ABSTRACT
In theologies humans integrate their ideas about the way things are (worldviews) with their convictions as to how they should be (values); this was the understanding of religious and non-religious visions I proposed in the previous chapter. In this chapter I will consider in more detail the impact of modern science on our ideas of the way things are. In the light of the sciences I will consider possible interpretations of current insights about the nature of nature. In brief, I will argue the following. Science shows us that reality has integ-
rity and coherence. All phenomena in the world are intelligible as natural phenomena. Thus naturalism as a view of reality seems a plausible interpretation of the world understood scientifically. The integrity and coherence of reality gives some urgency to the question of in what sense one might speak of divine involvement in the course of nature. If one accepts the naturalistic thrust of science, the idea is that everything in nature is in principle intelligible, I will argue that there are nonetheless limit questions with respect to the world studied scientifically, and that these limit questions might be interpreted theistically by seeing the universe as creation. Modern science and cosmology thus allow for a form of theism that respects the naturalistic tenor of science, a naturalistic theism. However, appreciation of the integrity, coherence and creativity of reality might also be articulated as religious naturalism, ascribing religious significance to the natural. Given the intellectual and religious respectability of both naturalistic theism and religious naturalism, a third option is to appreciate scientific insights while acknowledging our intrinsic limitations regarding the ultimate nature of reality, and thus to be a serious agnostic.
