Encyclopedic Dictionary of Bible and Theology

Naturalness NATURALNESS.Few terms are more fruitful of fallacious thought than the group including nature, natural, naturalness. In modern usage they are very frequent, and the range of varied meanings which they cover is wide. Thus we speak of natural instinct, natural conduct, natural religion, natural science, and the natural creation, though the single epithet has … Continue reading “Naturalness”

Naturalization Act 22:28; Eph 2:12; Eph 2:19 Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible

Naturalists This name, which has now become nearly obsolete in a theological or philosophical sense, has been used to designate two sections of the antichristian school which rejects belief in supernatural causes or operations. (1) The name has been mostly used by German writers for those who identify God with nature, but who are more … Continue reading “Naturalists”

Naturalistic fallacy, the The procedure involved in metaphysical and naturalistic systems of ethics, and said by G. E. Moore and his followers to be a fallacy, of deriving ethical conclusions from non-ethical premises or of defining ethical notions in non-ethical terms. See Naturalistic ethics, Metaphysical ethics. — W.K.F. Fuente: The Dictionary of Philosophy

Naturalistic ethics Any view according to which ethics is an empirical science, natural or social, ethical notions being reduced to those of of the natural sciences and ethical questions being answered wholly on basis of the findings of those sciences. — W.K.F. Fuente: The Dictionary of Philosophy

naturalism (Latin: natura, nature) A viewpoint in philosophy and theology insisting exclusively on the natural as distinguished from the transcendent and the supernatural. This may be restricted to physical nature, denying the supra-sensual and the spiritual; as such it is equivalent to materialism; to nature in the pantheistic, monistic sense, hence denying distinct First Cause; … Continue reading “Naturalism”

natural theology That branch of philosophy which investigates what human reason unaided by Revelation can tell us concerning God; distinguished from dogmatic theology which treats of the science of God in the light of Revelation. This science endeavors: To demonstrate the existence of God from the visible things of the world through such principles as … Continue reading “Natural Theology”

natural selection A theory which seeks to explain by natural causes the occurrence of every kind of adaptation which is to be met with in organic nature, on the assumption that adaptations of every kind have primary reference to the preservation of species, and therefore, also, as a general rule, to the preservation of their … Continue reading “Natural Selection”

Natural Religion SEE RELIGION. Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature Natural Religion See Religion, Natural Religion, Natural Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible

Natural Realism In epistemology, the doctrine that sensation and perception can be relied upon to give indubitable evidence of the real existence of the external world. Theory that realism is part of the inherent common sense of mankind. First advanced by T. Reid (1710-1796) and held by his followers of the Scotch school. Also known … Continue reading “Natural Realism”