find a complaint its critics make, which its defenders acknowledge, is that there is no way to prove it.

Frankly a lot of what is called the Scientific method -- aren't Bacon's Novum Organon.  There are for example "scientists" pushing both strict Atheism and a form of Buddhism of the sort Arthur C. Clarke described in Childhood's End.  David Brooks did an Op-Ed column in the New York Times you can look up on-line.

I won't go into occultism and religion, which are different kinds of knowledge discussed quite intelligently until the latter half of the century, when for some reason the bizarre idea that hermetic rational investigation could explain everything (when it DEFINES some things as unexplainable) became so respectable that those of us who have to live with unexplainable things (and frankly I know so many ex-rationalists I think it's the majority of us) are considered less than respectable.

The problem with getting into a discussion with a rationalist is precisely that the Occult is 1. a different way of knowing -- and read Robert Graves's The White Goddess for a good discussion of that, though of course he is slightly mad, and 2. whatever has been excluded from the mainstream of knowing, so there is by definition no one criterion for judging it.  Why should I who read the Bible, the Tao Te Ching, Rudolf Steiner or Lex Hixon's books for relaxation and have supported radio station WBAI New York in the past, have to defend David Ickes, who extends his neo-fascist political myths into the realm of other common myths?  I've BEEN told that's my responsibility and I'm getting sick of it.

The truth is there is no one explanation for anything.  The people who accept one thing as explaining everything are, for the most part, neatly avoiding most self-criticism.  We have a LONG way to go before our understanding can encompass most things.    And an umbrella like the Scientific Method, which is really prosady, will probably, at this point, have to expand so broadly it won't be comprehensible to most people.  Until then, people will look wherever they can to find ways to understand what is out there, and some of it is reasonable, while some of it isn't.  We are not an homogenuous group.

Answer 7

Because good, evil and alien spirits exist. I,ve encounterd all three in my lifetime and know of the exisistence of heaven and h**l first hand. Its the alien experience that makes no sense to me because these things are devoid of any good or evil in them so its frustrating trying to work out the message sent by them when no spiritual connection can be made.

Answer 8

There are things that we are aware of but science cannot explain. When science cannot explain one thing it leads people to wonder what else is undiscovered or unexplainable (at least for now) and it leads them to make they're own versions of possibilities. Some people have supernatural connections with their religion and thus they wish to learn more about supernatural things as a way to further connect with their spiritual side.

Answer 9

They are searching for answers to their fears.  Fears of the unknown.

That is why the churches are full.  Fear of death.

Answer 10

Because the Goddess is real, and is pissed.