Naturalism Essays - Secularism, Philosophy Of Religion, Naturalism

Naturalism As defined by philosopher Paul Draper, naturalism is "the hypothesis that the natural world is a closed system" in the sense that "nothing that is not a part of the natural world affects it." More simply, it is the denial of the existence of supernatural causes. In rejecting the reality of supernatural events, forces, or entities, naturalism is the antithesis of supernaturalism, I.e. No god. Naturalism posits that all phenomena fall in the realm of four categories: space, time, matter and energy. Also all things come about because of cause and effect; because these things happen, this happens. For anything to proven to exist there must be empirical evidence for it, in other words tangible, physical evidence. This is where the supernatural I.e. God or anything of such, by a naturalistic stand point, cannot be verified; or no evidence to support such a claim. Naturalism differs from atheism in that most atheists will state straight up there is no god, naturalists will say that there is no evidence to support that claim. Plus I think, naturalist is a better term and doesn?t draw quite the negative reaction that atheist does. I personally use the two terms interchangeably, often times using atheist for shock value. I subscribe to this worldview, it is simple yet complex. It?s fulfilling to me yet stimulating; it urges me to go out and investigate this world. To be in awe of its natural processes its diversity of life. And for me, to do that, I had to become better educated in the realms of natural science