There are three major world-views that struggle for our attention:
- Christianity
- Post-Modern Relativism
- Philosophical Naturalism
There are three aspects of a naturalist worldview
- Naturalist epistemology- a belief that science and science alone can give us knowledge of reality. It is self-refuting because it does not allow for the assumptions of science to be known. Science has to assume. Science is a-posteriori (known by experimentation)
- Creation Story- story characterized by combinatorial processes- tiny little things that combine and then combine etc. The view holds that everything is an arrangement of particles. (An atheist who holds this worldview cannot explain consciousness, colors, sound, taste). It is closed system of cause and effect that eliminates free will. It sets aside or rejects teleology or purposes. The naturalist says nothing happens for a purpose-telos-this has lead to an increase in depression in society.
- Ontology or view of what’s real- it relies on physicalism- a doctrine associated with logical positivism and holding that every meaningful statement, other than the necessary statements oflogic and mathematics, must refer directly or indirectly toobservable properties of spatiotemporal things or events. It is also based upon a materialist view of the world.
The naturalist cannot explain the origins of the universe.
The 2nd law of thermodynamics affirm that the universe if running out of useful energy.
The universe has to have a beginning. Science can never explain the origins of the universe because science relies on the universe to already be there for it to study it.
Reflections 