71 Sentences With "supernaturalism" | Random Sentence Generator

Can we really tiptoe past the elaborate supernaturalism of historical Buddhism?

Morrison's novels often covered themes like slavery, misogyny, colorism and supernaturalism.

Themes such as slavery, misogyny, colorism and supernaturalism came to life in her hands.

All of this postcoma supernaturalism is familiar, of course — see, among others, "The Dead Zone," book, movie and TV series.

What ancient paganism did successfully was to unite this kind of popular supernaturalism with its own forms of highbrow pantheism and civil-religiosity.

In particular, Mr. Cahn has attracted the attention of a network of Christian critics who see him as part of a growing stream of over-the-top supernaturalism in the church.

This deluxe box set packages his first feature, the poetic vampire film "Cronos" (1993), with his exercise in anti-fascist supernaturalism, "The Devil's Backbone" (2001), and another rich, daring mix of fantasy and politics, "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006), an endlessly watchable movie that bids to be a classic.

And if you're going to preference supernaturalism over non-theism, or one deeply held religious belief over another, by mandating that people have to listen to and acknowledge a belief like "life begins at conception" and wait to get an abortion — then I feel that runs against the grain of the very spirit of American pluralism.

Thus the only plausible approach for Catholicism is to offer itself, not as a chaplaincy within modern liberalism, but as a full alternative culture in its own right — one that reclaims the inheritance on display at the Met, glories in its own weirdness and supernaturalism, and spurns both accommodations and entangling alliances (including the ones that conservative Catholics have forged with libertarian-inflected right-wing political movements).

Remarkably supple—and frequently featuring its herald, Matthew McConaughey—recent hicksploitation includes the gothic, Eggleston-like bayou photography of True Detective, the "kiss my grits" supernaturalism of True Blood, The Paperboy's high camp, Django's black-comic lampoon of historical atrocity, the river rat nobility of Mud, the trailer-park mollusks of Squidbillies—and now the best of the bunch, AMC's Preacher, which aired its season finale Sunday, and in which Dixie mythology reaches lurid new heights of absurdity.

Natural Supernaturalism is the name of a chapter in Thomas Carlyle's novel Sartor Resartus, which, says Dr. Stirling, "contains the very first word of a higher philosophy as yet spoken in Great Britain, the very first English word towards the restoration and rehabilitation of the dethroned Upper Powers." The Nuttall Encyclopaedia states that Natural Supernaturalism refers to the supernatural found latent in the natural, and manifesting itself in it, or of the miraculous in the common and everyday course of things. Carlyle's theory of Natural Supernaturalism influenced Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, two admirers of Carlyle. It therefore contributed greatly to American Transcendentalism.

According to supernaturalism, a supernatural order is the original and fundamental source of all that exists. Accordingly, it is this supernatural order which defines the limits of what may be known.

When supernaturalism is claimed in contemporary Mormonism, there is a tendency to attribute the experience to a direct act of God instead of an indirect act through the mediation of spiritual gifts.

Seeking to establish for himself a middle position between rationalism and supernaturalism, he declared for a "rational supernaturalism," and contended that there must be a gradual development of Christian doctrine corresponding to the advance of knowledge and science. But at the same time he sought, like other representatives of this school of thought, such as KG Bretschneider and Julius Wegscheider, to keep in close touch with the historical theology of the Protestant churches. The term Offenbarungsrationalismus ("epiphanic rationalism") has been used to express Ammon's intermediate views.

Also Abrams, M.H. Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature. New York: Norton, 1971; and Nichols, Ashton. The Poetics of Epiphany: Nineteenth-Century Origins of the Modern Literary Movement. Tuscalossa: U. of Alabama P., 1987.

Carneiro, R. L. "Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology: A Critical History" Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 2003. Carneiro, R. L. The Evolution of the Human Mind From Supernaturalism to Naturalism An Anthropological Perspective. New York: Eliot Werner Publications, Inc., 2010.

