“The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be.” –Carl Sagan
Naturalism says that only what can be tested and proven by science is real. When my biological functions cease, “I” cease to exist. Game over. Therefore, the goal is to increase biological life in quantity and quality. We celebrate advances in communications, transportation, and health because these show progress in scientific discovery and quality and quantity of life.
Naturalism states that the universe is a closed system governed by “laws of nature”. These are descriptive laws, meaning that they describe observable phenomena, not prescriptive laws like “Do not murder.” No one is sure where these laws come from or why, they just are. They don’t change. There are no exceptions.
But isn’t this concept of reality too small to include many aspects of human experience? Scientific theories and tests are not meant to explain beauty, wisdom, or love. But we know that these things exist! In fact, we often find these areas of life the most fulfilling. The laws of nature are inadequate to provide purpose and meaning for life, they only describe it.
Are humans really just advanced animals? Why do only humans create art, fall in love, think about the meaning of life, and form communities based on interests? Naturalism can not provide an adequate answer. If we are essentially matter, why do we have a concept of morality? How can we trust our own reason? Our reason too must be the result of random events.
Naturalism prides itself on being scientific, based on evidence. In actuality naturalism is also a faith system just like a religion. The real question is which faith system provides the more factual, reasonable picture of the universe. Naturalism is actually supported by a series of other beliefs which undermine our identity as humans. Let’s question each of these beliefs.
#1 Our Universe Was Created By a Random Explosion?
Once upon a time, billions of years ago, there was a big bang. This explosion from one high density singularity (Where did that come from?) resulted in billions of stars and galaxies. How do we know this? Because we can observe that the universe is expanding and then we extrapolate backwards in time using the known laws of physics.
Well then out of the billions of stars and planets produced by the big bang, one star was just the right size, and our planet was just the right size, and the right distance from this star, and had the right composition of chemicals to support life. (This was all by random chance from the explosion of course.) Since there are billions of stars and planets, there may be other planets that support life too. (Except that the heat, water, and gravity tolerances to support life on Earth seem to be so unique that they don’t appear anywhere else in the galaxy.)
#2 Life Created Itself?
Well since Earth could support life, billions of years of random chemical processes eventually produced life in the form of a single cell. “Although the occurrence of abiogenesis is uncontroversial among scientists”, it isn’t clear how that cell happened, with all the complex requirements of proteins, DNA, RNA, etc. We have never been able to duplicate such an event. It just happened. We are not sure how or why. All we know is when… billions of years ago. (Another possibility is that life on our planet came from somewhere else in space, which just moves the question of the origin of life to a different place, same issues.)
Well once there was this healthy thriving reproducing simple cell, it was only a matter of time, lots of time, before it mutated and became a plant. That plant produced lots of other plants of all kinds. Other cells mutated and became fish and other sea creatures. Some of those mutated and found it beneficial to crawl on land, then over millions of years they mutated further to develop into creatures that walk, run, fly, etc. Finally, we reached the complex ecosystems we see today. At each level new information was added to the DNA by random mutations (mistakes in reproduction). Most of the mutations were harmful of course, but a few helped the new life forms to swim, crawl, walk, fly, see, hear, etc. All you need is millions of years of random mutations. We call this evolution. Isn’t nature amazing!
It sounds kind of like a bedtime story, doesn’t it? We begin to realize this is not based on science at all, but it is presented as science. Examine the many incredible leaps of faith contained in the overall story:
- What caused the big bang? Where did the raw material come from?
- How could an explosion produce ordered galaxies and an inhabitable earth?
- Could life come from inanimate chemicals? In 1859 Pasteur disproved spontaneous generation (Abiogenesis). He performed experiments that showed that without contamination, microorganisms could not develop.
- Evolution is taught as fact, yet it has not yet been shown that gene mutations can add new information but only select from existing DNA. Mstaks in typng this sentnc may mak it mor consise or kreate nu wurds, but no new nformation is creatd.
- Darwin’s book “On the Origin of Species”, published in 1859, describes the process of natural selection. He observed some species that changed slightly over generations to fit their environment. The problem comes when we extrapolate these minor changes over millions of years to explain all of life. The theory hinges not on experiential evidence but on how we interpret the fossil record, since evolution only occurs over millions of years.
- However, the fossil record often shows evidence of new species appearing suddenly, a problem for evolution. So another theory was added in the 1970s, punctuated equilibrium. In these cases evolution can occur in 50,000 years, so quickly that we don’t find any fossils. Convenient.
#3 Evolution Is Established As An Empirical Scientific Fact?
Search google and find that the earth is 4.5 billion years old and learn from wikipedia that “Creationism was once widely believed to be true, but since the mid-19th century evolution by natural selection has been established as an empirical scientific fact.” This is the dominant view in academia and public schools. Most people in the western world believe this. But is it true?
Nope. Empirical, by definition, means it may be shown by experimentation. History and pre-historical events can not be tested in a laboratory or proven. We reach reasonable conclusions based on evidence. That author was referring to evolution as an explanation of our origins, which by definition is impossible to prove empirically.
Darwin’s idea of Natural Selection, or genetic adaptation to an environment, isn’t really new. If we talk about minor changes within a species over generations, yes, that can be tested and proven. But in this case no new DNA is created. Did you know that this process of natural selection is recorded in the Bible? In 1920 BC Jacob apparently used genetic engineering to modify both the color and quality of sheep and goats. (Genesis 30:32-43)
Did anyone ever tell you that evolution as an explanation for life and human existence has big problems? You probably never heard about them because the theory dominates 99% of the scientific community today.
Let’s consider complex systems like the eye, the ear, or flight. Mutations are always a loss of information, not creative. These systems require many complex positive mutations to all occur simultaneously to provide any benefit. Darwin wrote: ‘To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivance for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree.’ Darwin, C., The Origin of Species, John Murray, London, p. 186, 1859.
#4 Earth Is Billions of Years Old?
In the 1800s various scientists estimated the age of the earth at 20-40 million years. By 1900 it became 80-100 million years. Now scientists estimate that our earth is 4.5 billion years old, based on radiometric dating of meteorites. Aren’t you glad that you have not aged so quickly?!
There is also evidence that the Earth is much younger. Have you heard of that evidence? Probably not. A conspiracy? Perhaps. To present only one half of the evidence is definitely misleading, a distortion of truth, a cover up.
If the earth has been around for 4.5 billion years, where is all the salt in the ocean? We can look at the current rate of salt flowing into the seas and determine that this could only have been happening for 62 million years, not 4 billion, not enough for the evolution of life as we know it. Where is all the sediment? The current amount on ocean floors would accumulate in 12 million years at current rates. Why does Earth still have a magnetic field and a magnetic compass still work? At current rates of decay, that magnetic field should be gone. How could there be diamonds or dinosaur bones with carbon-14? With a half-life of 5730 years, the carbon-14 should have all disappeared!
- Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
- The universe began to exist.
- Therefore, the universe has a cause.
Scientific Naturalism as a worldview has significant problems. You might want to look further in your search for meaning and purpose.
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