Abstract
Walter Hearn uses my Tale of the Handyman to illustrate a rather different point from mine regarding the relationship between science and the supernatural, namely, "that at the level of investigation into the causes of particular events, most scientific methodology is independent of ultimate beliefs or world views." In elucidating this claim, Hearn draws a contrast between "ultimate beliefs" or "personal beliefs," on the one hand, and "natural explanations" on the other. He implies that in order to consider either of these kinds of hypotheses as an explanation for a physical fact, one must have antecedent reasons to believe in the existence of the entity postulated by the explanation. And in the case of "ultimate" explanations, he suggests that a Christian's antecedent belief in the supernatural is based on "non-scientific experience," "personal and communal experience" or "biblical grounds."