The process philosopher David Ray Griffin coined the term "panexperientialism" (the idea that all entities experience) to describe Whitehead's view, and to distinguish it from panpsychism (the idea that all matter has consciousness).David Ray Griffin, Reenchantment Without Supernaturalism: A Process Philosophy of Religion (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001), 97.

Transformations, NY: Doubleday, 1956, pp 235-236 That set the agenda for many subsequent Van Gogh studies, which are predominantly biographical to this day. Van Gogh fits modern culture's attempt to find secular substitutes for a religion it no longer believed in, as M.H. Abrams describes in "Natural Supernaturalism" (1970).

Michael Ikeda and William H. Jefferys, "The Anthropic Principle Does Not Support Supernaturalism," in The Improbability of God, Michael Martin and Ricki Monnier, Editors, pp. 150–166. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Press. .Elliott Sober, 2004. The Design Argument, in The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Religion, W. E. Mann, Editor.

By this desertion his self-esteem, one of his strongest passions, though curiously united with singular sincerity and humility, was doubtless hurt to the quick; but the wound inflicted was of a deeper and deadlier kind, for it confirmed him finally in his despair of the world's gradual amelioration, and established his tendency towards supernaturalism.

Men like Trần Cảo and Trinh Tuy tore up the countryside. This Lê king, Cung-hoang- de, promised to set matters right."Thien Do Vietnamese Supernaturalism: Views from the Southern Region 2012 Page 54 "In 1516. Trần Cảo led an uprising in support of his claim to be a descendant of a Trần king and also a reincarnation of the god Indra.

Schmidt - Theyer / edited by Walther Killy Dictionary of German BiographyADB:Steudel, Johann Christian In Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Band 36, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1893, S. 152–155. He was a proponent of rational supernaturalism, and was the last prominent member of the so-called "Old Tübingen School" of theology. During the latter part of his career, he spearheaded an attack on David Strauss's controversial book, Das Leben Jesu.

Waterman eschews all metaphysics and supernaturalism in the interpretation of the effects of psychoactive plants and substances. His theories are loosely based on the work of Czech psychiatrist Stanislav Grof who as one of the leading specialists on the clinical administration of LSD formulated theories linking the contents of psychedelic catalyzed states of consciousness to the birth process.Grof, Stanislav (1975). Realms of the Human Unconscious.

The Libertine, similarly to Dacre's previous work Zofloya did not receive much scholarly attention but was criticised highly in contemporary reviews. Despite this, it was reproduced in three editions in the year of its publication. Despite its lack of supernaturalism, critics were concerned with the improbability and excessiveness of the novel. They found it too improbable to lead any form of moral message for its readers.

This Lê king, Cung-hoang-de, promised to set matters right."Thien Do Vietnamese Supernaturalism: Views from the Southern Region 2012 Page 54 "In 1516. Trần Cảo led an uprising in support of his claim to be a descendant of a Trần king and also a reincarnation of the god Indra. His army managed to capture the capital briefly and forced the Lê king to flee south.

Into this complicated religious scene, rationalist philosophers from France and England had an enormous impact, along with the German rationalists Christian Wolff, Gottfried Leibniz and Immanuel Kant. Instead of faith in God and trust in the promises of the Bible and Christian doctrine, people were taught to trust their own reason and senses. At the most, rationalism left behind a belief in a vague supernaturalism. Morality and church-going plummeted together.

The ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia have left evidence of dream interpretation dating back to at least 3100 BC.Seligman, K. (1948), Magic, Supernaturalism and Religion. New York: Random House Throughout Mesopotamian history, dreams were always held to be extremely important for divinationOppenheim, L.A. (1966). Mantic Dreams in the Ancient Near East in G. E. Von Grunebaum & R. Caillois (Eds.), The Dream and Human Societies (pp. 341–350). London, England: Cambridge University Press.

