Introduction
Supernaturalism is a philosophical belief presupposes the existence of such beings and phenomena as God, miracles and angels which influence human life and may interact with mankind in different ways. Supernaturalism is considered to be a basic premise of theism that testifies to the existence of God. On the contrary to supernaturalism, the atheistic premise is the core of naturalism which denies the existence of any supernatural creations.
Body
According to supernaturalism, human life is connected with a spiritual realm. If God or soul doesn’t exist or if human beings don’t have any relationships with a spiritual life human life is senseless. Supernaturalist philosophers have two different points of view considering the meaning of human life. They are God-centered and soul-centered views. God-centered supernaturalism finds the meaning of human life with the connection to God which is believed to be a spiritual person who is all-good, all-knowing and all-powerful and soul-centered supernaturalism finds the meaning in a human life connected with the soul which is an immortal, spiritual substance (“The Meaning of Life”).
According to god-centered thinkers, human life becomes meaningful if a human being fulfills the purpose assigned by God. God has a certain plan concerning the whole planet and mankind should help him to realize this plan. If a person fails to do what God wants, his/her life becomes meaningless. God’s purpose makes a human life important. The purpose theory presupposes the following of God’s purpose. There are different versions of God’s purpose. Many purpose theorists believe that a human being must be the sole source of invariant moral rules which make human life meaningful. Many philosophers look for the answer to the question about the contingency of creation. The meaning of human life depends on the fact that God creates mankind arbitrarily or deliberately. If it was deliberately every human life would have an equal degree of meaning. It should be taken into account that purpose theory has a wide range of contradictory questions. If God assigned us a purpose, God undercut the possibility of free will. There is a serious dilemma in the god-centered point of view. If our life is purposed by God, all human disasters and sorrows are also his faults. The existence of evil and good are also a sort of God’s purpose. If God is considered to be the sole source of meaning, God must be utterly unlike us, if human beings are like God there are more reasons to deny the existence of God (Perry 1999).
A soul-centered theory finds the meaning of human life in relation to an immortal, spiritual substance that is inside our body when we are alive. A soul is very important for perfect justice which makes our life meaningful (Cline). Immortality is considered to be the necessary factor of a meaningful life. Immortality may be achieved when a human being devotes his life to something worth which becomes eternal according to human values. On the other hand, the notion of immortality lacks our life urgency and preciousness and makes it meaningless (Perry 1978).
According to these points of view which are interconnected, one must have the soul which makes his/her life important and has relationships with God fulfilling his purpose of our creation and uniting with him in Heaven after the death (“The Meaning of Life”).
Conclusion
In fact, supernaturalism considers human life to be meaningful on the one hand and dependable on the supernatural creatures on the other hand. In fact, human life is deprived of free will and purposed by God. If human life is a deliberate God’s purpose, all evil is his fault too or there is no God at all if nothing can control the evil (Angelo).
Works Cited
Angelo, Robert. The Christian Religion without Supernaturalism. Toronto: Harcourt Brace & Co, 2010. Print.
Cline, Austin. “Religion Is Belief in Supernatural Beings – How Religions Involve Theism”. About.com, 2010.
Perry, John. Dialogue on Good, Evil and the Existence of God. USA: Hackett, 1999. Print.
Perry, John. A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality. USA: Hackett, 1978. Print.
“The Meaning of Life”. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2007. Web.