Can something be "unnatural"?

[severed001]

The problem with this definition is that you use the word "intention". That means it had to be DESIGNED by SOMEONE. In the case of humans, that means you have to believe in God.

The church can say that homosexuality is unnatural because that's not what those body parts are intended to do. But intended by who is the real question? If you don't believe in God, then it's all meaningless.

Evolution, on the other hand, doesn't have intention or purpose or anything like God would.

Now you've taken my simple statement and warped it into a moral argument, which I entirely don't care about.

Following my original post, your leg is made with a set path of motion to follow. When the motion goes out of this clearly intended path, it is unnatural.

[Deleted]

I think its no longer natural when its modified. Tree's are natural, desks arent

[Deleted]

No.

According to me everything comes from nature. Everything is nature.
It grinds my gears when people say that things like chemicals are "unnatural". I mean, where does the materials come from to make chemicals? Nature. Everything on Earth is nature. Therefor nothing can be unnatural.

What do you guys say?

Btw bestest england speaker, be gentle.

I think someone needs to read more books. :P

[Daws001]

Natural vs man-made.

I see where you're coming from but my car is not natural.

[Simulacrum]

Now you've taken my simple statement and warped it into a moral argument, which I entirely don't care about.

Following my original post, your leg is made with a set path of motion to follow. When the motion goes out of this clearly intended path, it is unnatural.

I don't think you understand. Legs don't have an intended path, because there's no intent behind the process of evolution. Thus your definition of the word "unnatural" is a meaningless one.

[Aspect of Death]

Natrual is (for me atleast) something that you find in nature, that is natrually made.
Chemicals are not growing on trees, they are made by humans, and then its not natrual.

Changeing gene in fruit,human body, animals etc etc is not natrual.
Do you think, haveing a human growth gene in a fish to make it grow faster than normal, is natrual? There is nothing natrual about it.

However, sometimes in nature there are "mutations" witch happends, and that is natrual. But not when humans take a gene from a fish to put into the DNA of a tomato etcetc, its just not natrual.

[Madness20]

Technically anything that does not occur naturally is unnatural to some extent. If there's explicit meddling involved to gain a particular result, then I'd say it's unnatural. It's all very subjective, though. Things like technology are very rarely linked to the natural cycle, for example. Yet other discoveries that humans have made such as fire can occur naturally.

Yep, very subjective. "Naturally occurs" is actually subjective too. For example, do nuclear reactions naturally occur in earth atmosphere or in space? Nope, but they do happen in the sun. "Naturally occurs" is bound to a specific place with specific laws, conditions to achieve those results.

Something artificially designed by humans are also made by a natural entity, using natural tools and natural laws to achieve a logical "natural" result that is expected. If it was the sun or humans that made it, does it makes that much significance on being "natural"? It's as natural as the complex laws and mechanics that make the sun create particles.

[severed001]

I don't think you understand. Legs don't have an intended path, because there's no intent behind the process of evolution. Thus your definition of the word "unnatural" is a meaningless one.

No, I believe you're hung up on what you believe is an opportunity to express your moral belief on creationism and evolution.

Your leg bends how its tendons and joints (and much more) allow it. You are not evolving when you break your leg and can suddenly bend it to touch your face. Hence why it would be called unnatural. : )

[Deleted]

yeah religion and the human need to massacre each other is unnatural, otherwise no because even chemical stuff was not "created" but harvested some time ago. The human urge to kill for fun his own breed is mostly unmatched in nature, sure lions and monkeys sometimes kill others offspring or each other over leadership positions, but those are bound on preserving their own genes. Gays are more natural then most people believe, but that killing thing...

[Howard Moon]

No.

According to me everything comes from nature. Everything is nature.
It grinds my gears when people say that things like chemicals are "unnatural". I mean, where does the materials come from to make chemicals? Nature. Everything on Earth is nature. Therefor nothing can be unnatural.

What do you guys say?

Btw bestest england speaker, be gentle.

That's why words have standard definitions, instead of having whatever definition YOU want them to have.

[Borzo]

No, I believe you're hung up on what you believe is an opportunity to express your moral belief on creationism and evolution.

