Philosophical Perspectives: Naturalism, Christianity, and the Soul

This essay delves into the contrasting philosophical perspectives of naturalism and Christianity concerning the concepts of mind, body, and soul. It begins by defining naturalism, which denies the existence of God and emphasizes the physical world, and contrasts it with Christianity's belief in God and the soul. The essay outlines the core controversy, focusing on how naturalism views morality and the supervenience of moral properties. It then describes naturalism, highlighting its emphasis on hereditary and environmental causes. The views of Jeeves and Brown are presented, aligning with naturalism's physical explanations of emotions, while Cooper's views offer a balanced perspective, acknowledging both scientific and spiritual aspects. The essay provides a critical evaluation of naturalism, pointing out its weaknesses in areas like morality and internal consistency, and contrasts it with Christianity's strengths. A personal reflection emphasizes the importance of spirituality and faith while acknowledging the role of both naturalism and Christianity. The essay concludes by advocating for a dialogue between the two perspectives to foster a comprehensive understanding of the mind, body, and soul.

Running head: PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
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Abstract
The paper aims at understanding how naturalism and Christianity views the subject of mind,
body and soul. It is known that since a long time naturalism and Christianity are against each
other philosophically and they have their own way of explaining the subject. The paper aims
coming to an understanding of both the philosophies.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Outline of Controversy....................................................................................................................3
Description of Naturalism................................................................................................................3
Description Of Jeeves And Browns Views.....................................................................................4
Description Of Coopers Views........................................................................................................4
Critical Evaluation...........................................................................................................................5
Personal Analysis And Reflection...................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Reference:........................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Naturalism is the doctrine that is situated well against the doctrine of Christianity.
Naturalism is the theory that declines the existence of God and emphasizes on the natural
construction of things. It is the belief that there is nothing beyond the existence of our physical
reality. The four types of naturalism are Nihilism, Hedonism, Materialism, and Humanism
(Ritchie, 2014). Christianity is completely based on the idea of the existence of God and his
messenger Jesus.
Christianity proposes the existence of the soul which is situated inside the body Case-
(Winters, 2016). Naturalism only believes in the existence of the body and denies what is not
visible.
Outline of Controversy
The essential way that naturalism or materialism depicts morality is as far as
functionalism. A functionalist theory of moral esteem depicts moral realities as certainties about
human prosperity and thriving. Supervenience is a method for representing the presence of moral
properties in a monistic universe. In the event that these are undermined, there is deficient
support for moral authenticity and the worldview neglects to account, not just for what it
professes to represent, yet an element of the universe that it appears by all appearances
committed to clarify. Materialism draws a correlation between the supervenience of moral
properties with mental properties supervening on physical properties (Furst & Skrine, 2017).
They are both comprehended in causal terms of the physical properties that they supervene on
regardless of whether they are ontologically reducible to these properties.

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Description of Naturalism
Naturalist journalists trusted that anything that happened could be followed to hereditary
or ecological causes, and characters would act in "logical" routes as indicated by these standards.
Naturalism was against developments, for example, Surrealism. Naturalism became out of and
against specific developments; the hypothesis to which it owed most, was Charles Darwin's
Theory of Evolution. Naturalist journalists trusted that anything that happened could be followed
to hereditary or ecological causes, and characters would act in "logical" courses as indicated by
these standards (Putnam, 2016). Naturalism was against developments, for example, Surrealism
and Romanticism, which concentrated on representative and extraordinary occasions and
additionally glorifying circumstances and characters. It is mainly based on the belief that what is
not visible or seen or proved does not exist. It is against the idea of existence of God.
Description Of Jeeves And Browns Views
The views that has been propounded by Jeeves and Browns are similar to the views of
Naturalist philosophers. They have given a very physical description of the body and the soul.
They have clearly stated through argument that only the physiological changes and reactions are
the causes for various feelings and emotions that goes on inside our body. The existence of soul
is hypothetical and it has no proper explanation that can be backed by arguments and physical
evidences (Emden, 2014). Therefore this theory is directly against the argument of the Christian
philosophy which argues for the existence of the soul and how soul drives the body. The authors
have explained scientifically what are the various ways in which the brain and the nervous
system works. This is based on complete scientific ideas.

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Description Of Coopers Views
Cooper has described both the perspectives of the naturalist scientists and the Christian
philosophers (Cooper, 2000). The source of consciousness has been much described by the latest
scientific discoveries, however there are many events and phenomenon that goes inside the head
without any logical explanations. Such events are often referred as the constructions of the soul.
The soul is the driver of the emotions and the feelings that goes on among the human beings.
These are not only explained by the chemical and physical reactions within the body. The
spiritual development within the body of a human being takes place in the level of the soul. May
be a lot of the activities within the brain can be explained by scientific discoveries but a lot
remained to be explained.
Critical Evaluation
Naturalism is a conspicuous perspective that is held and commended broadly in the
present current world. Be that as it may, when analyzed nearly and held up to specific criteria
that would build up it as an authentic perspective, one can see that it misses the mark in a few
zones, for example, the wellspring of profound quality, inward consistent consistency, and
human instinct (Furst & Skrine, 2017). In these regions that Naturalism falls flat, Christianity
prevails by offering a substantial option. The hypothesis of circumstances and end results is
obviously conclusive and subsequently can either be valid or false (Haught, 2014). Furthermore,
on the off chance that there is no first reason, this hypothesis does not hold up making inside
legitimate irregularity. Groothuis keeps on expressing that in the event that a perspective can be
found to have inward irregularities sensibly, the perspective can be ventured to be false.

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Personal Analysis And Reflection
I personally am convinced that spirituality is very important for a persons personal
growth and success in life. It is important to have faith on the existence of God to fully explain
the mind, body and the soul. The brain cannot be explained by science completely.
Again on the other hand it is important to understand that blind faith on religion and
taking everything that is said in the Bible blindly is wrong. Both naturalism and Christianity have
their own role to play in the society so that a complete picture can be drawn and people have
complete growth.
Conclusion
Christianity has its own philosophical understanding of the functioning of the body and
how the soul resides inside the body. Naturalism is vehemently against the idea of Christianity
and how it functions. However a better dialogue between the two is necessary where various
topics including the mind, body and soul may be discussed.

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Reference:
Case-Winters, A. (2016). Reconstructing a Christian theology of nature: Down to earth.
Routledge.
Cooper, J. W. (2000). Body, soul, and life everlasting: Biblical anthropology and the monism-
dualism debate. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
Emden, C. J. (2014). Nietzsche's Naturalism: Philosophy and the Life Sciences in the Nineteenth
Century. Cambridge University Press.
Furst, L. R., & Skrine, P. N. (2017). Naturalism (Vol. 17). Taylor & Francis.
Haught, J. F. (2014). Christianity and science: Toward a theology of nature. Orbis Books.
Putnam, H. (2016). Naturalism, realism, and normativity. Harvard University Press.
Ritchie, J. (2014). Understanding naturalism. Routledge.