If it exists, it is natural: does "supernatural' as a word or concept—mean anything? Can something be beyond science? If it exists, isn't it natural? Here we present three short takes on this often-used term of doubtful meaning. Both the word supernatural and the concept behind it rest on shaky foundations. In fact, they fade to irrelevance in the light of modern, comprehensive views of nature

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The Random House Dictionary (2nd edition, unabridged) lists twenty meanings for the word "nature," and two of the most familiar lie at opposite ends of a sweeping hierarchy. In childhood, we are taught definition number three, which describes nature as the comfortably familiar terrestrial environment of flowers, trees, birds, bees, mountains, and rivers. Later we learn that scientists and philosophers elevate nature to a far more inclusive domain encompassing well nigh everything, expressed in definition number five as "the universe with all its phenomena." I propose that such comprehensive views of nature render the concept of supernatural existence both useless and pointless.

Although nature taken as "the universe with all its phenomena" embodies the broadest verifiable view of existence that humans have been able to discern, it is painfully apparent that many people have no qualms about casually, and often thoughtlessly, invoking beings and occurrences that supposedly reside beyond nature's purview. The magic buzzword used to accomplish this feat is "supernatural," which implies that a transcendent, inaccessible realm operates beyond nature and is in some sense superior to it. It is often further suggested that supernatural forces may have created the natural world and continue to control its destiny. Not unexpectedly, the supernatural kingdom has a sort of pecking order based on rankings of authority and gravitas, ranging from gremlins and gryphons at the low end to angels and deities at the high end. By any standard, the evidential track record for low-grade supernatural actors like demons and dragons is very poor, and most of us show that we understand this when the chips are down. For example, if our children sincerely ask whether such things exist, we will sincerely answer "no." Such prompt and confident insight makes it all the more strange that so many intelligent and perceptive adults are quite easily persuaded to accept the notion of high-grade supernatural entities, the most notable current example being Yahweh/Allah (hereafter, Y/A), the Judeo-Christian-Islamic deity acknowledged and worshiped by more than three billion people worldwide. So pervasive is Y/A's influence that he shows up even in the business world as perpetrator of the distinctly uncharitable "acts of God" that send insurance companies scurrying for cover.

The acid test for supernaturalness seems to be that something violates one or more physical laws, which is then assumed to mean that it will forever lie outside nature and hence outside science as well. The error in making such an assumption is the failure to recognize that every scientific principle we know of was once external to science and remained so until someone discovered and verified it. Indeed, as famously suggested by Arthur C. Clarke, any technology or phenomenon sufficiently beyond our current experience will appear indistinguishable from magic. By definition, science is a perpetually unfinished enterprise whose boundaries will expand as far as knowledge itself can take them and whose growth will continue as long as sentient beings are available to do the work.

Yet even in the face of such clear facts, there is a disappointingly prevalent tendency to regard science as trapped in a fixed and finished corral surrounded by mysterious phenomena it can never comprehend or incorporate. The disconnect here lies not in the perfectly valid concept of mystery but rather in the false conclusion that things not yet understood or explained must be unphysical and hence unnatural. As knowledge progresses, newly discovered and comprehended aspects of the natural world not only account for more and more of what was formerly considered "beyond science," but also illuminate questions at least as deep, subtle, and meaningful as any raised by religious or supernatural speculations. The strange properties of black holes and dark matter, the counterintuitive time-stretching of relativity, the built-in uncertainty of quantum events, and the relentless evolution of living things over billions of years make the rather naive and pedestrian "miracles" of scripture seem crude and unimaginative by comparison. Even the traditional epitome of nothing, a perfect vacuum, is now under consideration as an incredibly fine-grained, foamlike matrix, a roiling stew in which matter and energy continually exchange roles. Hence it appears more and more likely that matter and the space it occupies are not separate, decoupled entities. As the universe expands, space-time inflates with it and the question of what it expands "into" may have no meaningful answer. Far from being limited or short-sighted, the extended effort of our species to comprehend the power and scope of material existence has led to more advances in understanding (and also to more helpful, practical results) than any other form of human endeavor.