Showing posts with label Methodological Naturalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Methodological Naturalism. Show all posts

Why Is It That Scientific Minded People Cannot Believe?

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Scientific minded people who are consistently scientifically minded, without compartmentalization, cannot believe. Why is that? Why is science so successful yet god(s) condemn scientifically minded people who cannot believe? It doesn't make any sense, but then faith makes no sense. To see why everyone should think like a scientist read the first chapter in my anthology, Christianity in the Light of Science. The evidence is there that people who truly require sufficient objective empirical evidence cannot believe in invisible gods based on paltry testimonial evidence coming from an ancient superstitious world. Adopting methodological naturalism is all it takes to make scientists into metaphysical naturalists. Yet methodological naturalism is required for science. Let me put this point in the clearest most forceful way I can:

Methodological Naturalism Again, When Will it Stop?

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Victor Reppert is at it again.

I don't think any scientifically minded person is opposed to methodological naturalism. Science cannot work without it. The problem comes when one draws the conclusion from it that metaphysical naturalism is the case. So you're opposed to it only if people conclude nature is all there is, that is, only if it's used as an argument to atheism.

Your faith-based arguments are that there is either a reliable source of knowledge about the world other than science, or that your god lives in the gaps of scientific knowledge, or both. But those arguments of yours go against the probabilities.

Why don't you tell us what that other source of knowledge is, and compare its merits to the scientific enterprise? Why don't you admit how many times science has forced you to move the goal posts, such that for centuries when theologians didn't think science could solve a problem science marched past it?

Why don't you address why your god set the world up this way, such that reasonable people will follow the probabilities? Even if for some reason your god could not create the world like this, why don't you admit your God failed to provide the necessary objective evidence that would overcome the methodological predisposition to naturalism?

If you want a serious discussion you must address these issues.

Methodological Naturalism Again

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Paul de Vries described the difference between “methodological naturalism,” which is a disciplinary method that says nothing about God’s existence, from “metaphysical naturalism,” which “denies the existence of a transcendent God.” [Paul de Vries, “Naturalism in the Natural Sciences,” Christian Scholar’s Review 15(1986): 388–96]. The method of naturalism assumes that for everything we experience there is a natural explanation, whereas metaphysical naturalism is a worldview that denies the supernatural realm exists. [For discussions of this see Alvin Plantinga’s essay “Methodological Naturalism?” parts 1 and 2, which can be found at www.arn.org, and in the journal Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith (49 [1997]). Barbara Forrest’s “Methodological Naturalism and Philosophical Naturalism: Clarifying the Connection,” Philo 3, no. 2 (Fall–Winter 2000): 7–29, along with Michael Martin’s “Justifying Methodological Naturalism,” both found at www.infidels.org/library.]

I myself have written a few things about it. Now for a few new thoughts.