Tag Archives: Naturalism

The Image of God Under Attack

The image of God in humans is under attack. Evolutionary doctrine leads many thinkers to conclude that there is no essential difference between us and and any other organism. (By “evolutionary doctrine,” I am referring specifically to the version of evolutionary theory that says all organisms have come to be through blind, unguided processes of …

January 28, 2012 – 6:00 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in The Faith | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (19)

Says the Madman: “Humanity Is Dead, and We Are Its Murderers”

“Whither is humanity? cried the Madman. I will tell you. We have killed it. We are its murderers! But how could we do this? Are we not plunging continually? How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?” When Friedrich Nietzsche’s Madman told the world, ”God is dead, and we are his murderers,” it was as if …

January 24, 2012 – 5:00 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in New Atheism, Worldviews | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (67)

Naturalism and the Ultimate Good That Isn’t

Bill R. wrote this new argument (to me at least) concerning moral realism and naturalism. I thought it was pretty interesting, especially in the way it clarifies the difficulty naturalism has in saying “this ethical duty matters to you,” so I’m posting it here for more visibility. The rest of what follows here is his. …

December 13, 2011 – 8:59 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Ethics | Tagged , | Comments (71)

Love or Cruelty: If Evolution Is True, What’s the Moral Difference?

Why does love exist? Why is there suffering? Why is anything the way it is in the natural world? Because of evolution. That, at any rate, is the answer provided by those who believe in naturalistic evolution. Naturalistic evolution (NE) is the theory that every feature of life, including physical structures, physical functions, and also …

November 13, 2011 – 7:05 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Ethics, New Atheism, Origins and Science | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (163)

Gay “Marriage,” Civil Rights, Power, and Principle

Even a democracy can undermine freedom and foster the unethical rule of power. America’s founders saw this, and placed in our Constitution a Bill of Rights to preserve civil rights and protect us all from the tyranny of the majority. Gay “marriage” is often regarded as a civil rights issue deserving that constitutional protection. And …

July 1, 2011 – 9:29 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Life and Choices | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (12)

“I just can’t take naturalism seriously”

From Trent Dougherty at the Prosblogion: I just can’t take naturalism seriously. That is, I can’t take seriously any view that entails either the proposition that some contingent fact occurred for no reason or that in essentials, the universe (or world or nature or whatever you want to call it) couldn’t have been relevantly different …

May 19, 2010 – 4:26 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in New Atheism | Tagged | Comments (17)

The Theology of Scientific Naturalism

Book Review When I picked up Cornelius Hunter’s Science’s Blind Spot: The Unseen Religion of Scientific Naturalism, I expected the “unseen religion” of the title to refer in some way to atheistic naturalism itself. Whether naturalism is a form of religion depends on definitions. If religion is defined as a system of beliefs involving the …

January 5, 2010 – 10:43 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , , , | Comments (34)

Explaining Souls

In response to one part of a comment from Geoff Arnold: Geoff, the following is apparently your expansion of an assertion you had made earlier of “profound metaphysical problems” with the existence of the soul. [The "Dan" Geoff is speaking of here is the prominent philosopher of mind, Daniel Dennett.] I remember attending a class …

July 13, 2009 – 7:21 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , , | Comments (9)

Tom Clark, Empiricism, and Ethics, Part Two

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Tom Clark and Naturalism

I’m certainly more than overdue to respond to Tom Clark here, and now finally there is opportunity to do so. It has been so long since the last post on this topic, and this answer will run so long, that I’m publishing it as a new blog post. First, I want to state my agreement …

April 17, 2009 – 4:51 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Ethics, Origins and Science | Tagged , , | Comments (41)