Dialog 1.2 - Philosophies of Naturalism and Materialism

Philosophies of Naturalism and Materialism

Modern controversies surrounding science and religion don't get more heated than around the subject of evolution. The science community generally portrays evolution as purely science, and as the most reasonable hypothesis current to explain the observed facts of biology.

Yet, there are many atheists who promote evolution as an alternative to religion. Supporters of various brands of creationism agree with this point. They routinely caricature evolution (and sometimes science in general) as dangerous atheistic philosophy. At the same time, the creationists offer a self-styled "creation science" as an alternate scientific theory, which is often heavily influenced by their own theological presuppositions.

We have to recognize that just as there is a theological “doctrine of creation,” there is also a philosophical “doctrine of evolution.” The doctrine of evolution (as distinct from the science of evolution) might be generalized as follows: “Evolution is a theory which explains the origin of everything through purely natural processes.” One example of this view is: “Man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind” (George Gaylord Simpson, The Meaning of Evolution, 1967, p. 345).

This is not science, but rather “philosophical materialism” – a philosophy which proposes that material causes and effects are all that exist. Some writers also refer to this as “philosophical naturalism.” In the context of evolution specifically, some distinguish between the term "evolution" (limited to the scientific aspects in question) and “evolutionism," which is the philosophy that evolution can explain the origins of all life, without dependence on a transcendent God as Creator. This supposition that nature is all-sufficient goes well beyond what science can tell us by its measurements, observations and theories. It is based on an atheistic worldview that, by definition, excludes from consideration anything supernatural. It holds that since the supernatural does not exist, miracles cannot occur, therefore there must always be a natural explanation for everything. But science cannot prove the existence or non-existence of things beyond nature, because it simply has no means of investigating non-natural or supernatural phenomena.

What, then, is science?

Both creationism and evolutionism are deeply theological and philosophical in nature, though they both touch on scientific issues. However, most of the real day-to-day work of science involves investigating and evaluating evidence from the world around us. Scientists ideally work with the observed data and develop understandings based on unbiased, rational conclusions. However, it is very difficult to achieve this ideal situation. There will always be a bias in the interpretation of data, based on the knowledge and philosophical framework of the individual. How does science work to eliminate the bias of individual researchers, and how well does it succeed?

In the following sections, we will take a little more detailed look at science: what constitutes a scientific theory, and how scientific theories are developed and tested, proved or disproved. In short, what is science, and how does it work? This is important to understand before we can evaluate the strength or weakness of theories given to us by both mainstream science and creation science. Then we will look at some of the evidence and how well it's explained by the various theories.