Science is by nature naturalistic. That is, it rejects supernatural explanations and attempts to find natural explanations. Some view this as a short coming of science, while others see it as being a simple necessity.

I think most of us would agree that natural explanations are preferable to supernatural ones. Here’s a few examples:

Difficulty breathing

• Natural – Anaphylaxis. Treat it with a shot of epinephrine, corticosteroids, and antihistamines, then breathing returns to normal. Then avoid eating what did that too you and life goes on.
• Supernatural – God is reclaiming the breath of life and you die.

A growth in your abdomen

• Natural – It’s a tumor, so remove it. If it’s cancerous then treat it with chemo and radiation. If it’s caught early and if you’re lucky you get to continue living.
• Supernatural – God is punishing you. If it’s cancerous then it metastasizes and you die.

Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans

• Natural – Hurricanes are a natural occurrence that strike that part of the world. People are idiots for building and failing to maintain dikes so they can live below sea level.
• Supernatural – God punished New Orleans because of gays.

Haitian Earthquake

• Natural – A natural fault caused a massive earthquake and due to poor building practices and an underdeveloped infrastructure a lot of people suffered and died.
• Supernatural – God was punishing the Haitians for making a deal with the Devil some 200 years ago to get their freedom from France.

There was a time, and not that long ago that supernatural explanations were the only ones available for a lot of things. People believed that God suspended the stars in a sphere above the earth and would occasionally let some fall down. Diseases, earthquakes, and hurricanes were curses from God. The positions of the stars accounted for daily events on earth. Multiple personalities and other strange behavior were caused by demon possession. Rain fell on the crops of those who had the favor of God, while droughts were God’s punishment on the wicked. Life was created by God in it’s present forms.

We now know that the Earth orbits around the sun and that objects we see in the sky at night are the moon in orbit around the Earth, other planets in orbit around our sun, or are other stars and galaxies. We know that diseases are caused by pathogens, genetic disorders, and cancer. Earthquakes are the result of plate tectonics. Hurricanes are caused by thermodynamics in tropical waters. We know that other planets and stars are so far away that they can’t possibly have any effect on us. Multiple personalities are caused by mental illness and can be at least somewhat managed by counseling and medication. Seisures are caused by epilepsy and can be managed by medication in most cases. Rain falls where the weather patterns and geological features dictate that they will. We even know that life has evolved over billions of years.

The trend of history is for things that were once attributed to supernatural forces to become understood as being caused by very natural phenomena. If people had been content to accept the “Word of God” to explain these phenomena, we would still be in the dark ages. To attribute something to the supernatural is to say that it is unknowable and to stop all inquiry. To assume that things are natural is to say that it is knowable and encourage a continued quest to understand it.

Since supernatural explanations end the quest for knowledge, I think it would be safe to say that that supernaturalism is bankrupt.