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Players at the Worldview Table: Naturalism - Matter and Man (But Absolutely NO God!)

The Back Deck

Kids ask the hardest questions. The actual questions aren't hard, but replying to a 10-year-old with an answer he can understand is the hard part.

A couple of years ago, I bought my boys a telescope. What a great "dad" thing to do, right? Sit out on a crisp evening under the stars and look into the heavens. My second son Nicolas (his name must mean "inquisitive one" in some language) had been quiet for a long time after he had his turn at the telescope. Looking up he asked, "How many stars are there?" My first thought was, "a bunch," but I knew that wouldn't satisfy my little Einstein. "I don't know," I had to admit, "but let's find out." Off to the Internet we went …

Nicolas and I ran across some stats that told us some ancient numbers. In 128 A.D., Hipparchus counted 1,026 stars. (I'm not clear about his methodology — except to stand and point and count.) In 1600, Kepler counted 1,025 stars. (I'm not sure about Kepler's methodology either — or what happened to star number 1,026.) By 2003 our technology had led us to estimate that there are 70 sextillion stars and more than 1 billion galaxies.

I was right — there's a bunch. Back outside we went, and after his next turn Nicolas asked the natural follow up, "Where'd the stars come from?" Ah, the cosmological question of origins from a 10-year-old. Nicolas' question is at the center of the controversy between Christian theism and atheistic naturalism.

Naturalism Amongst Other Worldviews

Let's recall what we know from the previous two articles in this series. With the very straightforward worldview issue of "either God is or God is not," the biblical worldview believes squarely that "God is." The deist believes that "God was" (i.e., He created it all) but that He left for some reason and is not involved in our lives today.

Now on to the naturalist.

The atheistic naturalist stands clearly on the side of "God isn't." Very simply, if God isn't then who is? We are. Man becomes the measure of all things. Most notably, if God isn't, then the cosmos came into being through natural processes — the Big Bang, evolution, natural selection, etc.

A quick caveat. For readers who are waiting for me to launch into the Christian origins issues of a six literal day creation versus an old earth perspective, I am not going to. One of the biggest problems that has occurred in the last century is that we have battled amongst ourselves, while ignoring the more subversive yet pervasive expansion of naturalistic thinking.

Naturalism Defined

In How Now Shall We Live, Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey define naturalism as "The dominant view in our culture" which is "radically one dimensional: that this life is all there is, and nature is all we need to explain everything that exists."¹

In Reason in the Balance, Philip Johnson states, "Naturalism is a metaphysical doctrine, which means simply that it states a particular view of what is ultimately real and unreal. According to naturalism, what is ultimately real is nature, which consists of the fundamental particles that make up what we call matter and energy, together with the natural laws that govern how those particles behave."²

When it comes to the basic beliefs that we have discussed before, the naturalistic beliefs are very straightforward:

• Only nature exists (no God, just matter);
• Nature has always existed (Carl Sagan said, "the Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be");
• Nature is characterized by total uniformity (no miracles can happen — merely unexplained phenomena that fit within the natural order);
• Nature is deterministic (everything is determined by its natural makeup and the natural order – i.e. you are a cog in the machine of the universe);
• Nature is materialistic (no it doesn't go shopping; rather, everything is explicable by some knowable means);
• Nature is a self-explanatory system (we can figure out all the "mysteries" of the universe; they are just undiscovered explanations and can easily be explained by some other part of the natural order).

But what about God? Matter exists, God doesn't.

The cosmos? It has always existed — not necessarily in its present form, but it is eternal.

Man? We are merely a collection of chemical and physical properties that we are still trying to understand.

Death? Death is it — over, done, nothing else.

Ethics? We get to choose what is right and wrong — it is entirely based on what we determine based on our natural order.

Life and Meaning

What is the result of naturalistic thinking?

Since the basic premise is that we are merely made up of natural properties, the first thing that is redefined is the concept of the value of life. When naturalistic thought dominates it follows that we can argue that there is a life not worthy to be lived. This is played out when we learn that up to 90 percent of parents who receive a pre-natal diagnosis of Downs Syndrome will abort their babies. The parents have made a decision that there is a life not worthy to be lived. This was key to the Terri Schiavo case in 2005. Now, I'm not saying that all naturalists devalue life or that everyone who devalues life is a naturalist. But it is important for us to realize the type of thought process that the naturalistic worldview can bring about.

The banner bearer for this idea is Professor Peter Singer. In his book, Practical Ethics, he posits the idea of something called "preference utilitarianism" as it relates to making life/death decisions. Let's take the words apart.

"Utilitarianism" is the idea that we want to make decisions that bring the greatest good to the greatest number of people. How about this idea of "preference"? I think it gets understandably naturalistic when we realize that preference is decided by the individual, who bases the decision on their own desires and wants. Of those babies who are aborted because of a Downs Syndrome diagnosis (or any other issue), the root of each of those decisions is convenience for someone. Not the baby. I don't want to be totally unfeeling to those of you who read this and have been impacted by a decision like this. However, in a very straightforward way, the "smoke" of naturalism has permeated deeply into our culture and it probably impacts all of us at some level, whether we are aware of it or not.

Consider some of the other areas of life through the lens of naturalism. We celebrate our own decision-making ability, but forget the moral foundation upon which those decisions are made. Our consumer choices become almost hedonistic since if this is all there is, then why not pursue the high life and follow the creed of "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you will die." The naturalistic view of the world puts man at the very heart of the universe. Unfortunately, history has shown us that it becomes a hard place in which to live.

In the Winter 2005 issue of "Philosphia Christi," long time British atheistic philosopher Anthony Flew conversed with his colleague and friend Dr. Gary Habermas of Liberty University. Not unlike C.S. Lewis, Flew has found naturalism lacking when it comes to the issue of a designer. Flew has begun to accept that there may very well be a designer. The reality of a cosmological designer may be the most troubling aspect adherents have to deal with in their naturalist belief. However, the next logical steps are to acknowledge there is indeed a designer, and to begin to think about who that is and what he may be like. Even Professor Singer has had to come face to face with some of the realities of his own philosophy as he begins to deal with aging family members of his own.

The Heavens

C O F F E E  S H O P

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How have you seen the naturalistic worldview influence the thinking in today's society?

Join the discussion!

My son Nicolas asked a penetrating question which led to a great discussion about God's nature as creator and designer of this universe. If the naturalistic view of reality were merely cosmological, then it would be simple, but the tentacles of this worldview penetrate deeply into the most fundamental issues of our existence and being.

One can peer through the lens of a telescope or microscope and wonder about the world we live in. When all is said and done, though, the heavens do indeed "declare the glory of God" (Psalm 19:1, NIV).