Naturalism Quotes

• Evolutionary naturalism takes the inherent limitations of science and turns them into a devastating philosophical weapon: because science is our only real way of knowing anything, what science cannot know cannot be real.

  Phillip E. Johnson

  Real, Philosophical, Knowing

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• When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the universe by disposing of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples.

  Stephen Crane

  Hate, Men, Wish

  Stephen Crane (1998). “The Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories”, p.139, OUP Oxford

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• Naturalism aimed at giving the primitive wishes full play but failed because these wishes are too primitive, too infantile, too inconsistent with themselves to be satisfied even by the greatest license.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Play, Giving, Wish

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• The second advantage claimed for naturalism is that it is equivalent to rationality, because it assumes a model of reality in which all events are in principle accessible to scientific investigation.

  Phillip E. Johnson

  Reality, Principles, Events

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• We have fallen into this very mean description of humanity. Naturalism in fiction is too reductive in its definition of human beings.

  Ben Okri

  Mean, Humanity, Fiction

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• If modernist naturalism were true, there would be no objective truth outside of science. In that case right and wrong would be a matter of cultural preference, or political power, and the power already available to modernists ideologies would be overwhelming.

  Phillip E. Johnson

  Political, Would Be, Objective Truth

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• Evolutionists ... have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.

  Richard Lewontin

  Commitment, Acceptance, Science

  "Billions and Billions of Demons" by Richard Lewontin, www.nybooks.com. January 9, 1997.

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• Another important historical factor is the fact that this already very simple religion was further simplified and purified by the early philosophers of ancient China. Our first great philosopher was a founder of naturalism; and our second great philosopher was an agnostic.

  Hu Shih

  Simple, Historical, Religion

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• I am really not of the school of naturalism. I like style, and you can use more style in theater than in film roles. I love to sink my teeth into a part.

  Marisa Tomei

  School, Style, Teeth

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• Naturalism teaches one of the most important things in this world. There is only this life, so live wonderfully and meaningfully.

  Greg Graffin

  Important, World, This Life

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• Scientific naturalism is a story that reduces reality to physical particles and impersonal laws, [and] portrays life as a meaningless competition among organisms that exist only to survive and reproduce.

  Philip Johnson

  Reality, Law, Scary

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• Looking at the doctrine of Darwinism, which undergirded my atheism for so many years, it didn’t take me long to conclude that it was simply too far-fetched to be credible. I realized that if I were to embrace Darwinism and its underlying premise of naturalism, I would have to believe that: 1. Nothing produces everything 2. Non-life produces life 3. Randomness produces fine-tuning 4. Chaos produces information 5. Unconsciousness produces consciousness 6. Non-reason produces reason....The central pillars of evolutionary theory quickly rotted away when exposed to scrutiny.

  Lee Strobel

  Life, Believe, Years

  Lee Strobel (2009). “The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God”, p.355, Harper Collins

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• The question of naturalism is a fallacy, it does not exist... The photographic image replaces naturalistic experience.

  Sid Grossman

  Doe, Fallacy

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• The world of strict naturalism in which clever mathematical laws all by themselves bring the universe and life into existence, is pure [science] fiction. Theories and laws do not bring matter/energy into existence. The view that they nevertheless somehow have the capacity seems a rather desperate refuge...from the alternative possibility...Trying to avoid the clear evidence for the existence of a divine intelligence behind nature, atheist scientists are forced to ascribe creative powers to less and less credible candidates like mass/energy and the laws of nature.

  John Lennox

  Atheist, Clever, Views

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• I don't bill myself as an atheist but as a naturalist. Naturalism is a belief system. A lot of scientists bristle at that. We all have to believe we can find the truth. Evidence is my guide. I rely on observation, experimentation and verification.

  Greg Graffin

  Atheist, Believe, Bills

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• A lot of people inspire me. I'm a huge movie buff. From studying and watching movies, over and over again, directly influential are Terrence Malik and his naturalism, Robert Altman and his exploration of improvisation, and Judd Apatow, in terms of his comedic process.

  David Gordon Green

  People, Inspire, Study

  Source: collider.com

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• Realism and Naturalism rely mostly on the eye of the flesh. Abstract, conceptual and surrealistic art rely mostly on the eye of the mind. Great works of art rely on the eye of contemplation, the eye of the spirit.

  Alex Grey

  Art, Eye, Mind

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• When you are playing an egomaniac running a fantastical ship, you don't want him to be too suburban. Naturalism doesn't work on the high seas.

  Geoffrey Rush

  Running, Sea, Want

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• Nature rarely does anything mathematically perfect, and naturalism results from imperfections and deviations.

  Margaret Wertheim

  Perfect, Imperfection

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Naturalism is the view that the physical world is a self-contained system that works by blind, unbroken natural laws. Naturalism doesn't come right out and say there's nothing beyond nature. Rather, it says that nothing beyond nature could have any conceivable relevance to what happens in nature. Naturalism's answer to theism is not atheism but benign neglect. People are welcome to believe in God, though not a God who makes a difference in the natural order.

  William A. Dembski

  Atheist, Believe, Self

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• I think I'm trying to write truthfully about life, and naturalism, or the way people normally talk in movies, is a convention. It's not the way people talk in life at all.

  Wallace Shawn

  Writing, Thinking, People

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 1, 2009.

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• The question rather is how we should do science and theology in light of the impending collapse of Enlightenment rationalism and scientific naturalism. These ideologies are on the way out. They are on the way out.

  William A. Dembski

  Light, Way, Should

  William A. Dembski (2002). “Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science & Theology”, p.14, InterVarsity Press

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• Naturalism is a methodological rather than a metaphysical view. It's because I am a naturalist, actually, that I am sceptical about physicalism.

  Tim Crane

  Views, Metaphysical, Naturalist

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• In terms of making TV drama, not everything has to make sense. In cinema, you usually strive for reality and a natural environment, but in TV, it's more acceptable to do something crazy and break with naturalism.

  Takashi Miike

  Crazy, Drama, Reality

  Source: www.indiewire.com

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• I have a horror of tags and labels. I don't understand, for instance, how people can talk about Bergman's "symbolism". Far from being symbolic, be seems to me, through and almost biological naturalism, to arrive at the spiritual truth about human life that is important to him.

  Andrei Tarkovsky

  Spiritual, Symbolism, People

  "Sculpting in Time" by Andrei Tarkovsky, (p. 149), 1986.

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