What do you think is natural?

To me everything we do is natural because it exist in nature. Everything we learn and do, even how we learn and do comes from our ancestors. So for us it is natural because it was inherited, and I believe through generations of passing this has to had affect our behavior and how we perceive things. I also believe that to some extent it affects our genetic structure.

In respect to the development of civilization and the world, I think that "natural" pertains to the general flow of time. When you say that a discovery from a laboratory could be considered natural, I may agree with you. Only through the many years of brain development is the human being able to use laboratories to conduct research. Everything eventually evolves and that follows the flow of time. So in that sense, if mankind were to invent a time machine and travel back into time; that could be "unnatural". If a person goes back in time to discover/invent something 500 years earlier than its actual date, that is disrupting the natural chain of time. However, even then it is subjective towards the humans who have invented the time machine. They could say that it is, according to my definition, a natural invention. But with regards to the human beings with the altered time line due to the artificial flow of events, that could be considered "unnatural".

The term "natural" could also pertain to it's literal definition.

1. existing in or formed by nature (opposed to artificial ): a natural bridge.

2. based on the state of things in nature; constituted by nature: Growth is a natural process.

3. of or pertaining to nature or the universe: natural beauty.

4. of, pertaining to, or occupied with the study of natural science: conducting natural experiments.

5. in a state of nature; uncultivated, as land.

6. growing spontaneously, without being planted or tended by human hand, as vegetation.

..etc. So therefore, most of what human beings do is not natural.

In the laboratory example you gave, I think the thing which is discovered would not be considered natural if it was used in a way which clearly went against what nature intended in the first place.

the word synthetic is some thing that is created by means other than natural such as birth is natural,some thing you have to create from means that are artificial are not natural.A pace maker might help some one live but it is not a heart it was created therefore it is not natural even though it it necessary.

Everything in nature is natural, so we are natural and everything we do is natural. Processing food is natural, for example, as are nukes and the stock market, among other things.

I think it is natural because it is natural as a human society to progress, and without discovering new things, we wouldn't have any progression.

I hope what red ridding hood said "DAWNs" on you.

FARTS ARE NATURAL!

WHY SO SERIOUS?