The appearance of a new website extolling the virtues of Naturalism (Center for Naturalism) is being hailed by some as a great opportunity for the Christian community to expose the inconsistencies and failings of this previously elusive philosophy. Joe Carter at the evangelical outpost, for example, writes that

“we Christian critics now have handful of unwitting allies in our cause. A small group of atheist philosophers, including Daniel Dennett and Brian Leiter, have instituted a new organization that will prove to be our best ally in the effort to expose the self-refuting philosophy . . . Initially, I assumed that this was a brilliant April Fool’s Day hoax. The website provides such a parody of naturalistic ideas that it couldn’t be anything other than an elaborate prank. But the CFN is no joke — at least not an intentional one. The CFN website contains dozens of pages and articles, a virtual treasure trove for anyone who wants to point out the ludicrously inconsistent views espoused by these naturalists.”

His post, “Naturalism for Dummies: Contradictions, Causal Connections, and the Center for Naturalism,” is worth reading a couple of times. He provides a good introduction to the fallacies contained in the philosophy.

Also worth reading is Amanda Witt’s post “Let the Naturalists Speak” at Wittingshire. She gives a summary of some of the basic tenets of naturalism and welcomes the opportunity to interact with and debunk the philosophy it espouses.

“This new website is a good thing: Naturalism presents the case for believing that nothing but the physical exists, and that everything can be explained by strictly natural causes.

You read that right. Proponents of intelligent design (including Bill Dembski and Denyse O’Leary) are jumping-up-and-down happy about this official naturalism site.

Why? Because people tend to think that those who disagree with naturalism are portraying it inaccurately, to make it look bad; but now there’s a clear presentation of naturalism by its proponents, so all the world can see that the flaws are not manufactured, but are inherent to naturalism.”

It is good to demonstrate the weaknesses and ultimate failings of those philosophies that set themselves up against God and the truths of the Bible, and I am thankful for Joe, Amanda, and many other apologists who rise to meet the challenge. I am certainly but an amateur apologist myself and rely on such sharp Christians to wrestle through the morass of worldly reasonings to expose the fallacies contained therein.

In saying all of that, however, I am also reminded of an underlying truth that we need to keep in mind in all our apologetics.

It is this: those who develop and promulgate such false teachings are victims of deception, slaves of the prince of the power of the air, doing his will and serving his purposes.

I read Ps 8 this morning and, as usual, connected with David’s sense of awe in vv. 3-4:

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?”

Without the benefit of revelation and the Holy Spirit to illuminate our minds, man does appear to be just a speck of dust in a vast cosmos that seems impersonal and silent. Even though I know better, I still wonder sometimes about how significant people are; worse, I question how significant I am as an individual in the grand scheme of things. Were it not for the next verse from David’s pen, I might slip into complete despair:

“Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.”

People are significant because God has declared us to be so, and we are only significant because He has declared us so. Otherwise, we are nothing.

Those who are without God are in the dark. As Paul says, their foolish hearts are darkened and they are given to futile beliefs and speculations. Basically, they are doing the best they can do in the dark. Given their limited perception, they are trying to make sense of an existence that is senseless apart from a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Desperate people come up with desperate philosophies.

As I mentioned above, these philosophers are not the enemy, as I am confident both Joe and Amanda would agree. The purpose of dismantling their false philosophy is to replace it with the truth; thus, in deconstructing their position, we must take care that they understand that we do so with love and respect.

They, too, are people in need of the Savior; we, as people of the Savior, must find a way to bring them to the truth.


Addendum: Given the title of this post, I suppose I should also point out Paul’s words in 1 Cor 2.14:

“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

It is not only unrealistic and unfair to expect non-Christians to understand our perspective on things, but actually unbiblical. They cannot do what God has not empowered them to do.


Jn 19.22