Your leg bends how its tendons and joints (and much more) allow it. You are not evolving when you break your leg and can suddenly bend it to touch your face. Hence why it would be called unnatural. : )

The point is that your leg's range of motion does NOT have an "intended path". It may have a path that it is ABLE to follow. But being able to do something is different than being intended to do something. (One requires a designer/creator, the other does not.)

[Simulacrum]

No, I believe you're hung up on what you believe is an opportunity to express your moral belief on creationism and evolution.

Your leg bends how its tendons and joints (and much more) allow it. You are not evolving when you break your leg and can suddenly bend it to touch your face. Hence why it would be called unnatural. : )

This has nothing to do with moral beliefs, this has to do with scientific theory. There's no "intent", there's only "what happens to work" and "what happens not to work".

And if breaking your leg happens to somehow work to achieve whatever goals you were hoping to achieve by doing that, then that's natural, as would the alternative be. The goal itself is also irrelevant. All that ultimately matters is your ability to increase the number of your genes that's present in the population; succeed or fail at that, whichever it ends up being, it'd still be natural, only difference being that you'd see more of the ones that succeed than of the ones that fail.

[Deleted]

In the sense that even man made things are created using naturally occurring materials, then yes, everything is natural. In the real sense that it is used to describe somethings of which the creation is otherwise impossible to occur without human intervention then no, not everything is natural.

[Synstir]

No.

According to me everything comes from nature. Everything is nature.
It grinds my gears when people say that things like chemicals are "unnatural". I mean, where does the materials come from to make chemicals? Nature. Everything on Earth is nature. Therefor nothing can be unnatural.

What do you guys say?

Btw bestest england speaker, be gentle.

Off course something can be unnatural.... although the ingredients are natural, it doesn't mean that what is created out of them have to be natural.
Natural means just that it is created by nature....... unnatural will be created by us. So... there are a lot of things which can be called unnatural.

[Deleted]

Now you've taken my simple statement and warped it into a moral argument, which I entirely don't care about.

Following my original post, your leg is made with a set path of motion to follow. When the motion goes out of this clearly intended path, it is unnatural.

That's incorrect, yes it has a path in which it can work for our body but it is not unnatural for it to exist out of that state, it is just unusual.

[Mayhem]

really? that´s your question, well you answered it, anything in the universe or beyond is natural, grz ... guess what if we´d call it monkeypoo it´ll be anything in the universe and beyond is monkeypoo

it´s just us humans describing something, just like we usually do, so that other humans are able to understand what the f we´re talking about

[Xcruiser]

2) Man creates alot of stuff. But is it not natural? All man is doing is recycling and improving on natural materials, even though we use an extremely wide array of tools to do it. For example plants create all sorts of chemical biproducts, within their systems, how is it different when we create/combine/utilize it with a greater purpose it in a factory?

The processes performed by plants and insects tend to synergize with nature and maintain a largely harmonious balance. Whereas human creations are usually created for profit and ease of use, not for equilibrium.

[Madness20]

Off course something can be unnatural.... although the ingredients are natural, it doesn't mean that what is created out of them have to be natural.

Humans are natural, so how can something they produce be unnatural?

Let me ask you this, are atoms natural? Most of them were created by stars, which is a "natural" existance as human is. The difference is the stars are capable of producing atoms by their own means, humans create atoms by artificial means. But both are "natural" atoms, made by natural laws, just different mechanics.

Natural means just that it is created by nature....... unnatural will be created by us. So... there are a lot of things which can be called unnatural.

If it's created by us it is created by natural means and tools. "Nature" also has it's own tools, i find it curious how you don't think humans belong to "nature", as if we were outsiders or spectators.
If an alien came and see us, would they call us "unnatural" or not belonging to nature?

[Borzo]

But if you use "natural" to mean ANYTHING created by nature, then that includes EVERYTHING, doesn't it?

And if it does, then the word "natural" becomes meaningless.

(Granted, the word "natural" might actually be meaningless... I can see how that might be a valid point.)

[bekilrwale]

You are thinking of organic. Organic meens that it comes from the Earth. Natural meens there are no man-made chemicals or synthetics in it. At least it is this way for food labeling.