Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Science is a method for investigating the natural world while naturalism is a philosophy that says the natural world is all there is.




Naturalism is a philosophy which says that nothings exists outside of the natural universe. As I pointed out in the last post, naturalism has its own creation story. Over a period of time, the naturalist creation story has come to dominate in the academic realms, especially in the sciences. This has come about due to the erroneous idea that...


1. Since science has proven to be correct and successful in revealing the secrets of the universe.

2. And that science and naturalism are essentially the same thing.

3. Therefore, because science is true, naturalism must also be true.

4. Since naturalism is true then God is not true.


It is absolutely true that the scientific method has been demonstrated to be a trustworthy method of gaining information about the natural world. This is evident by the successes in the fields of medicine, engineering and technology.

The problem arises with the second assertion that science and naturalism are in some way to be equated, that the two are somehow the same thing. This is the point at which the argument fails. Science and naturalism are not the same thing.



Science is a method for investigating the natural world while naturalism is a philosophy that says the natural world is all there is.


The question could be asked: how does your investigation of the natural universe lead you to the conclusion that the natural universe is all there is?

Since science only studies the natural universe, how could science tell us anything about God or beings which live outside the natural universe? How could science deteremine that God does not exist if its domain is limited to the physical universe?

The question of whether God exists is strictly a philisophical question. It's answer cannot be determined by the use of the scientific method or scientific instruments. The fact that science has not stumbled over God in the forest means nothing at all with regard to the question of whether God exists. If God was a material substance it might, but he is not.


Notes taken from the book 'The Godless Delusion' by Patrick Madrid and Keneth Hensley.



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