Hand on the Mirror and the Fallacy of a Supernatural God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Hand on the Mirror: A True Story of Life Beyond Death\u00a0is a curious book, but let me start by saying that I\u2019m grateful for it. The author, Janis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hand on the Mirror and the Fallacy of a Supernatural God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Hand on the Mirror: A True Story of Life Beyond Death\u00a0is a curious book, but let me start by saying that I\u2019m grateful for it. 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{"id":599,"date":"2015-05-16T13:11:43","date_gmt":"2015-05-16T19:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/christianityforthesbnr\/?p=599"},"modified":"2015-05-20T16:50:12","modified_gmt":"2015-05-20T22:50:12","slug":"hand-on-the-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christianityforthesbnr\/2015\/05\/hand-on-the-mirror\/","title":{"rendered":"Hand on the Mirror and the Fallacy of a Supernatural God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"BC_TheHandontheMirror_1\"$ <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Hand on the Mirror: A True Story of Life Beyond Death<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is a curious book, but let me start by saying that I\u2019m grateful for it.<\/p>\n

The author, Janis Durham, a former managing Editor of the Sacramento Bee,<\/em> writes about several experiences she\u2019s had following the death of her husband. They\u2019re what we\u2019d call paranormal experiences \u2013 eerie hand prints on the mirror at the anniversary of her husband\u2019s death, clocks stopping at the moment of his death, synchronistic events, rugs that move of their own accord, that sort of thing. By virtue of her background Janis Durham has some credibility as she investigates the paranormal. She\u2019s a reporter after all and as such, the quintessential skeptic . . . for a while anyway. She does some serious investigating to find out what people know concerning such things and reports out as fairly as she knows how.<\/p>\n

But for me she makes one mistake. She refers to these paranormal phenomena as \u201csuper-natural.\u201d She does that even though she investigates what \u201cnatural\u201d explanations there might be for the events. When I say \u201cnatural\u201d explanations, I don\u2019t mean explaining them away as pranks or coincidences. I mean the kind of edgy scientific investigation that is going on at places like IONS, (Institute of Noetic Sciences). I\u2019m grateful for her reporting on this. The reality is that we modernists tend to be a bit arrogant, assuming that we know what is possible and what isn\u2019t, when the reality is we know very little about how the universe works. Opening our minds to the possibility that things happen in the world for which we have no explanation is a humbling, but really good idea. If we don\u2019t look beyond what we know we\u2019ll never learn what we need to learn. So she investigates paranormal events, seeking to understand their origin and meaning. But to call such things \u201csupernatural\u201d is to do them a disservice. Even as she treats them seriously with the use of that word she relegates them to the magic view of the traditional mindset and we\u2019d all do well to get beyond that. Really, our \u201cscientific worldview,\u201d the one that thinks inside the limits of what we can hear, taste, touch, see, or smell, has impoverished our spirits. It leaves no room for creative purpose; it leaves no room for God. We do not need a God who produces \u201csupernatural\u201d events, but we do need to recognize the nature of a God who interpenetrates creation, what Whitehead called the \u201cgentle persuasion towards love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now I happen to think that in accepting the veracity of some of the phenomena Janis started going a little \u2013 just a little \u2013 overboard in seeing synchronicities where maybe they didn\u2019t exist. But that\u2019s OK. Her purpose in writing was to \u201cdrive the topic further into the mainstream.\u201d That\u2019s a worthy goal, one I think this I book could accomplish if people read it. For that I thank her.<\/p>\n

Read an excerpt \u2013 and more reviews from Christians, Pagans, and\u00a0Atheists \u2013 at the Patheos Book Club here.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"