ABSTRACT
Philosophical naturalism has consistently shown itself to be a non-scientific religious perspective that is adverse to impartial inquiry into the nature of reality according to the scientific principles of methodological naturalism. Naturalism is a claim: roughly, the conjunctive claim that there are none but natural causal entities with none but natural causal powers. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses some controversial questions about naturalism. It also discusses the history of attempts to define ‘religion’, and settles on a working definition that is adapted from the stipulative definition adopted by Atran. The book criticises the work of a bunch of theorists whose guiding ambition is to develop naturalistic big pictures that include beliefs and values often associated with religion, noting, in particular, that the characterisation of naturalism places very minimal constraints upon the evaluative, normative, and emotional commitments of naturalistic big pictures.
