Natural Theology

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Natural Theology

Overview

Natural theology is a system of finding basic truths about the existence of God and human destiny by reason. "Natural" refers to the idea that reason is an essential faculty possessed by all thinking people. Thus, in this view, rational thinking may also provide a basis for revelation, so that reason and revelation go hand in hand. This approach supports the discovery of religious truths through rational argument, proofs, and reason, and is often concerned with two principal topics: 1) Can God's existence be logically and rationally proved?, and 2) Can the immortality of the soul be arrived at through logical, rational argument?

Several eighteenth-century philosophers and scientists, notably John Ray (1627-1705), Robert Boyle (1627-1691), William Derham (1657-1735), Nehemiah Grew (1641-1712), and Samuel Clarke (1675-1729), contributed to and developed these ideas. Natural theology had a great influence on the sciences, and biology in particular. Opponents to natural theology were led by Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776), who pointed out that while the system had logic, it was also possible for things to fall together by chance.

Background

The idea of the existence of God in nature was present in the Greco-Roman world. Saint Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, wrote that since the creation of the world an eternal God is seen in things that are made. (Romans 1:20). Design in nature is a major supportive theme and argument. These organized designs, it was assumed, pointed toward a divine Creator who must have created the patterns. Anselm, an early church thinker, proposed that all humans possess the idea of God, which in itself implies the existence of a corresponding reality.

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) posited "five ways" of establishing the existence of God, so that from our experience as human beings we must conclude the existence of an infinite being on whom the world depends. According to his schema: 1) when looking at the world of motion, we must conclude there is a Prime Mover; 2) when looking at result or cause, we must conclude there is a First Cause; 3) when we look at the unsure happenings in life, we must conclude there is a Necessary Being; 4) when we look at the imperfections of life, we must conclude there is a Perfect Being; 5) when we look at order and design, we must conclude there is a Supreme Intelligence that created design and order.

The intellectual energy of the Renaissance sparked an adventuresome exploratory spirit in Europe. In 1509 Nicholaus Copernicus (1473-1543) proposed a revolutionary new view of the cosmos, positioning the sun—not the Earth—at the center of the solar system. This impact on traditional thought caused many to question the values of the Church and the existence of God.

Impact

The Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw a period of great conflict between science and religion. Many of the Enlightenment thinkers were also Christians who did not want to undermine religious beliefs. The theologians of the time tried to adjust their beliefs to the scientific theories of Copernican astronomy and Newtonian physics. Many revived and revised St. Thomas's earlier five proofs. These scientists were involved in different areas of discovery.

John Ray, the son of a village blacksmith in Black Notley, Essex, England, came to Cambridge at a time when the organization of chemistry and anatomy was just beginning. A devout Puritan, he became respected and prospered as part of the regime of Oliver Cromwell. He received a bachelor's degree in 1648 and then spent the next 13 years as an academic scholar. With the Restoration of the monarchy, Ray hit unfortunate times since he was a dedicated Puritan. He had refused to sign the Act of Uniformity, leading to his dismissal from Cambridge in 1662. Some prosperous friends supported him for 43 years while he continued to work as a naturalist.

In 1660 Ray began to catalog plants growing around Cambridge and, after studying that small area, explored the rest of Great Britain. His dedication to taxonomy (the establishment of an orderly account of species) was fitting, as he was also interested in finding order in the world through natural theology. A turning point in his life occurred when he met Francis Willughby (1635-1672), a fellow naturalist who convinced him to undertake a study of the complete natural history of living things. Ray would investigate all of the plants and Willughby all of the animals.

The two searched Europe for flora (plants) and fauna (animals). In 1670, just as Ray produced his "Catalog of English Plants," Willughby suddenly died, leaving Ray to finish both projects. He published Ornithology and History of Fish, giving all the credit and recognition to Willughby.

While he was continuing his major works in botany, Ray also published three volumes on religion. In an 1691 essay called "The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of Creation" he delineated the full range of his correlation of science with natural theology. The essay described how it was obvious that form and function in organic nature demonstrated there must be an allknowing God. This argument of design supporting a static view was contrdicted by the development of evolution in the nineteenth century.

