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Shared principles

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The main principle of religious naturalism is that a naturalist worldview can serve as a foundation for religious orientation.[1]

Shared principles related to naturalism include views that:

Shared principles related to having nature as a focus of religious orientation include the view that nature is of ultimate importance – as the forces and ordered processes that enable our lives, and all of life, and that cause all things to be are as they are.[7] As such, nature can prompt religious responses, which can vary for each person and can include:

Nature is not “worshipped”, in the sense of reverent devotion to a deity.[12] Instead, the natural world is respected as a primary source of truth[13] - as it expresses and illustrates the varied principles of nature that enable life and may contribute to well-being.

With this, learning about nature, including human nature, (via both academic and artistic resources and direct personal experiences) is seen as valuable – as it can provide an informed base of understanding of how things are and why things happen as they do, expand awareness and appreciation of the interdependence among all things, prompt an emotional or spiritual sense of connection with other people and forms of life in all of nature, and serve as a point of reference for considering and responding to moral and religious questions and life challenges.[14][15][16]

Tenets

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As in many religious orientations, religious naturalism includes a central story, with a description of how it is believed that our world and human beings came to be.[17]

In this (based on what can be understood through methods of science), the cosmos began approximately 13.8 billion years ago as a massive expansion of energy, which has been described as “the Big Bang”. Due to natural forces and processes, this expansion led over time to the emergence of nuclear particles, light, galaxies, stars, and planets.[18] Life on Earth is thought to have emerged more than 3.5 billion years ago[19] — beginning with molecules that combined in ways that enabled them to maintain themselves as stable entities and self-replicate,[20] which evolved to single-cell organisms and then to varied multi-cell organisms that, over time, included millions of varied species, including mammals, primates, and humans, living in complex interdependent ecosystems.

This story has been described as “The Epic of Evolution”[21] and, for religious naturalists, it provides a foundation for considering how things are, which things matter, and how we should live. It is also seen as having a potential to unite all humans with a shared understanding of our world, including conditions that are essential to all lives,[22] as it is based on the best available scientific knowledge and is widely accepted among scientists and in many cultures worldwide.[23]

From the perspective of religious naturalism humans are seen as biological beings — composed of natural substances and products of evolution who act in ways that are enabled and limited by natural processes. With this, all of what we think, feel, desire, decide, and do is due to natural processes and, after death, each person ceases to be, with no potential for an eternal afterlife or reincarnation.[24] Due to evolving from common ancient roots, many of the processes that enable our human lives (including aspects of body and mind) are shared by other types of living things. And, as we recognize what we share, we can feel a type of kinship or connection with all forms of life.[25][26] Similarly, recognizing that all forms of life are:

and in recognizing and appreciating Earth as a rare site, in a vast cosmos, where life exists, and as the environment that is essential for our lives and well-being, this planet and its life-enabling qualities is seen as being of ultimate concern,[27] which can prompt or warrant a felt need to respect, preserve, and protect the varied ecosystems that sustain us.[28]

Values are seen as having accompanied the emergence of life – where, unlike rocks and other inanimate objects that perform no purposeful actions, living things have a type of will that prompts them to act in ways that enable them (or their group) to survive and reproduce.[29] With this, life can be seen as a core/primary value,[30] and things that can contribute to life and well-being are also valued. And, from a religious naturalist perspective, ongoing reproduction and continuation of life (a “credo of continuation”),[31] has been described as a long-term goal or aspiration.

Morality, likewise, is seen as having emerged in social groups, as standards for behavior and promotion of virtues that contribute to the well-being of groups. Evolutionary roots of this can be seen in groups of primates and some other types of mammals and other creatures, where empathy, helping others, a sense of fairness, and other elements of morality have often been seen. It includes promotion of “virtues” (behaviors seen pro-social or “good”).[32]

With perspectives of religious naturalism, moral concern is seen as extending beyond the well-being of human groups to an “ecomorality” that also includes concern for the well-being of non-human species (in part, as this recognizes how non-human life can contribute to the well-being of humans, and also as it respects the value of all life).[33]

With recognition that moral choices can be complex (where as some choices benefit one group, they may cause harm to others), an aspiration is that, beyond aspiring to virtues and adhering to social rules, religious naturalists can work to develop mature judgement that prepares them to consider varied aspects of challenges, judge options, and make choices that consider impact from several perspectives.[34]

Advocates of religious naturalism believe that, as they offer perspectives that can help to show how things really are in the physical world, and which things ultimately matter, and as they can contribute to development of religious attitudes, including humility, gratitude, compassion, and caring, and enhance exposure to and appreciation of the many wonders of the natural world, perspectives from religious naturalism can contribute to personal wholeness, social cohesion, and awareness and activities that can contribute to preservation of global ecosystems.[35][36]

