Naturalism….”The worldview behind science”

On with the study….

As we’ve seen a worldview is a system of belief about ultimate reality.  Each worldview begins with assumptions–beliefs that are accepted as true without considering if they could be false.  These assumptions are not necessarily bad if they’re recognized.  But when they’re not, they often lead to intellectual blindness and faulty conclusions.  Much of science is guided by the worldview of naturalism–the belief that nature is the only thing that’s real.  The physical universe and the laws that determine its behavior are all that exist.  Nothing supernatural, including God, exists, or if it does, it cannot intervene into our physical world.

When the prevailing assumption is naturalism, everything in that culture, from law to journalism to education, reflects and reinforces that premise.  Naturalism, then, determines the ultimate story of truth, the culture’s explanatory myth.  God resides only in religious peoples’ imagination–and these people are seen as irrational, even dangerous, because they may be seen as a threat to the cultural myth.  Naturalism thus becomes its own religion with a built-in incentive for self-preservation and dominance.

Today, from grammar school to the university, naturalism is the mandatory assumption of nearly all disciplines.  Starting from that unexplored foundation, the results of almost all research will, of course, support only naturalistic conclusions.  As an illustration, if the only answer allowed to the following question is "red," what answer will we get when we ask. "What color is the (green) chalkboard?" "Red," because every other possible answer has been ruled off limits from the start.  This process is obviously flawed, but if the rules have been preset, some of the answers, including at times the correect answers, are preeliminated.

Naturalism is the basic assumption for Darwin’s theory of evolution.  There is no hard scientific evidence to support naturalism, but darwinists hold it tenaciously, because their myth of naturalism gives them cultural influence, even dominance.  To let go of naturalism would allow opposing points of view might threaten that influence.  They are often more concerned with protecting the myth than they are with genuine scientific investigation.  And since they set the rules of the game, they do so to protect their myth–nothing else is taken seriously.  So the assumption of naturalism establishes a monopoly on truth for Darwinists.

As an assumption, naturalism is philosophy, not science.  It’s based on faith, not on evidence found by research.  And when naturalism masquerades as science it often leads to bad science.  It can hinder the legitimate search for truth because it dines the posibility of answers outside itself.  It’s bad bad philosophy as well because it cannot answer such fundamental questions as "Why is there something rather than nothing?" And, "Why is this assumption, rather than a different assumption, the only legitimate place to begin?"

So when naturalists label Christians "religious fanatics," we might question their own rationality.  Those who protect their myth by refusing to explore all the evidence may be less rational than Christians.

I think this is the pit, i’ve been stuck in thanks to college.  It has challenged my Christian walk beyond comprehension.  The influence of school and peers is overwhelming, i just need to get my head straight.