A Critical Review of Theological Arguments in Defence of Methodological Naturalism

Abstract

Inconsistency of methodological naturalism and religious beliefs has been the most important reason for theists to oppose methodological naturalism. But some philosophers defend methodological naturalism based on their theological dispositions. They believe that theological motivations can lead to a naturalistic methodology. In this paper we review and criticize two prominent types of these arguments and show their deficiencies: First we review arguments which concentrate on difficulties of “Divine Action” problem. According to them rejecting methodological naturalism leads to God of Gaps theology which is awkward and non-religious. Secondly we discuss arguments which aim to prove that supernatural entities could not be described via limited scientific method. The main claim of these arguments is that supernatural entities are too transcendent to be referred in a scientific theory.

Keywords

• methodological naturalism
• divine action
• god of gaps
• scientific method
• theology