Beyond supporting a credo of continuation that values varied forms of life and ecosystems, aspirations based on religious naturalism include:

As suggested by Donald Crosby, since nature is regarded as a focus of religious commitment and concern, religious naturalists may “grant to nature the kind of reverence awe, love and devotion we in the West have formerly reserved for God.”[38]

References

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  1. ^ Goodenough 2023, p. 2-5.
  2. ^ Carroll, Sean M. (2016). The big picture: on the origins of life, meaning, and the universe itself. New York, New York: Dutton. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-525-95482-8.
  3. ^ Goodenough, Ursula (August 27, 2010). "My Covenant with Mystery". NPR. Retrieved September 6, 2023.
  4. ^ Crosby, Donald A. (2018). "10: Matter, Mind, and Meaning". In Crosby, Donald A.; Stone, Jerome A. (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Religious Naturalism. Oxon: Routledge. p. 109. ISBN 9781351857536. OCLC 1022845932.
  5. ^ Crosby, Donald (2014). More than Discourse: Symbolic Expressions of Naturalistic Faith. State University of New York Press. p. 20. ISBN 9781438453750.
  6. ^ Goodenough, Ursula (1998). The sacred depths of nature (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 167–168. ISBN 978-0-19-513629-6.
  7. ^ Rue, Loyal Duane (2011). Nature is enough: religious naturalism and the meaning of life. Albany (N.Y.): State University of New York Press. p. 129. ISBN 978-1-4384-3799-6.
  8. ^ a b Crosby 2014, p. 86.
  9. ^ Gullick, Walter B. (2018). "27: Whither Religious Naturalism?". In Crosby, Donald A.; Stone, Jerome A. (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Religious Naturalism. Oxon: Routledge. p. 318. ISBN 9781351857536. OCLC 1022845932.
  10. ^ Sagan, Carl (1994). Pale blue dot: a vision of the human future in space (1st ed.). New York: Ballantine Books. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-345-37659-6.
  11. ^ Goodenough 2023, p. 18-19.
  12. ^ Gullick 2018, p. 323.
  13. ^ Crosby, Donald A. (2008). Living with ambiguity: religious naturalism and the menace of evil. Albany (N.Y.): State University of New York press. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-7914-7519-5.
  14. ^ Raymo, Chet (2003). The Path. Walker & Company. p. 109. ISBN 0-8027-1402-1.
  15. ^ Goodenough 2023, p. 2-3,83-84.
  16. ^ Crosby, Pamela (2018). "25: Religious Naturalism and the Spirit of Query". In Crosby, Donald A.; Stone, Jerome A. (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Religious Naturalism. Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 9781351857536. OCLC 1022845932.
  17. ^ Goodenough 2023, p. 2-4.
  18. ^ Sagan, Carl (1980). Cosmos (1st ed.). New York: Random House. pp. 337–338. ISBN 978-0-394-50294-6.
  19. ^ "History of Life on Earth | Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History". naturalhistory.si.edu. Retrieved 2023-09-07.
  20. ^ Goodenough 2023, p. 21-36.
  21. ^ Rue, Loyal D. (2000). Everybody's story: wising up to the epic of evolution. SUNY series in philosophy and biology. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. pp. xii–xiii. ISBN 978-0-7914-4392-7.
  22. ^ Goodenough 2023, p. 4-5.
  23. ^ Siegel, Ethan. "Why Isn't Anyone Seriously Challenging The Big Bang?". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-09-07.
  24. ^ Goodenough 2023, p. 162-163.
  25. ^ Goodenough 2023, p. 182, 202.
  26. ^ Rue 2012, p. 114.
  27. ^ Sagan 1994.
  28. ^ Goodenough 2023, p. 198-199.
  29. ^ Sherman, Jeremy. What is value?, retrieved 2023-09-07
  30. ^ Rue 2012, p. 108.
  31. ^ Goodenough 2023, p. 215.
  32. ^ Goodenough 2023, p. 189-190.
  33. ^ Goodenough 2023, p. 199.
  34. ^ Crosby, Pamela 2018, p. 303.
  35. ^ Rue 2012, p. 128-129.
  36. ^ Goodenough 2023, p. 202-203.
  37. ^ Rue 2012, p. 112, 115, 116.
  38. ^ Crosby, Donald A. (2002). A religion of nature. Albany, N.Y: State University of New York Press. pp. xi. ISBN 978-0-7914-5454-1.
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