Naturalism Is an Illogical Faith
by Terry Wane Benton
Although naturalists claim to base their naturalist worldview on science, they actually do not and cannot do so.
This is so because science is limited to the study of the natural world. Science tells us what the world is made of and how and why it functions. Naturalism, on the other hand, makes claims about the origin of the natural world, something that is beyond the capacity of science.
Time began with the creation, and the creation had a beginning. But what was before time and the creation? Whatever it was, the scientific method cannot study it. It is outside of the limitations of time and the material universe.
The scientific method has yet to demonstrate that life, much less the wide variety of life forms, could invent itself just from lifeless chemicals mixing accidentally and reacting. Life comes from life, and that would imply that there is an eternal living source from which all earthly life derives. Intelligence comes from intelligence, and that would imply that there is an eternal, living, intelligent being from which all earthly living intelligence derives.
Naturalism can never account for life, mind, intelligence, conscience, moral sense of right and wrong. Naturalism is a vain effort to explain what cannot be explained by lifeless material or chemicals accidentally mixing and watching the reactions. Naturalism is a philosophy, a religious belief, but it is not a proven or probable fact. Therefore, it is not knowledge.
There is a claim that God is the Creator. There is proof that God has spoken (Hebrews 1:1-2). Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that there is a God who reveals secrets. He gave the dream of the king and then told the interpretation, showing him the far distant future. Starting with the Babylonian kingdom and arriving at the fourth, the Roman, the God of heaven would set up His own kingdom that would never be destroyed (Daniel 2:44f). The king was Jesus, and His kingdom was not earthly, but one that man could never destroy. His kingdom has stood so far about 2000 years. The church of Christ is greater than all four of those temporal earthly kingdoms. The God who sent Jesus brought down those kingdoms just as He said He would, and brought in Jesus and His indestructible kingdom just as He said He would. Those words could only be foreseen and spoken by a power and wisdom above our own. Daniel proved in time that God had indeed spoken. Therefore, God is real, and His claim to have created the universe and life is verified.
Naturalism did not and could not make itself. Naturalism can never be true or prove itself true. It starts wrong and ends wrong in its conclusions about the origin and history of the universe and life. God created the heavens and the earth is the only reasonable explanation. God’s testimony is true, and it will never be proven untrue by a blind religious philosophy of naturalism.
"All things were created by Him and without Him nothing was made that was made" (John 1:3).
