Christian Worldview Concepts

A Case Against Naturalism

A Natural Explanation for Everything

What if God had taken Woody Allen seriously and Allen one day found a few extra million dollars in his bank account? Does anyone think that would change Allen's worldview? Suppose a further check into bank records could not turn up an explanation for how the money got there. Would anyone really believe that it was an act of God that put the money into Allen's bank account?²

According to the worldview of Naturalism, there would have to be a natural explanation for money appearing unexpectedly in someone's bank account because a supernatural explanation is impossible. Naturalism rejects anything supernatural, no matter how compelling the evidence.

In matters other than mysterious bank deposits, such as the origin and nature of the universe, Naturalists instantly reject any explanations that contain even the slightest hint of supernaturalism. They have to in order to prevent their entire worldview from collapsing. But what if the Naturalist is right and the universe is comprised only of material things that have no particular reason for being here? The naturalist George Gaylord Simpson puts it this way: "There is neither need nor excuse for postulation of nonmaterial intervention in the origin of life, the rise of man, or any other part of the long history of the material cosmos."³ This bold claim is not uncommon among Naturalists. Simpson claims that the world is the kind of place where nothing could ever bring us to the conclusion that there is a non-material cause for the existence of the universe. Yet, despite the best efforts of naturalists to explain it away, the universe gives all of the appearance of having been designed.

In order for Naturalism to be valid, it either must prove that the universe is infinite (that it has always existed), which is impossible to do since scientific methodologies are inductive, not deductive, or if it is not infinite, that the universe came into existence by some purely natural cause.

In the case of the latter explanation, that natural cause would necessarily have to be something much more complex than elementary physical particles. In claiming that the physical world came into existence by some impersonal, chance, non-supernatural event, i.e., the Big Bang, Naturalists essentially admit to the biggest miracle of all — something coming into existence from absolutely nothing, or at the very least, inert matter acting upon itself to create a causal event.⁴ Furthermore, despite their denials of the supernatural, a succession of miracles would be required for there to have emerged human rationality, logic, communication, morality and the notion of individual freedom.

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² This scenario is taken from William Dembski's lecture "Darwinism: Scientific Inference or Philosophical Preference?" Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, March 26-28, 1992
³ Quoted in Johnson, Phillip E. 1991 Darwin on Trial. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, p. 114)
⁴ Dembski, 1992