Charvaka (; IAST: Cārvāka), also known as Lokāyata, is an ancient school of Indian materialism. Charvaka holds direct perception, empiricism, and conditional inference as proper sources of knowledge, embraces philosophical skepticism and rejects ritualism, and supernaturalism. It was a very popular belief system in India before the emergence of Jain and Buddhist tradition. Brihaspati is traditionally referred to as the founder of Charvaka or Lokāyata philosophy, although some scholars dispute this.

The most natural position for deists was to reject all forms of supernaturalism, including the miracle stories in the Bible. The problem was that the rejection of miracles also seemed to entail the rejection of divine providence (of God taking a hand in human affairs), something that many deists were inclined to accept.Most American deists, for example, firmly believed in divine providence. See this article, Deism in the United States.

Prescriptivism can fit the theist idea of morality as obedience towards god. It is however different from the cognitivist supernaturalism which interprets morality as subjective will of god, while prescriptivism claims that moral rules are universal and can be found by reason alone without reference to a god. According to Hare, prescriptivists cannot argue that amoralists are logically wrong or contradictive. Everyone can choose to follow moral commands or not.

Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Press. Ikeda, M. and Jefferys, W. (2006). Unpublished FAQ "The Anthropic Principle Does Not Support Supernaturalism." argue that the Anthropic Principle as conventionally stated actually undermines intelligent design. Paul Davies's book The Goldilocks Enigma (2006) reviews the current state of the fine tuning debate in detail, and concludes by enumerating the following responses to that debate: # The absurd universe: Our universe just happens to be the way it is.

Furthermore, its proposal of an international court has since been implemented. However, in addition to its rejection of supernaturalism, various controversial stances are strongly supported, notably the right to abortion. Initially published with a small number of signatures, the document was circulated and gained thousands more, and indeed the AHA website encourages visitors to add their own names. A provision at the end noted that signators do "not necessarily endors[e] every detail" of the document.

Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh (Tablet V pictured) contains numerous examples of dream interpretation. The ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia have left evidence of dream interpretation dating back to at least 3100 BC.Seligman, K. (1948), Magic, Supernaturalism and Religion. New York: Random House Throughout Mesopotamian history, dreams were always held to be extremely important for divinationOppenheim, L.A. (1966). Mantic Dreams in the Ancient Near East in G. E. Von Grunebaum & R. Caillois (Eds.), The Dream and Human Societies (pp. 341–350).

Rand called her philosophy "Objectivism", describing its essence as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute". She considered Objectivism a systematic philosophy and laid out positions on metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, and aesthetics.; ; . In metaphysics, Rand supported philosophical realism, and opposed anything she regarded as mysticism or supernaturalism, including all forms of religion.

Gillian Holroyd is one of the few modern people who can actually cast spells and perform feats of supernaturalism. She casts a spell over an unattached publisher, Shepherd Henderson, partly to keep him away from a rival and partly because she is attracted to him. He falls head over heels in love with her at once and wants to marry her. But witches, unfortunately, cannot fall in love, and this minute imperfection leads into a number of difficulties.

He argued that organisms only know the world by their sensations and that this is a mechanical phenomenon to the effect that there is no design, final cause, supernaturalism or teleology. He subscribed to the materialist views of Epicurus, he commented that "in human affairs, Epicureanism is the only natural ethics which does not demand profound or subtle reasoning." Several of his books were translated by Harold Atkins Larrabee. Mayer advocated progressionist liberalism and opposed Marxism.

Larue's articulate critiques of religious dogma, supernaturalism and pseudoscience made him one of the most prominent in the field. During an academic career spanning five decades, Larue became a widely cited expert on topics including Satanism, visions of Mary, and death and dying. Over the years he addressed many other biblical stories. He hypothesized that an earthquake, not God, caused Jericho's walls to collapse, and that Lazarus did not rise from the dead but awoke from a coma.

