GOD, SCIENCE, AND METHODOLOGICAL NATURALISM
GOD, SCIENCE, AND METHODOLOGICAL NATURALISM

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, I call into question a commonly assumed principle in science known asmethodological naturalism, which is the idea that science should only accept natural, asopposed to supernatural, explanations. In support of MN, two arguments are commonlythrown against the idea of theistic explanation in science: the science stopper argument andthe God-of-the-gaps argument. The science stopper argument states that appealing to theisticexplanations hinders science from making steady progress; it simply stops science from itstracks. In other words, abandoning MN spells the death of science. The God-of-the-gapsargument states that appealing to God when explaining phenomenon is a form of anargument from ignorance, what critics call God-of-the-gaps thinking, which is considered tobe fallacious reasoning. Any gap in nature that is explained by God, so the argument goes, issimply an appeal to our ignorance that we have no yet found the correct explanation to suchnatural mystery. In this scenario, an appeal to God is assumed to simply show our lack ofknowledge with regard to the workings of nature. After introducing these arguments, I assesstheir strength by looking at the history of methodological naturalism. I then show how thehistory of science does not only fail to support these arguments but actually refutes them.

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