Christian Response to Philosophical Naturalism

Christian Response to Philosophical Naturalism

Generally, philosophical naturalism is a worldview that suggests that the universe is a completely closed system that is strictly governed by physical laws and by mathematical constants that are definitively identifiable, in principle, through the human process of empirical analysis. As such, there can never be any possible explanation for anything in the universe that does not fit within empirical knowledge or within the objectively provable laws of science in general and that, in particular, physical concepts cannot ever be explained or understood except through the laws of physics.

The first major philosophical assumption made by philosophical naturalists is that there is no such thing as any a priori knowledge that lies outside of objectively provable fact. Therefore, philosophical naturalism necessarily rejects any belief in any God or Higher Power because those beliefs are not necessarily provable empirically through scientific principles and are not necessarily capable of being observed or measured scientifically. The second major philosophical assumption made by philosophical naturalists is that the very process of human philosophical thought must also conform to scientific principles and empirically provable ideas. Therefore, philosophical naturalism necessarily rejects any explanations that are not provable through strictly logical analysis and human reasoning abilities.

Historical Overview of Philosophical Naturalism (200 words)

The ideas of philosophical naturalism date back to before the age of Socrates and the other classic Greek philosophers. During the Ionian period, early scientists such as 6th century intellectual Thales of Miletus first suggested that events on earth were explainable by discoverable physical processes and events without any need for Divine or other supernatural origin of those processes or events. Those ideas were later embraced during the early Middle Ages by the Scholastic philosophers. Subsequently, other philosophers tried to reconcile the naturalism approach with Christianity by postulating that many (or most) events and physical processes on earth were the product of natural, empirically provable ideas but that God also existed and sometimes chose to intervene to change the course of otherwise natural events and occurrences.

The philosophy of naturalism gained significant momentum when Galileo Galilei published his astronomical observations and argued that the laws of nature are inviolable including by God. Subsequently, throughout the Enlightenment period, philosophers such as Voltaire and Francis Bacon argued that any explanation for events on earth that were not scientifically provable was necessarily false and that perspective gained popularity and strength throughout the Scientific Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. In the modern era, philosophers such as Earnest Nagel and John Dewey argued specifically that the natural world provided sufficient explanation for all earthly events and astronomical observations and they coined the term naturalism for that philosophical perspective.

Logical Analysis of Major Philosophical Assumptions (400 words)

The first major philosophical assumption of philosophical naturalism presupposes that no a priori facts or circumstances are ever acceptable as "givens" without objective empirical proof of some kind. In some ways, that supposition may be self-contradictory because, ironically, is suggests an a priori or "given" circumstance: namely the absence of any givens. The first major assumption may also be vulnerable to refutation on the basis of closing off possible explanations that are not immediately apparent. In effect, it may be circular to suggest that nothing can ever possibly lie outside of what is objectively knowable since that would imply that anything that is not capable of being explained is, necessarily, impossible or nonexistent.

Possibly the strongest logical argument against the first major assumption of philosophical naturalism is that there are only two possible "natural" explanations for the very existence of the universe and everything in it: (1) either the entire universe has "always" existed and there was never any time before the universe existed; or (2) the universe or some primordial element of it spontaneously came into existence on its own at some point in the distant past. Since neither of those explanations is likely (let alone knowable), philosophical naturalists would have to doubt that the universe exists at all; yet, very clearly, it does. The most likely explanation for the existence of the universe is simply that some force or consciousness (i.e. God) caused whatever the so-called "first cause" of existence was.

The second major philosophical assumption of philosophical naturalism presupposes that all philosophical postulates must, necessarily, fit the scientific model. However, that supposition clearly closes off many possible explanations simply because they may lie outside of human understanding. Again, that position is an a priori assumption that also violates the first major philosophical assumption of philosophical naturalism. In essence, it suggests that scientific concepts provide the only possible set of tools for understanding phenomena, including phenomena that obviously defy scientific explanation such as miracles and faith. Most importantly, it automatically (and in a manner that is a priori) discounts the possibility that there could ever exist a consciousness or an intelligence that is so much greater than that of human beings that certain actions or choices of that consciousness (i.e. God) simply defy the limits of human intelligence and imagination.

Implications for Christian Teachers (200-300 words)