Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
In 1715 Isaac Watts wrote a Christian hymn beginning with this stanza:
I sing the mighty power of God
That made the mountains rise
That spread the flowing seas abroad
And built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained
The sun to rule the day;
The moon shines full at his command
And all the stars obey.
In 1975 Kenneth Boulding offered a new version:
What though the mountains are pushed up
By plate-tectonic lift,
And oceans lie within the cup
Made by the landmass drift.
The skies are but earth's airy skin
Rotation makes the day;
Sun, moon, and planets are akin
And Kepler's Laws obey.
Boulding does not say whether the sentiments expressed in his update are really his own, but his rendition expresses succinctly the worldview known as “scientific naturalism.” This is the belief that nature is all there is and that science alone can make sense of it. Some scientific naturalists are willing to keep singing the old hymns. Even though the lyrics no longer ring true, they still warm the heart. Others, however, insist that it is time to stop singing them altogether. There can be no harmonizing of Watts' stanza with Boulding's. Nature is enough.
Is it time then to resign ourselves to this claim? In the following pages I intend to argue that there is no good reason to do so and that in fact the belief that nature is all there is cannot be justified experientially, logically or scientifically. In developing my response I shall be addressing fundamental issues in the dialogue of science with religion.
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- Is Nature Enough?Meaning and Truth in the Age of Science, pp. 1 - 3Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006