Supernatural

@article{fulmer1977the,
    author = "Fulmer, G.",
    title = "The concept of the supernatural",
    year = "1977",
    journal = "Analysis",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/37.3.113",
    doi = "10.1093/analys/37.3.113",
    number = "3",
    pages = "113-116",
    volume = "37"
}

@misc{fulmer1977the1,
    author = "Fulmer, G",
    title = "The Concept of the Supernatural",
    year = "1977",
    howpublished = "Analysis, v. XXXVII, p. 113- 116",
    note = "talkorigins\_source = {true}; raw\_reference = {Fulmer, G., 1977, The Concept of the Supernatural: Analysis, v. XXXVII, p. 113- 116.}"
}

@article{hultkrantz1983the,
    author = "Hultkrantz, Åke",
    title = "The Concept of the Supernatural in Primal Religion",
    year = "1983",
    journal = "History of Religions",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1086/462923",
    doi = "10.1086/462923",
    number = "3",
    pages = "231-253",
    volume = "22"
}

According to Thomas Aquinas, a miracle had to surpass the whole of the created nature, which meant the visible and corporeal, as well as the invisible and incorporeal nature. Prospero Lambertini (1675–1758), the future Pope Benedict XIV, when he was promoter of the faith, noticed that it was impossible to distinguish a cure that occurred beyond the boundaries of incorporeal and invisible nature (the whole nature) from one that exceeded just corporeal and visible nature. The issue was of utmost importance since it risked delegitimizing the whole system of miracle verification. Consequently, Lambertini, in the fourth book of his magnum opus De servorum Dei beatificatione et beatorum canonizatione (On the Beatification of the Servants of God and the Canonization of the Blessed, 1734–1738), developed a new classification of miracles, which included the works of angels, with the aim of solving the problem. Furthermore, to counteract Spinoza's denial of miracles, he claimed that miracles were not contrary to the laws of nature.

@article{laverda2021revising,
    author = "Laverda, Alessandro",
    title = "Revising the Supernatural: Prospero Lambertini's Reconsideration of the Concept of Miracle",
    year = "2021",
    journal = "Church History",
    abstract = "According to Thomas Aquinas, a miracle had to surpass the whole of the created nature, which meant the visible and corporeal, as well as the invisible and incorporeal nature. Prospero Lambertini (1675–1758), the future Pope Benedict XIV, when he was promoter of the faith, noticed that it was impossible to distinguish a cure that occurred beyond the boundaries of incorporeal and invisible nature (the whole nature) from one that exceeded just corporeal and visible nature. The issue was of utmost importance since it risked delegitimizing the whole system of miracle verification. Consequently, Lambertini, in the fourth book of his magnum opus De servorum Dei beatificatione et beatorum canonizatione (On the Beatification of the Servants of God and the Canonization of the Blessed, 1734–1738), developed a new classification of miracles, which included the works of angels, with the aim of solving the problem. Furthermore, to counteract Spinoza's denial of miracles, he claimed that miracles were not contrary to the laws of nature.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1017/s000964072100072x",
    doi = "10.1017/s000964072100072x",
    number = "1",
    pages = "45-67",
    volume = "90"
}

UNLABELLED: The belief in supernatural punishment is suggested to play a role in sustaining group cooperation. We propose the concept of artificial supernatural punishment (ASP) to examine the stability of and changes in beliefs and cooperation within an experimental framework: each participant decides the extent to which they wish to cooperate in a public goods game, after which some participants experience a random reduction of points. A total of 179 participants registered with a crowdsourcing service were assigned to either a random instruction condition or an ASP instruction condition, wherein the reduction targets were explained as either random or proportional to participants’ cooperation levels. That is, in the latter case, less cooperative participants were more likely to be chosen as targets, leading participants to anticipate a link between low cooperation and reductions, even though the selection was random. As a baseline, 93 additional participants played only the public goods game. The ASP instruction facilitated cooperation in the first game round compared with the random instruction condition; however, this effect was not sustained and overall cooperation levels did not significantly differ from other conditions. Approaches to mitigate the instability of cooperation dependent on beliefs in supernatural punishment are discussed. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-026-38499-3.

@article{doi101038s41598026384993,
    author = "Ozono, Hiroki and Nakama, Daisuke",
    title = "Instability of cooperation based on fictitious belief: an experiment with artificial supernatural punishment.",
    year = "2026",
    journal = "Scientific reports",
    abstract = "UNLABELLED: The belief in supernatural punishment is suggested to play a role in sustaining group cooperation. We propose the concept of artificial supernatural punishment (ASP) to examine the stability of and changes in beliefs and cooperation within an experimental framework: each participant decides the extent to which they wish to cooperate in a public goods game, after which some participants experience a random reduction of points. A total of 179 participants registered with a crowdsourcing service were assigned to either a random instruction condition or an ASP instruction condition, wherein the reduction targets were explained as either random or proportional to participants’ cooperation levels. That is, in the latter case, less cooperative participants were more likely to be chosen as targets, leading participants to anticipate a link between low cooperation and reductions, even though the selection was random. As a baseline, 93 additional participants played only the public goods game. The ASP instruction facilitated cooperation in the first game round compared with the random instruction condition; however, this effect was not sustained and overall cooperation levels did not significantly differ from other conditions. Approaches to mitigate the instability of cooperation dependent on beliefs in supernatural punishment are discussed. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-026-38499-3.",
    url = "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12963585/",
    doi = "10.1038/s41598-026-38499-3",
    pmcid = "PMC12963585",
    pmid = "41673215"
}