Religious naturalism

Religious naturalism finds religious significance in the natural world while rejecting supernatural beings and explanations. It draws on science, ethics, ritual, and human experience to shape ways of relating to nature.

Naturalism: The view that reality consists of the natural world and can be understood without supernatural entities. Religious naturalism extends this worldview by treating nature itself as a source of religious meaning.
Baron d'Holbach: An eighteenth-century French philosopher who defended materialism and criticized supernatural religion. His naturalistic critique helped establish intellectual ground on which later religious naturalists could build.
Metaphysical naturalism: The position that reality contains no entities or forces beyond the natural world. It states the ontological commitment that distinguishes religious naturalism from supernatural religion.
Theism: Belief in at least one god, commonly understood as a personal creator or ruler of the universe. Religious naturalism rejects the supernatural deity central to many theistic traditions.
Awe: A response to something perceived as vast or beyond ordinary understanding that can reshape one’s perspective. Experiences of nature’s scale and complexity often ground religious naturalists’ sense of reverence.
Charles Darwin: The English naturalist whose theory of evolution by natural selection transformed biology. Evolution offered religious naturalists a powerful account of life’s history without supernatural design.
Religious experience: An experience interpreted as involving profound connection, transformation, or encounter with ultimate significance. Religious naturalists can interpret such experiences through human psychology and the natural world.
Deism: Belief in a creator who establishes the universe but does not ordinarily intervene in it. Unlike deism, religious naturalism does not posit a supernatural creator behind nature.
Sacredness: The quality of being set apart as worthy of reverence, devotion, or special regard. Religious naturalism locates sacred value in the natural world rather than in a supernatural realm.
John Dewey: An American philosopher who developed pragmatism and argued for a naturalistic account of experience and inquiry. His account of religious experience made room for religious meaning without requiring supernatural belief.

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