[PDF] Methodological Naturalism And Religion An Examination Of A Contemporary Naturalistic Philosophy And Its Significance For Protestant Thought eBook

Author : Jason N. Blum
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 25,32 MB
Release : 2018-09-11
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9004372431

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The traditions and institutions that we call religions abound with references to the supernatural: ancestral spirits, karma, the afterlife, miracles, revelation, deities, etc. How are students of religion to approach the behaviors, doctrines, and beliefs that refer to such phenomena, which by their very nature are supposed to defy the methods of empirical research and the theories of historical scholarship? That is the question of methodological naturalism. The Question of Methodological Naturalism offers ten thoughtful engagements with that perennial question for the academic study of religion. Contributors include established senior scholars and newer voices propounding a range of perspectives, resulting in both surprising points of convergence and irreconcilable differences in how our shared discipline should be conceptualized and practiced.

Author : Graham Oppy
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 13,2 MB
Release : 2018-05-20
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0429947208

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This book guides readers through an investigation of religion from a naturalistic perspective and explores the very meaning of the term ‘religious naturalism’. Oppy considers several widely disputed claims: that there cannot be naturalistic religion; that there is nothing in science that poses any problems for naturalism; that there is nothing in religion that poses any serious challenges to naturalism; and that there is a very strong case for thinking that naturalism defeats religion. Naturalism and Religion: A Contemporary Philosophical Investigation is an ideal introduction for undergraduate and postgraduate students of religious studies and philosophy who want to gain an understanding of the key themes and claims of naturalism from a religious and philosophical perspective.

Author : William Lane Craig
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 303 pages
File Size : 35,41 MB
Release : 2002-01-04
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 113456452X

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Naturalism provides a rigorous analysis and critique of the major varieties of contemporary philosophical naturalism. The authors advocate the thesis that contemporary naturalism should be abandoned, in light of the serious objections raised against it. Contributors draw on a wide range of topics including: epistemology, the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mind and agency, and natural theology.

Author : Kai Nielsen
Publisher : Prometheus Books
Page : 506 pages
File Size : 41,19 MB
Release : 2011-04-29
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1615927573

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This elucidation and defense of naturalism argues that an uncompromising secular orientation is the best framework for the search for meaning and interprets religion in purely naturalistic terms. Part One seeks to demonstrate that religious symbols arise from facts about human beings and the societies in which they live, specifically our needs, fears, and aspirations. Part Two examines arguments for and against naturalism, including the defenses of naturalism by Sidney Hook, Ernest Nagel, Antony Flew, and critical reactions to their views. The forceful and rigorously analytical case made by Jean Hampton against naturalism is also examined, resulting in a clarification of the substantial and sound methodological grounds for naturalism and atheism. Part Three considers the strongest intellectual challenge to secularism and naturalism, namely that of Ludwig Wittgenstein and some of his followers - Norman Malcolm, D. Z. Phillips, Hilary Putnam, Rush Rhees, and Peter Winch. Nielsen concludes that none of these critiques diminish the cogency and viability of naturalism as the most reasonable basis for viewing our world today.

Author : R. Scott Smith
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 274 pages
File Size : 31,2 MB
Release : 2016-04-22
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1317089642

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Philosophical naturalism is taken to be the preferred and reigning epistemology and metaphysics that underwrites many ideas and knowledge claims. But what if we cannot know reality on that basis? What if the institution of science is threatened by its reliance on naturalism? R. Scott Smith argues in a fresh way that we cannot know reality on the basis of naturalism. Moreover, the "fact-value" split has failed to serve our interests of wanting to know reality. The author provocatively argues that since we can know reality, it must be due to a non-naturalistic ontology, best explained by the fact that human knowers are made and designed by God. The book offers fresh implications for the testing of religious truth-claims, science, ethics, education, and public policy. Consequently, naturalism and the fact-value split are shown to be false, and Christian theism is shown to be true.

Author : Niels Henrik Gregersen
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 20,87 MB
Release : 2016
Category : Naturalism
ISBN : 9789042933903

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This book offers a critical analysis of the varieties of contemporary naturalism - from scientific naturalism to religious naturalism. What are the claims of naturalism apart from its denial of 'the supernatural'? What are the distinctive modes of thought within contemporary religious naturalism? Some argue for a science-based worldview, others for a cosmic view of reality that includes human engagement and religious commitment - with or without God-talk. The book shows how an appeal to what is beyond empirically validated facts resurfaces within most varieties of naturalism. But it also points to the fact that immanentist frameworks are widely presupposed among contemporary theologians who do not describe themselves as 'naturalists'. Rival positions and conflicts of interpretations emerge as to the question of transcendence and the Beyond, and different philosophical theologies are at work - from the strict denial of theism to ground-of-being-theisms to classic and alternative views of the divine.

Author : Joseph B. Onyango Okello
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
Page : 247 pages
File Size : 46,28 MB
Release : 2016-07-21
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1498283748

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Methodological naturalism is the thesis that only natural features can be factored into any legitimate explanation. Moreover, the thesis contends, any attempt to explain natural phenomena by appealing to supernatural features is unscientific and, therefore, illegitimate. This book argues that nothing inherently problematic afflicts possible appeals to supernatural agency in the attempt to explain select phenomena in nature. Reputable philosophers of the ancient and medieval periods, as well as prominent scientists of the early modern era, invoked supernatural agency in their attempts to understand nature. For them, miraculous interventions in nature by a supernatural agent were not unreasonable. However, the super-naturalistic worldview has been replaced by methodological naturalism. The assumptions of two pivotal figures--David Hume and Charles Darwin--brought about this change. This book shows that this change was motivated by unscientific means. Hence, the change itself remains inconsistent with the assumptions of methodological naturalism.