Naturalism

Naturalism, or philosophical naturalism, is one of the most popular religions in the world today, although most people do not recognize it as such because it has no obvious worship centers, clergy, liturgy, or holy book. Naturalism is also known by other names: atheism, scientific materialism, and secular humanism. Naturalism teaches that anything supernatural or Metaphysical is outside the realm of evidence and purely an opinion not a matter of fact.

The most fundamental belief from which all others flow is that nature or matter is all that exists. It has always existed, or it came into existence from nothing. There is nothing outside or before nature, i.e., the material universe that is studied by modern science. There is no God and no supernatural. Although nature has not always existed in its present form, what we see today is the result of time and chance and the laws of nature working on matter. Miracles are not possible, because they would be a violation of the laws of nature. Non-material things such as hopes, plans, behaviors, languages, logical inferences, etc., exist, but they are the result of and determined by material causes.

Problem Question:

  1. How could the universe begin without a first cause?
  2. And how can such precise physical laws and constants exist without a designer?
  3. How can life originate from non-living matter?
  4. How can objective moral values exist without a moral lawgiver?
  5. How can intangible values—such as love—exist if reality is only composed of matter and energy?

Bible’s answer to this problem question:

  1. Design points to a Designer: The order and design of the cosmos suggest the existence of an intelligent mind. The presence of order implies intention; it cannot be the result of chance or accident. (The 2nd law of thermodynamic/law of entropy shows that things move from order to disorder and not from disorder to order)
  2. Life points to a giver of Life: living organisms do not come from non-living matter. Even if it is even remotely possible that in some primordial pool a lightning strikes a complex of molecules and creates and enzymes and allowed us to evolve over billions of years, but for a thinking human being, the question is what is most reasonable in the light of evidence? That why it is more plausible to believe, in the beginning God rather than in the beginning mater and energy.
  3. Objective morals point to a Moral Law giver: Every time you say, should and ought (like..people should love) you are appealing to a standard outside of us. The only way that standard (Moral Absolutes/ ethical black and white) could exist is that there is some mind prior to the human mind who defines and creates that standard.
  4. The existence of love points to a reality greater than matter and energy: If you are limited to matter and energy, then what happens in your brain is some sort of complex chemical reaction. You do not have a free will coming out of complex chemical reactions. Love is a free decision of the will to care for somebody. Free will means that there is a ‘me’ that goes beyond the complex chemical reaction in my brain. Therefore, there must be some type of God who creates us with this innate ability to genuinely love. If there is no God, love is simply a chemical/biological drive to preserve a genetic pool.