Since Whitehead's metaphysics described a universe in which all entities experience, he needed a new way of describing perception that was not limited to living, self-conscious beings. The term he coined was "prehension", which comes from the Latin prehensio, meaning "to seize".David Ray Griffin, Reenchantment Without Supernaturalism: A Process Philosophy of Religion (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001), 79. The term is meant to indicate a kind of perception that can be conscious or unconscious, applying to people as well as electrons.

Hegel went to the extreme objective side so Kierkegaard decided to go to the extreme subjective side. Even some theistic realms of thought do not agree with the implications that this phrase carries. For instance, C. S. Lewis argues against the idea that Christianity requires a "leap of faith," (as the term is most commonly understood). One of Lewis' arguments is that supernaturalism, a basic tenet of Christianity, can be logically inferred based on a teleological argument regarding the source of human reason.

In 1780 he became an associate professor of theology and philosophy at the University of Wittenberg, where he served as rector in 1790–91. In 1792 he was appointed Oberhofprediger (first preacher) to the Saxon court in Dresden. Reinhard was one of the more influential Protestant ministers of his era, and was an important representative of "enlightened theological supernaturalism". He was not opposed to contemporary rationalist thought, yet at the same time stressed the importance of divine supremacy and Biblical authority.

Epidemiology of representations suggests that both cultural diversity and stability (macro-level) together can be explained by the massive modularity of the human brain and mind (micro-level) and SCCCs. This means that the manifold of human cultural behavior is ultimately explained by the manifold of domain-specific human cognitive abilities (mental representations) and respective SCCC. This claim would have broad impact, when applicable. It is discussed in further detail by Sperber and Hirschfeld for the cases of folkbiology, folksociology, and supernaturalism.

Amongst the men whose influence mainly determined his theological position and line of work was Johann August Ernesti. Teller's writings presented rationalism in its course of development from biblical supernaturalism to the borders of deistical naturalism. His first learned production was a Latin translation of Benjamin Kennicott's Dissertation on the State of the Printed Hebrew Text of the Old Testament (1756), which was followed the next year by an essay in which he expounded his own critical principles. In 1761 he was appointed pastor, professor of theology and general superintendent in the University of Helmstedt.

Daniel Dennett suggests in his book Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon that if non-naturalists are concerned with connotations of the word bright, then they should invent an equally positive sounding word for themselves, like supers (i.e. one whose world view contains supernaturalism). He also suggested this during his presentation at the Atheist Alliance International '07 convention. Geisert and Futrell maintain that the neologism has always had a kinship with the Enlightenment, an era which celebrated the possibilities of science and a certain amount of free inquiry.

In 1906, Machen joined the Princeton Seminary as an instructor in the New Testament, after receiving an assurance that he would not have to sign a statement of faith. Among his Princeton influences were Francis Landey Patton, who had been the prosecutor in a nineteenth-century heresy trial, and B. B. Warfield, whom he described as the greatest man he had ever met. Warfield maintained that correct doctrine was the primary means by which Christians influenced the surrounding culture. He emphasized a high view of scripture and the defence of supernaturalism.

For Wieman, God was a natural process or entity and not supernatural and was an object of sensuous experience. His God concept was similar to The All concept of Spinoza and theistic sectors of classical pantheism and modern neo-pantheism but with a liberal Christian tone to it. He had been ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1912 but in 1949, while teaching at the University of Oregon, he became a member of the Unitarian Church. Nevertheless, he was at the extreme edge of Christian modernism and was critical of 20th-century supernaturalism and neo-orthodoxy.

1986, pages D, E. Major points of the platform state that: Most Reconstructionists do not believe in revelation (the idea that God reveals his will to human beings). This is dismissed as supernaturalism. Kaplan posits that revelation "consists in disengaging from the traditional context those elements in it which answer permanent postulates of human nature, and in integrating them into our own ideology…the rest may be relegated to archaeology".The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion Many writers have criticized the movement's most widely held theology, religious naturalism.

