In philosophy, naturalism, according to James Ward (1899), is the belief that all phenomena are governed by the laws of science, and that supernatural cannot exist. [1]
Naturalism, in more precise terms, as summarized by Edward Guggenheim (1933), is that all phenomena are distinguishable between what is "natural" and what is "unnatural", and furthermore, according to Fritz Lipmann (1943), that these two phenomena, in nature, are coupled to each other, in such a way that the latter drives the former.
Naturalism religion
Naturalistic religion, with “religion” defined according to the root legare, “that which binds”, is when naturalism becomes one’s implicit belief system.
In 2016, Terry Mortenson, in his “The Religion of Naturalism”, comments the following: [2]
“Naturalism, or philosophical naturalism, is one of the most popular religions in the world today, although most people don’t recognize it as such because it has no obvious worship centers, clergy, liturgy, or holy book.”
Mortenson then cites William Provine as the spokesperson for atheistic naturalism:
“Let me summarize my views on what modern evolutionary biology tells us loud and clear — and these are basically Darwin's views. There are no gods, no purposes, no goal-directed forces of any kind. There is no life after death. When I die, I am absolutely certain that I am going to be dead. That's the end for me. There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning to life, and no free will for humans, either.”
— William Provine (1994), “Darwinism Science or Naturalistic Philosophy?” [3]
Provine’s adamant open atheistic (compare: closet atheism) views, to note, seem to be a reaction, in large part, to the intelligent design views of Phillip Johnson, who he had a friendly relationship with, and whose book Darwin on Trial (1991), he used as a course book in his evolutionary biology class.
Here, whatever the case, to put things frankly, we see an example of dumb atheism.
References
1. Ward, James. (1899). Naturalism and Agnosticism. Cambridge University Press, 2011.
2. (a) Chaffey, Tim. (2015). “Feedback: is Atheism a Religion?” (Ѻ), AnswersInGenesis.com, Jul 25.
(b) Hodge, Bodie and Patterson, Roger. (2016). World Religions and Cults, Volume Three: Atheistic and Humanistic Religions (§12:205-226; Provine, pg. 206-207). New Leaf Publishing.
3. (a) Provine, William. (1994). “Darwinism Science or Naturalistic Philosophy?”, Origins Research, 16(2):9.
(b) Hodge, Bodie and Patterson, Roger. (2016). World Religions and Cults, Volume Three: Atheistic and Humanistic Religions (§12:205-226; Provine, pg. 206-207). New Leaf Publishing.
External links
● Naturalism (disambiguation) – Wikipedia.
● Naturalism (philosophy) – Wikipedia.
