"The kernel of thought underlying all scientific exploration is a belief - a faith. It is that everything happens by natural process. Where everything happens by natural process there is no 'super' natural. No divine intervention. The two are synonomous: 'no divine intervention' and 'natural process'."

A stern voice interrupted my pontification.

"I think divine intervention is natural.", said Betsy.

She was wirey. A sturdily built wisp. Sun baked skin. An intense woodsy lady. About 42 years old, twenty-three years younger than me. Physical therapy and herbs were her concerns. Healing and right living.

Perhaps she equates natural with everything! Interesting thesis; to embrace divine intervention within natural process. The thought swam through my mind. I pondered how that could be done; to embrace divine intervention within natural process.

"But what would you, then, offer as something that defies natural process - something not natural?" I asked.

She reflected for a moment. She had an answer.

"Atomic energy isn't natural", she announced.

"But atomic energy is an engineering achievement. It's based on knowledge about the workings of nature. It is precisely the working of nature that is used to achieve the extraction of energy from a nuclear reaction. How to do it came from studying natural processes," I protested earnestly."It seems to me", I continued, "that atomic energy is not supernatural. To me 'not natural' refers to something like 'speaking with the dead'."

"I think talking with the dead is perfectly natural," she countered.

May 2003
Marvin Chester
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© m chester 2003 Occidental CA