A take on the world in which earthly nature is decisively separated out from a heavenly supernature.
Supernaturalism is a relatively recent theory with a very strong dualist outlook. It’s a take in which earthly nature is decisively separated out from a heavenly supernature. The supernatural world of magic is carefully isolated from the natural world. In this bifurcated world, nature is not enchanted by magic, but it is left open to a transcendent realm of magic. “God came to be thought of as an external, super-natural Agent, who was the maker of nature, but who had no ongoing role to play within nature (apart from the occasional miracle).”1Paul Tyson, Seven Brief Lesson on Magic Contrary to virtually all the great religious traditions, God became only as a demiurge; somewhat of a craftsman fashioning the world together, a heavenly being coming somewhere after the law of gravity but before the present universe. God is merely the first agent in temporal history; some grand carpenter nailing together the cosmic edifice. This is the god constantly under attack by the New Atheists and vehemently defended by religious fundamentalists as they share this bifurcated construal of the world.
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