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.
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