Philosophy and Ideas
I am a naturalist. I believe that everything can be understood purely as relating to the natural world and that there is nothing supernatural.
I see three powerful arguments for naturalism.[i]
First, progress of ideas. Primitive people saw the supernatural everywhere. They thought the world was purposeful, they thought we were surrounded by gods, they thought the earth was the centre of the universe. Over time science has forced us to change our ideas. Cosmology showed the smallness of our place in the universe. Evolution explained life and our origins. Former mysteries have dissipated, and the evidence has accumulated that the universe unfolds in a mechanical way. Purposes and minds are found not to be fundamental to the universe, but only seen with life on earth. Overall, our ideas have progressed from supernatural speculation to naturalistic understanding, and naturalists expect this to continue.
Second, the lack of evidence for anything supernatural. People have widely believed in such phenomena as gods, miracles, prayer, souls, life after death, ghosts, telepathy and fate. Yet, when each of these are subjected to proper scientific investigation, no credible evidence for them can be found. The supernatural has been so important in human thought, but it is very striking that nothing supernatural can be scientifically evidenced. If we conclusively found something supernatural, that would be very interesting, but, despite million-dollar prizes being offered[ii], we haven’t.
Third, the closure of the physical.[iii] Physics tells us that the behaviour of elementary particles and fields is fully determined by physical laws. The evidence is that these physical laws apply without exception. A supernatural event, such as a miracle, would require a suspension of the laws of nature. This, as far as we can see, does not happen. Our scientific understanding of the physical world seems to leave no space for the supernatural.
The distinction between a naturalistic outlook and a non-naturalistic one is powerful. We have a remarkable amount of thinking that has supernatural elements, and naturalism allows a wholesale deletion of such ideas to leave a simpler understanding of the universe. Naturalism removes the false hope of a world beyond the physical, but also removes fears and misunderstandings.
Supernatural thinking includes:
Some of these supernatural ideas arise from seeing purposes and minds where there are none. Others come from misunderstanding chance, exaggerating will-power and misunderstanding nature. Further supernatural ideas come from religions, and wishful thinking produces belief in life after death.
Some supernatural ideas are deep instinctive concepts which science shows to be mistaken. We are born to regard consciousness as an independent realm, to think we have a soul that ‘has’ our experiences, to think free will operates outside nature, to think that moral rules exist independently. A central concern for philosophy is to try to reconcile such erroneous instinctive views to the scientific picture. There are two elements to the naturalist project – ending magical thinking and updating instinctive ideas that are incompatible with science.
Supernatural thinking often occurs when we know little and adopt a ‘mythology mindset’ to tell stories about the unknown.[iv] In the past, this approach was understandable, but now that more knowledge is available, we can use a ‘realty mindset’ and aim seriously to understand.
Metaphysics is the study of the nature of things. Naturalism suggests that all things have natures related to the natural world, so they have simple metaphysics. By contrast, non-naturalists think that some things have special metaphysics, with a non-natural existence.
For example, a non-naturalist may think that a marriage ceremony creates a new kind of relationship in front of God. A naturalist will deny this special metaphysics and regard the fact of the marriage, important as it may be, as not having effects beyond those within society. Similarly, a non-naturalist may think that moral laws have an independent existence and so they have a special metaphysical status, while a naturalist will see moral laws, although mattering greatly, as being man made so metaphysically simple.
Metaphysics got a bad name when it was concerned with speculations on the nature of supernatural things – caricatured by the question ‘how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?’[v] If there is nothing supernatural, then metaphysics, understanding the nature of things, becomes simpler, more scientific, and less speculative.
There are different flavours of naturalism[vi], so let me be more precise about my view. I see naturalism as fundamentally the view that there is nothing supernatural. My naturalism also includes a belief that the universe is generally intelligible to science.
What do I mean by the natural? The universe as revealed by science and reason. The scientific picture has some key features:[vii]
Naturalism (nothing supernatural) is broader than atheism (no gods) and broader than physicalism (only the physical exists). I find naturalism the most useful of these concepts as my central concern is to avoid supernatural thinking. Not believing in gods is a mere part of this, while naturalism stays agnostic on the non-supernatural, non-natural.
Naturalism is a simple proposition – that there is nothing supernatural – but also a radical one – as it goes against our instincts. It is currently a minority opinion, but the arguments for it have grown with scientific knowledge and, I believe, are now overwhelming. Adopting naturalism allows us to advance our understanding by clearing away the extensive falsehoods and confusions of supernatural thinking.
[i] Carroll, Sean (2016). The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning and the Universe Itself.
[ii] One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge. Wikipedia.
[iii] Carroll (2016). Chapter 19.
[iv] Pinker, Stephen (2021). Rationality: What it is, Why it Seems Scarce, Why it Matters. Chapter 10.
[v] How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin? Wikipedia.
[vi] Papineau, David (2021). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
[vii] Carroll (2016) and Greene, Brian (2020). Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe.
My short essay Only on the Earth are there Purposes and Minds
My short essay A Person Has No Soul
My notes on Carroll (2016)
My notes on Greene (2020)