“All that exists is the material universe. Everything is determined by the laws of nature. There are no supernatural or spiritual beings.” Perhaps you have had someone tell you that about their personal beliefs. The fact is, some people are just absolutely convinced that Naturalism is the only way to understand reality. Time, space, matter, and energy are the only things that exist in their worldview. Oh, they usually live their lives in a normal way: going to work, having families, voting in elections, etc.
In most cases, however, Naturalists do not think seriously about the full implications of their belief system. They are content to go about their business as if nothing about Naturalism it is problematic. In this two part article, I would like to delineate five reasons why Naturalism, as a worldview, fails to provide an intellectually satisfying way of thinking and living. These are certainly not the only reasons Naturalism is inadequate, but they are compelling. We start with the most basic question of all: “Why is there something rather than nothing?”
1. Naturalism cannot explain why anything exists.
Naturalists have a dilemma of sorts for explaining the nature of existence. They generally assume that the world, as mentally healthy people experience it, is real. The things we see, hear, feel, taste, or smell are actual and not just illusions, delusions, or hallucinations. That presupposition is not the problem for Naturalism. The problem is that Naturalists have no explanation why anything at all exists.
The scientific consensus among cosmologists and physicists, both Naturalists and Theists, is that the universe had a beginning. Everything that exists in the material universe was created out of nothing. When I say “nothing” I mean that there was absolutely nothing: no time, no space, no matter, and no energy. It’s what I call “Nothing Nothing.” Then, suddenly, it was all there. The big question is, where did it all come from?
The Naturalist simply has no answer to that question. Oh, some scientists have tried to postulate how something could arise from nothing, but even their best speculations are without a single shred of evidence and defy logic. They likewise cannot explain why the universe’s four essential forces are so finely tuned to even allow the universe to exist, much less to harbor life. Those fundamental forces are the gravitational force, the electromagnetic force, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force. If any of them were different by even smallest degree, the universe would not work.
The reason Naturalists try so hard to find some natural solution to these factors is because they are afraid of the only reasonable answer. If something begins to exist, it must a have a cause. The universe began to exist. Therefore, the universe had a cause. The cause has to be God. There is simply no other explanation possible. Also, they do not like the implications that led to the reluctant admission by the late atheist English astronomer Fred Hoyle (1915-2001), “A common-sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature.” (Hoyle, Fred [November 1981]. “The Universe: Past and Present Reflections,” Engineering and Science, Volume 45:2, pp. 8-12)
2. Naturalism cannot explain how life began.
The origin of the universe is not the only “origins” question Naturalists fail to address. How life began on earth is another problem they can’t solve. The complexity and functioning of even the simplest one cell creature is beyond the understanding of modern biology. Though biologists have been able to identify most of the biochemical parts of a cell, they still cannot explain how the necessary information stored in DNA got there. Nor can they figure out how to arrange the chemicals, even in the most controlled laboratory environment, so that a living cell is synthetically produced. Cellular structure has every indication of being designed by an intelligent entity. And, the designer must be more intelligent than anyone now on earth. According to astronomer Dr. Hugh Ross of Reasons to Believe, the probability for occurrence of all 322 parameters necessary for life to occur by chance is 10-388. That is beyond any limits for pure chance. (see: https://reasons.org/explore/blogs/todays-new-reason-to-believe/read/tnrtb/2004/04/01/probability-for-life-on-earth)
So, if creating life in its simplest forms escapes the comprehension of the smartest minds in the world, how then could life have started completely by pure chance in the chaotic environment of a prebiotic earth? The old textbook notion that life began randomly in some prebiotic soup has been virtually abandoned by most of the world’s origin of life researchers.
But, once again, the Naturalist will not even consider the obvious implications of these facts. That is, that life was created by an Intelligent Designer who is God. Even if in some future time scientists are finally able to actually synthesize a living cell (and they are nowhere close) they will still be hard put to explain how such an incredibly complex thing could have come into existence by pure chance.
3. Naturalism cannot give any reason why humans are special.
Most Naturalists want to avoid the inevitable implications of their worldview. But, if Naturalism is true and everything that exists is simply the sum of its atoms, molecules, and chemical parts, then they must admit that even human beings are nothing more than, as one sarcastic skeptic put it, “ugly sacks of mostly water.” Because of this undeniable consequence of Naturalistic thinking, they have to ignore it and pretend that humanity has worth and meaning anyway. Secular Humanists especially play this game of blind’s man bluff.
Some honest Naturalists and Atheists do just “suck it up” and admit the truth: human life is no more special than that of a dog or fly. I am sure they have a difficult time living with such a nihilistic and pessimistic worldview. Nonetheless, many of them would rather live with the logical paradox of a life without meaning than look to the only real alternative perspective.
That alternative is that humanity is made in the image of God. It is our creation by Him and for Him that gives human existence any real purpose and meaning. In some ways we are like Him – able to think, create, and love. If there is no God then we are no more than chemicals walking. Sadly, the Naturalist can only say that humans are not “so like a god, but so like a dog.”
In the next installment we will examine two other reasons why Naturalism, as a viable worldview, fails to answer the big questions, and thus fails to make the grade for truth.
© 2020 Tal Davis