17. All Natural

We have discovered many things already in the previous chapters of this book.  We have learned there is no such thing as “other realms of existence,” “other dimensions,” “immortal souls,” the “supernatural,” and other “magical” notions.  The cosmos is, as they say, “all natural.”  That is to say, everything has a natural explanation behind it, even if we cannot yet explain a given phenomenon through science.  The reason for this is because the cosmos is One.  The reason the cosmos is One, and can only be One, is because if there were separate, opposite, and independent “material” and “spiritual” dimensions to the cosmos as substance dualists claim, than one “dimension” would cancel out the other and there would only be nothingness, which is obviously false, as stated previously several times before in this book. The fact all things depend on other things for their existence, and exist from a combination of other pre-existing elements also demonstrate the fact and truth of Oneness, as also stated previously in this book.  The truth of Oneness is why evolution is true. Things evolve and change from the same inseparable One, and cannot therefore be the result of a “separate creator” from “creation.” Any notion of “the spiritual” is essentially a notion of “magic,” which by definition is a suspension or negation of the known laws of physics, which cannot be demonstrated to ever actually happen.  And while the mind can conceive of something like magic, this does not make it fact.  The bottom line is – there is no such thing as “magic.” 

Magicians are also known as “illusionists” for a reason, as magic is an illusion.  Magic, like “miracles” are names we give to phenomenon for which we have no known scientific explanation, or a cause and effect relationship we do not understand due to a lack of complete information.  Since the cosmos is One, as we have learned, we can therefore be sure there is a natural explanation behind these illusions, and these “tricks” work on our perception due to a lack of complete information.  Magicians perform their tricks through completely natural means.  Even if a magician appears to levitate, read minds, or saw someone in half, they are not actually doing these things, but using one-hundred percent natural means made imperceptible to the human eye to accomplish the convincing appearance of their illusions.  Motion pictures, movies, are the ultimate illusion nearly everyone has experienced.  There is no such thing as a “motion picture,” since motion pictures consist of a film strip of a series of separate still photographs, which when projected at a high rate of speed, trick our brain, which cannot process the still picture information fast enough to see them for what they are, creating the illusion to us of a “motion picture.”  As we can see from movies, a completely natural process is used to achieve an illusion, as is the case with all illusions. Darren Brown is a brilliant illusionist who often uses his television shows and acts to thoroughly expose the methods of those who fraudulently claim to possess “supernatural” and “psychic” powers. He demonstrates how a completely natural means can be used to achieve what the credulous would readily attribute to “the supernatural.” Matt Dillahunty is also an illusionist who, like Darren Brown, is an atheist who sets out to demonstrate and expose sloppy, credulous thinking for what it is, and why those who are so easily convinced of these “supernatural” explanations are mistaken.

In the past, before the scientific age, “miracles” and “magic” were the ways people tended to explain phenomenon they had no known explanation for.  Science has answered many of these questions of the past, although certainly not all.  Since we still have unanswered questions, as well as the desire to believe in certain things which serve our deepest, most primal ego needs, many of us still believe in “magic” and “miracles.” That is not to say life is not in a sense, “miraculous.”  Indeed it is.  The fact of our existence is extraordinary and mind-boggling.  Still, it is a completely natural evolutionary process over billions of years which is responsible for our existence as it is today, not a “miraculous” event that defies the laws of physics.  It is a long, arduous, and painful process of natural selection that has ultimately resulted in who and what we are today. It is convenient for those who believe in literal “magic” and “miracles” there is never any quality of evidence which can verify these things as fact, while the overwhelming evidence for evolution is to the point of now being universally demonstrated as fact by the scientific community.  Whenever these so-called “miracles” are subjected to scientific testing, they can never be confirmed by multiple third-party sources as you would verify the reality of anything else.  This leads some to believe these “miracles” could be “real” since we cannot disprove them.  While it is a clever scam to use the non-evidence of something to state it is real, this simply does not work.  I can say that leprechauns, the tooth fairy, levitation, immaterialization, or any other notion from my imagination exists – all things for which I can provide absolutely no evidence whatsoever, but that does not make their existence real.  Again – there is no such thing as magic. 