Alvin Plantinga is a Christian analytic philosopher known for his free will defense with respect to the logical problem of evil, the evolutionary argument against naturalism, the position that belief in the existence of God is properly basic, and his modal version of the ontological argument for the existence of Yahweh. Michael C. Rea has developed Plantinga's thought by claiming that both naturalism and supernaturalism are research programmes that have to be adopted as a basis for research.Michael C. Rea: World Without Design: Ontological Consequences of Naturalism. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2001.

His later essay on Natural Religion, signed "by the Author of Ecce Homo," which denied that supernaturalism is essential to religion and maintained that the negations of science tend to purify rather than destroy Christianity, satisfied few and excited far less interest than his earlier work. In 1869, he was appointed professor of modern history at the University of Cambridge. He was a popular instructor and prepared his lectures carefully, which were well attended. In historical work, he is distinguished as a thinker rather than as a scholar.

In A Prince of Swindlers he created the character of Simon Carne, a gentleman thief in the Raffles mould, with an alter ego as the eccentric detective Klimo. Carne first appeared in Pearson's Magazine in 1897, predating Raffles by two years. Pharos the Egyptian (1899) is a thriller with romance and some supernaturalism in which a very sinister old man, Pharos, proves to be Ptahmes, a mummy who has survived through the centuries with full magical powers. The Curse of the Snake (1902) is referred to by Brian Stableford as the most interesting of Boothby's novels.

In 1973, Griffin returned to Claremont to establish, with Cobb, the Center for Process Studies at the Claremont School of Theology. While on research leave in 1980–81 at Cambridge University and Berkeley, the contrast between modernity and postmodernity became central to his work. Many of Griffin's writings are devoted to developing postmodern proposals for overcoming the conflicts between religion and modern science. Griffin came to believe that much of the tension between religion and science was not only the result of reactionary supernaturalism but also the mechanistic worldview associated with the rise of modern science in the seventeenth century.

The difference in interpreting the difference between religious and spiritual, humanist and naturalist and free will and determinism also needs a consensus. In addition the individualistic nature and thinking of many of the adherents preclude organizing cohesive communities. However recent authors (Ursula Goodenough, Chet Raymo, Karl E. Peters, Loyal Rue and Stuart Kauffman) are highlighting the paradigm via their naturalistic writings. In addition a few modern theologians with liberal orientations have rejected some of the historical claims of some biblical doctrines and supernaturalism and moved to progressive forms of Christianity and Judaism akin to theistic naturalism.

In the early-nineteenth century, the claim of Mormons to supernatural spiritual gifts was very common. Spiritual gifts were promoted in hymns, such as "The Spirit of God Like a Fire Is Burning", which was included in the first Latter Day Saint hymnal in 1835. However, with the passage of time, supernaturalism has been deemphasized as a normative expression within Mormonism. This de-emphasis is consistent with the general pattern of a young and charismatic religious movement experiencing the petrification of charisma because of new doctrinal standards, fixed rituals, and the policy making of bureaucratic institutions.

A number of commentators have identified SoF as closely associated with the non- realist approach to religion. This refers to the belief that God has no "real", objective, or empirical existence, independent of human language and culture; God is "real" in the sense that he is a potent symbol, metaphor or projection, but he has no objective existence outside and beyond the practice of religion. Non-realism therefore entails a rejection of all supernaturalism, including concepts such as miracles, the afterlife, and the agency of spirits. Cupitt wrote, "God is the sum of our values, representing to us their ideal unity, their claims upon us and their creative power".

Critics caution that such comparisons of wines of the same type need to be controlled for differences in soil and subsoil, and the farming and processing techniques used. Critics acknowledge the high quality of biodynamic wines, but question whether many of the improvements in vineyard health and wine taste would have happened anyway if organic farming were used, without the mysticism and increased effort involved in biodynamics.Douglass Smith and Jesús Barquín, "Biodynamics in the Wine Bottle: Is supernaturalism becoming the new worldwide fad in winemaking? Here is an examination of the biodynamic phenomenon, its origins, and its purported efficacy", Skeptical Inquirer, November/December 2007. Reprint.

