The Pros And Cons Of Scientific Naturalism

So does science contradict the Bible? Before one is able to answer this question, one must find out what the scientific facts are, rather than the unproven theories created by Scientists. Some scientists are Christians, who believe in God but also in evolution. There are many different views on the subject of just how the earth was created. The Big Bang is just one of those theories.

1. Atheistic Naturalism is founded on the premise that it was an accident that human life was created, or just dumb luck.

The Scientific Revolution was a time of discovery during the 16th and 17th centuries. Because of the fact that both the Protestant Reformation and the Scientific Revolution occurred at roughly the same time, there was a significant number of advocates and critics for these new discoveries. Despite the overall growth in support of these new scientific findings, social, religious, and political factors greatly restrained the potential of the Scientific Revolution.

Scientific Naturalism and Christianity are possibly the two most contradictory worldviews that are in our culture today. They are also the two most difficult to understand by one another. There is very little about these two worldviews that they have in common. They are a vast amount of ideas and beliefs held by adherents of each that are different. In order for these two worldviews to successfully co-exist in society, it is important to understand, accept, and learn from each one.

One thing about natural selection that many people do not understand that natural selection does not increase the odds of survival for a species, but for individuals in that species. This makes sense when someone considers humans. Humans live in many social cultures, where for instance, the odds of survival in a group can be improved by the selection of certain traits that does not improve an individual’s odds of survival. Coyne states, one never sees the type of adaptations that benefit the group to the detriment of an individual (p.122).

For more than 150 years, a revolutionary idea has been spreading all over the world. It helped us discover our origins and revealed our place in nature. It led to the unification of once independent fields of scientific inquiry. And it is being used today to tackle some of the most pressing problems facing modern civilization. But its implications go far beyond science. It has shaped our culture, politics, philosophy and religion, and it has been used to justify war and genocide. That idea is Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.

Chapter four describes the theistic alternatives for naturalism. Bush mainly discusses the Process theology and Open Theism. These views are clearly in disagreement with the traditional position held by Christians. Process theology, that presents God as the source of fundamental structures of reality (55), hangs on a lot of scientific arguments and looks like a “mystical science” (58) more than a theistic worldview. The author poses that Open Theism, which affirms that God is fallible, is contradictory.

Genesis 1-11 answers many questions that people have about the natural world, especially in the first two chapters. Genesis clearly states that God created all things. He created the earth, man, animals, plants, and all other living things on earth. These scriptures explain how God created the world in six days and, on the seventh day, He rested from the work that was done. Then, “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Genesis 2:3 NASB). He did not create anything else on the seventh day but instead rested. The Bible then goes on to discredit the theory of evolution by saying, “The earth

But, inserting a supernatural element (God) as a key fact is a circular argument. Viz. if God exists, naturalism is not true, so there’s no use invoking God as evidence that naturalism is untrue. (Prove God exists first!).

Naturalism is about bringing humans into the “natural world”. We, as humans, are seen as aspects of nature collectively not separate like they once were. “Naturalism holds that everything we are and do is connected to the rest of the world and derived from conditions that precede us and surround us. Each of us is an unfolding natural process, and every aspect of that process is caused, and is a cause itself ” (“A Guide for Naturalism”). Humans are like “animals” they contain the same drives that animals have. They are just plain “natural”. Many authors express naturalism in their writings such as Kate Chopin. She expresses a naturalistic view on sexual drives which classify her as a

Objection 1: In 1820, fossils were identified and many began to argue that their very existence discredits Biblical truth. When geologists began to realize that the discovered fossil records were incredibly old, the separation between science and the theologians was increased. They were much older than the creation story in the Bible claimed. The scientists found that the creature, which walked, called Australopithecus, slightly resembling an ape, resided in the Middle East and in east Africa, approximately four to five million years ago. After this, scientists believe Homo erectus, a

meaning everything that exists is all just physical matter. Based off of these beliefs there is also no God because there is no need for one. Therefore because there is no God there is no purpose or meaning for your life because when you die you don't go to heaven or hell you just die. Because in Naturalism God is non-existent you would then have to explain the creation of the universe in some other way. Most Naturalists primarily believe in the big bang and evolution but in this belief comes the first contradiction of naturalism. The theory of evolution is in direct conflict with naturalism. For evolution to work it requires life to continuously multiply in turn giving your life purpose and contradicting the belief in naturalism.

Presently there remain no facts by any scientist that can prove that God’s word is not the truth. Genesis chapter 1and 2 articulates that God created the universe; this involves the whole earth as well as humans. The Bible states, the earth is God’s and the fullness thereof, and he that dwells in it. In chapter 3 The Long War against God, Henry Morris expresses his worries concerning certain Christians who credit evolutionism in place of God’s method of creation. Morris references Darwin’s transformation of Orthodox to atheists. Darwin changed Christian belief of creationism to a Naturalist’s view of evolution.

Naturalism is a philosophy which emphasizes “the effect of heredity and environment on human nature and action” (Zhang) and incorporates realism to “suggest that social conditions… and environment [have] inescapable force in shaping human character” (Zhang). Furthermore, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Natural Philosophy explains that to Naturalists, “reality is exhausted by nature, containing nothing ‘supernatural’, and that the scientific method should be used to investigate all areas of reality” (Papineau). Naturalism (in literature) is an idea that suggests everything about humanity is measurable, detectable, manipulatable, and traceable to a cause, and therefore the characters of Naturalist literature would be illustrated as simply the products of their environments; vessels devoid of spiritual guidance or fate that are subject only to their environments. An example of a Naturalistic novel is The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton; a novel set in late 19th century New York that follows Lily Bart: a young woman who was born rich but is slowly losing both her societal status and her money whilst she repeatedly avoids marriage, her only option to escape her fate: a life of poverty. With this in mind, The House of Mirth is an exemplary example of a Naturalistic novel because of its portrayal of characters as the product of their environments.

This first half part of the essay will summarize the main points of naturalism, creationism and existentialism suggested by Baggini. Both pros and cons of the above positions will be discussed and the preferred position will be indicated. The later part of the essay will be focused on two moral issues, which are love, sex, marriage and euthanasia, and will be supported by the preferred position.