With this knowledge in the understanding there is no such thing as magic; it is obvious none of the “miracles” as described in the Bible could have ever literally happened.  For them to have happened as literal fact, the laws of physics would have had to have been suspended, which is impossible.  There is no way in which the laws of physics can ever be magically suspended under any circumstances since The unchanging Principles of Oneness behind these laws of physics have always been and will forever be as we learned in the last chapter, while the manifested “entities” within Oneness and its two principles are temporary and ever-changing.  “Miracles” and “suspension of the laws of physics” were powerful ways of showing the “transcendence” of All – the power of God within Judeo-Christian myths.  Showing this suspension of the laws of physics through mythological stories was a way of expressing the transcendence of God.  “God,” or the Oneness of All, is transcendent since All is not a “thing” and is therefore never a limited part of itself, as ALL is One.  As a metaphor, these miracle stories work quite well if perceived by a mind which can see this. Through the mind of those who cannot see this, hearing these stories result in superstition from belief in the notion that the laws of physics can actually, literally be suspended in ones favor by an “all-powerful god.”  Jesus’ miracles transcended the laws of physics to “prove” he was equal to God. As a metaphor, such as “giving sight to the blind,” it is a powerful way of expressing how this man touched the lives of others.  As literal fact, it is impossible, since the laws of physics can never be suspended under any circumstances, as stated previously. If they could be, and human beings had these “supernatural powers” as some believers claim they or others do, then illusionists such as Darren Brown and Matt Dillahunty would not need to come up with completely natural means to achieve their illusions. They would simply call on their “supernatural powers” instead.  Brown and Dillahunty are at least honest enough to call magic and “miracles” for what they are – illusions which appear to be “miraculous” due to a lack of complete information on the part of those who witness these tricks and phenomena.  James Randi is another brilliant magician, atheist, and scientific skeptic who has made a career of thoroughly challenging paranormal and pseudoscientific claims.  Randi famously calls these claims “woo-woo,” and has even put his money where his mouth is by having the James Randi Educational Foundation offer a “One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge” to anyone able to demonstrate a supernatural ability under scientific testing criteria agreed to by both sides.  The offer was open from 1996 to 2015, with not a single person cashing in during those nineteen years.  It is hard to believe if such supernatural claims were able to be demonstrated as fact, that not a single spiritualist or psychic was able to collect an easy million dollars.

The common argument of a believer is often the idea that “God is over all things and is all-powerful, therefore He can suspend the laws of physics and do whatever He wants.”  This is not true, and stems from an incorrect, egotistical conception of God, the Oneness of All.  “God” if you will, or the Oneness of All, is not “all-powerful.”  God is ALL, but not all-powerful.  To be “powerful” is to be an ego.  Yet ego, being an illusion, therefore cannot be the True God. Since God is the Oneness of All, then Truth is never ego, nor illusion, and God therefore has nothing to do with power, and is not anything of the phenomenal world since God is no thing, phenomena, nor entity.  Once we say God is an ego, that God has a “will” with “preferences,” “likes” and “dislikes” as human beings have, then we are forced into an endless series of justifications and rationalizations for why god “does this” or “fails to do that.”  Why the “faithful” suffer terribly while the “ungoldly” enjoy prosperity.  Why natural disasters rip millions of babies from their mothers, etc.  And while such rationalization and justification exercises give apologist authors such as Lee Strobel and Harold Kushner a job, there is never a satisfactory answer for such a dualistic, conflicted conception of “god” which makes any sense, since all egos are self-contradictory and therefore not reality.

The totality of manifested existence is but a dream, as it is in constant flux and change. The entirety of what we can observe of the phenomenal universe is an illusion because there is absolutely nothing permanent within it.  Reality, the unchanging Oneness of All can never be “seen” as an entity with the physical senses because as stated previously, Oneness is no thing.  We can therefore only be aware of Oneness when we are aware of the fact we are merely a part of one whole.  The egotistical, limited, fragmented mind which sees only the part, can therefore not see the Oneness of All, but only the dualistic limits as defined by itself. The meanderings of the ego within the limits of itself are a game and nothing more.  “Real life” as we know it is not Reality.  It is “real,” as a dream is real, but not Reality, as a dream is also not reality.