During the 19th century, the drier Priestley-Belsham type of Unitarianism, bound up with a determinist philosophy, was gradually modified by the influence of Channing (see below), whose works were reprinted in numerous editions and owed a wide circulation to the efforts of Robert Spears (1825–1899). Another American influence, potent in reducing the rigid though limited supernaturalism of Belsham and his successors, was that of Theodore Parker (1810–1860). At home the teaching of James Martineau (1805–1900), resisted at first, was at length powerfully felt, seconded as it was by the influence of John James Tayler (1797–1869) and of John Hamilton Thom (1808–1894).

He then served as a professor of theology at the University of Rinteln (1806–1810), and at the University of Halle from 1810 onwards.Biography @ Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Wegscheider was a leading figure of dogmatic theological rationalism--for instance, he considered supernatural revelation to be an impossibility.Christian Cyclopedia J. A. L. Wegscheider (biographical information) Because of his rationalist teachings, he, along with his colleague Wilhelm Gesenius, were attacked by followers of Supernaturalism, creating a situation that led to a government investigation (1830).Encyclopædia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences ..., Volume 13 by Edward Wigglesworth, Thomas Gamaliel Bradford Ultimately, he retained his office at Halle, but lost his former influence.

Swami Vivekananda at the Parliament of the World's Religions (1893) Syman begins The Subtle Body by describing in turn the precursors of American yoga, namely Ralph Waldo Emerson and Thoreau. She notes that Emerson's 1856 poem Brahma concisely introduced Hindu nondualism, repudiating "sacraments, supernaturalism, biblical authority, and ... Christianity". Thoreau, she states, tried to practice yoga, and was seen by some as "the first American Yogi", but by others as "a misanthropic hermit". However, Syman identifies the dramatic arrival of Vivekananda and his Raja Yoga as marking the start of modern yoga, and the key moment in this as being his appearance at the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago.

The term Surrealism was first used by Apollinaire concerning the ballet Parade in 1917. The poet Arthur Rimbaud wanted to be a visionary, to perceive the hidden side of things within the realm of another reality. In continuity with Rimbaud, Apollinaire went in search of a hidden and mysterious reality. The term "surrealism" appeared for the first time in March 1917 (Chronologie de Dada et du surréalisme, 1917) in a letter by Apollinaire to Paul Dermée: "All things considered, I think in fact it is better to adopt surrealism than supernaturalism, which I first used" [Tout bien examiné, je crois en effet qu'il vaut mieux adopter surréalisme que surnaturalisme que j'avais d'abord employé].

Members of the Bouzingo became highly influential in the Avant-Garde Movements of the Late 19th Century and on into the 20th Century. André Breton mentioned the influence of Nerval in the first Surrealist Manifesto. He also included Petrus Borel and Xavier Forneret in his influential "Anthology of Black Humor". André Breton wrote, "To be even fairer, we could probably have taken over the word SUPERNATURALISM employed by Gérard de Nerval in his dedication to the Filles de feu... It appears, in fact, that Nerval possessed to a tee the spirit with which we claim a kinship..." - The Surrealist Manifesto, 1924 Italo Calvino included Petrus Borel and Gérard de Nerval in his anthology of "Fantastic Tales".

The Dreaming is a common term within the animist creation narrative of indigenous Australians for a personal, or group, creation and for what may be understood as the "timeless time" of formative creation and perpetual creating.Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park: Tjukurpa – Anangu culture environment.gov.au, June 23, 2006 The ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia have left evidence of dream interpretation dating back to at least 3100 BC.Seligman, K. (1948), Magic, Supernaturalism and Religion. New York: Random House Throughout Mesopotamian history, dreams were always held to be extremely important for divinationOppenheim, L.A. (1966). Mantic Dreams in the Ancient Near East in G. E. Von Grunebaum & R. Caillois (Eds.), The Dream and Human Societies (pp. 341–350).

