The Naturalist Option

God was the preeminent object of awe and wonder – the link to the infinite and eternal – before the Modern Era which began in the 1700s. Deism removed the necessity of having a personal God communicate directly with us. It affirmed God’s transcendence but denied His immanence. With the advance and growth of modern Scientific methods and narratives, the necessity of any knowledge of God was erased.

An important point: that there is nothing inherent in the methods of science and technology that stands opposed to the Theistic worldview. In fact, many of the early movers and shakers of modern science were theistic in their basic framework; many were professing Christians.

However, as Naturalism developed, human reason alone quickly supplanted the need for God or His revelation. The concept of “god” is erased and remembered only as a curious, superstitious idea that worked for pre-modern humanity but was of little use for “modern, enlightened thinkers.” In our times, Naturalism exists primarily as Atheistic Naturalism.

Now that god is out of the picture, the physical world – the universe – is all that is left. Again, as Carl Sagan has said, “The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be.” The Cosmos now becomes the only eternal mystery left.

If the Universe is all there is, then there is nothing “outside” – there is nothing truly transcendent. All that is left is a physical world made of matter that exists in a closed system of causes and effects. There is nothing which is truly enchanted or miraculous – nothing from the “outside.” And so, “we are star-stuff,” as Sagan stated so romantically stated, meaning that we are made up of the same elements that compose the stars. If this is true, then we humans are just complex biological machines. But how did we get here?

Enter Charles Darwin. Darwin’s theory of evolution provided an explanation of origins without the need of a creator. Humanity simply appeared as a product of chance. It is beyond the scope of this study to delve too deeply into the workings of Darwinian Evolution, but let me simply say that most of the “popular” explanations of the theory of Evolution soften the reality that the Darwinists are committed to.

Here is something that is not often made clear: Evolution must remove all traces and remnants of seemingly intelligent causality in its system. If any gap of causality or purposive force is left, then room is made for the insertion of a Creator or at least an Intelligent Designer. That Naturalist worldview rejects any such idea. Things are the way they are because everything happened the way it happened.

One of the more vocal proponents of Atheistic Naturalism states some of the conclusions of this worldview powerfully and succinctly:

…no god, no life after death, no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning for life, and no human free will – are all deeply connected to an evolutionary perspective. You’re here today and you’re gone tomorrow. And that’s all there is to it.

—Dr. William Provine, from Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
repeated on several occasions, most notably his debates with Phillip E. Johnson

You should take a close look at that list. “No ultimate meaning for life….” That is a bold statement particularly given the reality that most every human being on earth is searching for some sense of meaning at some point in his or her life.

What about the future, what about the destiny of the human race? Ernest Nagel said, “Human destiny is an episode between two oblivions” (“Naturalism Reconsidered” in Essays in Philosophy). Or as Dr. Provine says, “we are here today, gone tomorrow and that is all there is.”

To be clear: humanity was not the goal or culmination of evolution because evolution never had a goal. The human race is transitional and transitory. One day we will be gone and there will be no one who remembers or cares.

The development and communication of a robust ethics becomes a real problem for Naturalism. If the Cosmos is all there is and there are no true purposive forces, then all that is, is right. It is difficult to talk about what ought to be in a world that simply is. Ethics and morality simply become a mere human construct not attached to any transcendent ideas. What is “right,” at least as far as humanity is concerned, is determined by cultural consensus.

Naturalism in its purest form is a difficult pill to swallow. Even Darwin had some doubts:

But then with me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey’s mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?

—Charles Darwin To William Graham July 3, 1881

Many who have undermined the reality of God and the dignity of the human race as created in God’s image have found that they are left without any true foundation for hope or any court of appeal in the infinite space of an apathetic universe.

And that leads us to Nihilism.

To Watch: Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

I have included this movie at this point because it traces some of the realities of Naturalism and it’s struggles against Theism.

*Although there are some problematic aspects of the way this documentary was shot – not clearly stating the goals of the documentary to some of those who are interviewed and “staging” certain segments – it is nevertheless a thought provoking look at the way certain Worldviews are in conflict.