Also of importance was Robert Boyle, an Irish chemist and natural philosopher. Though known for his work on the properties of gases and the chemical elements, he was a great defender of the Christian faith. The fourteenth child of a family of wealth and influence, he went to Eton College and there began his experimental work while writing moral essays as well. At his estate in Ireland he was very interested in anatomical dissection. At the University of Oxford he came into contact with Robert Hooke (1635-1703), the scientist who discovered cells. Hooke was also an able inventor, and they worked to demonstrate the physical characteristics of air and the necessity of air in combustion, respiration, and the transmission of sound.

Boyle was dedicated to proving the Christian religion against what he called "notorious infidels." He was a devout Protestant and took a special interest in promoting the Christian religion abroad. In 1690 he wrote a book called The Christian Virtuoso, in which he sought to show the study of nature was a central religious duty. He believed that nature was a clock-like mechanism that had been made and set in motion by a divine Creator. This, it was believed, was done at the beginning of time and thereafter the world functioned according to secondary laws. In line with natural theology, Boyle asserted that science can reveal these secondary laws. Indeed, he believed the human soul was much more than just the circulation and moving blood cells in the body.

William Derham, a chaplain and ordained deacon of the Church of England, was very interested in the work of Boyle and delivered lectures on his ideas. He published many papers on meteorology, astronomy, and natural history, as well as an outstanding work on the sexes of wasps. His admiration of the works of Ray and Hooke led him to natural theology.

Though Derham published new editions of Ray's Physico-Theological Discourses and Philosophical Letters, it is for his own works that he is known. The Artificial Clockmaker and Astro-Theology were translated into French, Swedish, and German. "Astro-theology" concerns the attempt to argue from astronomy to God. Derham's works greatly influenced William Paley (1743-1805), the great natural theologian of the late eighteenth century.

Nehemiah Grew, an English physician and botanist, was one of the founders of the science of plant anatomy. As he pondered the growth and anatomy of plants and how they reproduce, he became convinced that the design must be part of the wisdom of God, the infinite designer. Grew was very prominent and was elected to the Royal Society in 1671. His most famous work was The Anatomy of Plants (1682), but he also wrote Cosmologia Sacra, or sacred cosmology, in 1701, in which he described the rational beliefs of natural theology.

Samuel Clarke, an English theologian, philosopher, and chaplain to Queen Anne, attempted to prove the existence of God by mathematical methods. He presented his ideas in A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God (1795). He also established a group of moral principles that aspired to the certainty of mathematical propositions, presented in the essay "A Discourse Concerning the Unchangeable Obligation of Natural Religion" (1706). Clarke was a friend and disciple of Isaac Newton (1642-1727) at the University of Cambridge, and was dedicated to spreading Newton's views. He defended Newton as well as Christian religion in four collected volumes of his works (1738-42). It was Clarke in particular who provoked Hume's criticism of religion.

Hume, one of the greatest critics of natural theology, is well known for his skepticism and empiricism. In his 1779 Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion he determined that the world was more or less a smoothly functioning system or it would not exist. He argued that the world may have come about by chance as particles falling into a temporary or permanent self-sustaining order. These chance developments have the look of design, but really are not. Hume also pointed out that the world is not perfect. There are many examples of human and animal suffering, and one cannot assume a good and powerful Creator would make such an imperfect world.

Less than a century later Charles Darwin (1809-1882) postulated that adaptations of life forms are the result of natural selection. Those species that adapted, survived; those that did not, died. And thus the "survival of the fittest" was ensured. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection contradicted the claims of natural theology. Evolution suggested that life originated and changed according to scientifically structured laws with timeframes and outcomes that directly refuted biblical claims.

Discussions about natural theology now are generally relegated to philosophers and theologians. While some groups invoke arguments of divine design, most modern scientists have reconciled and accepted a separation between science and religion.

EVELYN B. KELLY