Diane Negra, in her book Off-White Hollywood: American Culture and Ethnic Female Stardom, points out that while The Great Mutato impregnates both Shaineh Berkowitz and Elizabeth Pollidori without their consent or knowledge, it is "an oversimplification" to label the monster as a rapist, because both Berkowitz and Pollidori "desire for children through unconventional means". Thus, Mutato's acts allow for the two women to get what they desperately desire in a moment of "magical resolution". Eric Bumpus and Tim Moranville, in their book Cease Fire, the War Is Over!, propose that the episode—and by extension, the series as a whole—is a rejection of "modernity's naturalism" and an acceptance of "post-modernity's mystic supernaturalism".

He eventually attended the Claremont Graduate University, from which Griffin received his PhD in 1970. As a student in Claremont, Griffin was initially interested in Eastern religions, particularly Vedanta. However, he started to become a process theologian while attending John B. Cobb's seminar on Whitehead's philosophy. According to Griffin, process theology, as presented by Cobb, "provided a way between the old supernaturalism, according to which God miraculously interrupted the normal causal processes now and then, and a view according to which God is something like a cosmic hydraulic jack, exerting the same pressure always and everywhere (which described rather aptly the position to which I had come)" (Primordial Truth and Postmodern Theology).

Professor Russel B. Nye of Michigan State University countered that "if the message of the Oz books—love, kindness, and unselfishness make the world a better place—seems of no value today", then maybe the time is ripe for "reassess[ing] a good many other things besides the Detroit library's approved list of children's books". In 1986, seven Fundamentalist Christian families in Tennessee opposed the novel's inclusion in the public school syllabus and filed a lawsuit. They based their opposition to the novel on its depicting benevolent witches and promoting the belief that integral human attributes were "individually developed rather than God given". One parent said, "I do not want my children seduced into godless supernaturalism".

In regards to the gift of tongues, some early Mormons claimed that their glossolalia ("speaking in tongues in a sacred language unknown to any human") was an expression of the pure Adamic language. However, beginning in June 1839, glossolalia was de- emphasized in favor of the less supernatural xenoglossia ("speaking in tongues in a language that could have been learned by natural means"). In regards to the gift of healing, stand alone expressions of supernatural healing have been de-emphasized in favor of comforting the sick via priesthood blessings under institutional sponsorship. Today, few Mormons claim to experience supernaturalism, though there is a greater belief in supernatural gifts within Mormon fundamentalism as compared to the LDS Church.

Following hints from George Eliot, Hodgson believes that theology is a kind of fiction that offers imaginative variations on what is real. But first it must attend to the real, with all the detailed descriptions of the novelist, all the nuances in human attitudes, feelings, and actions, all the ambiguities and tragic failures that characterize human communities. Many theologians and preachers today avoid the real: they offer escapes and fantasies rather than honest engagement with the material world and human culture. The tendency toward supernaturalism and the miraculous is the clearest evidence of this escape, and the interest in the miraculous has not diminished over the ages on the part of many religious people.

Ultimately, Liddle argues that "which option you take, then, God or no God, is a matter of choosing something for which there is no scientific proof either way". He argues that adhering to both religious supernaturalism and scientific naturalism is not contradictory, but a "balance" of the "very essence of what it is to be human". Based on arguments for God such as the fine-tuned universe argument, and on a lack of a conclusive understanding of pre-Big Bang physics, Liddle states that "the true scientific position, of course, is that there may be a God, and there may not be a God". Liddle identifies this position as agnostic, which he distinguishes from the "zealous" atheism he is critical of.

It is devoid of rebirth, karma, nirvana, realms of existence, and other concepts of Buddhism, with doctrines such as the Four Noble Truths reformulated and restated in modernistic terms., Quote: "In addition to a restatement of the Four Noble Truths and the Five Precepts for lay Buddhists, the fourteen propositions included: an affirmation of religious tolerance and of the evolution of the universe, a rejection of supernaturalism, heaven or hell, and superstition, and an emphasis on education and the use of reason." This "deflated secular Buddhism" stresses compassion, impermanence, causality, selfless persons, no Bodhisattvas, no nirvana, no rebirth, and a naturalists approach to well-being of oneself and others. Meditation and spiritual practices such as Vipassana, or its variants, centered around self-development remain a part of the Western Neo-Buddhist movements.

The anthropologist Jean La Fontaine described LaVeyan Satanism as having "both elitist and anarchist elements", also citing one occult bookshop owner who referred to the church's approach as "anarchistic hedonism". In their study of Satanism, the religious studies scholars Asbjørn Dyrendal, James R. Lewis, and Jesper Aa. Petersen suggested that LaVey viewed his religion as "an antinomian self-religion for productive misfits, with a cynically carnivalesque take on life, and no supernaturalism". The sociologist of religion James R. Lewis even described LaVeyan Satanism as "a blend of Epicureanism and Ayn Rand's philosophy, flavored with a pinch of ritual magic." The historian of religion Mattias Gardell described LaVey's as "a rational ideology of egoistic hedonism and self-preservation", while Nevill Drury characterised LaVeyan Satanism as "a religion of self-indulgence".

Williston Walker, in A History of the Christian Church, wrote: "In its milder form, it emerged as 'rational supernaturalism,' but in its central development it took the form of a full Christian Deism, while its radical wing turned against organized religion as anti-Christian Deism." "English Deism on the whole was a cautious, Christian Deism, largely restricted in influence to the upper classes. But a radical anti-Christian Deism, militant in its attack on organized Christianity, though with few supporters, accompanied it."A history of the Christian church, by Williston Walker, 584 (1985) An early Christian deist wrote: > For God, according to these Philosophers, makes and governs a natural World > that is capable of governing itself, and that might have made itself as > well, had they not pass'd a needless and insignificant Compliment upon, the > Creator.

In 1934, he predicted the coming of World War II. Chisholm was a controversial public speaker who nevertheless spoke with great conviction, and drew much criticism from the Canadian public for comments in the mid-1940s that children should not be encouraged to believe in Santa Claus, the Bible or anything he regarded as supernaturalism. Calls for his resignation as Deputy Minister of Health were quelled by his appointment as Executive Secretary of the WHO, but his public perception as "Canada's most famously articulate angry man" lingered. Religious and other conservative writers and groups have accused Chisholm of being a Marxist or a Communist or subversive. Others placed Chisholm among three prominent Humanists who early on headed important United Nations agencies: Julian Huxley of UNESCO and John Boyd-Orr of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Latham is particularly critical of Raschke's claims that MTV "had put an entire generation of teens at risk of satanic contamination" and writes that "Raschke's indictment of the resultant 'Dionysian frenzy' ... indiscriminately conflated acts of violence, sexual 'deviance', and supernaturalism in a millennial scenario of youth's spectacular degeneracy."Latham (2007:126). Scholars Asbjørn Dyrendal, James R. Lewis, and Jesper AA. Petersen (2015) provide examples of Raschke "quoting ... misleadingly and out of context" and "hav[ing] forgotten all his academic training, and reverted, in a telling manner, to the folklore of evil". The scholars characterize Raschke as an "until-then well-reputed academic" (referring to the publication of Painted Black).Dyrendal, Lewis, and Petersen (2015:102-104) Scholar Joseph P. Laycock is highly critical of statements that Raschke made in the 1980s and early 1990s regarding Satanism in popular culture, noting that Raschke "is one of the few academics who embraced the moral panic over Satanism and role-playing games in the 1980s".