of Metaphysical Naturalism
Metaphysical Naturalism holds that Man has a spiritual soul not dependent on a supernatural or divine entity; that the soul begins tabula rasa and dies with the body; that existence has always existed and required no supernatural entity for its existence; and practices no rituals of religion, relying instead on Reason in the conduct of all the affairs of Man.
The Free Assemblage of Metaphysical Natrualists holds that morality is objective and, in the absence of a divinity who forgives Man's sins, that a rational morality is all that stands between purposless existence, and an existence of virtue and character. It practices no rituals of religion, relying instead on Reason in the conduct of all the affairs of Man.
The Academy of Metaphysical Naturalism offers programs for learning the tenets of The Free Assemblage. A "free church" will be explained below. The Academy wil also offer tracts authored by Assemblage Members on any subject related to Naturalism, including its other forms. All rational discussion is advanced, and unsolicited articles for this regular blog will be accepted at either of the posted email addresses. Some of these materials are written by our educators. Some are chosen by our Professors from their own works or from other established authors in the various fields that comprise the Philosophy, Theology, Sociology, Politics, Ethics and other associated subjects of Metaphysical Naturalism itself.
Free Church
A free church has been described in many ways, in many places, including cyberspace where there is a lot of activity in the area of defining such an idea and promoting the existence of such free churches. The purpose of a free church is to provide the same theological and philosophical assembly as any "brickfront" buiding. But in the case of The Free Assemblage of Metaphysical Naturalists, the "assemblage" is in cyberspace and by such other methods as enables the distribution of empirically published or electronically published materials as it shall see fit to publish, distribute, or otherwise disseminate to its Members or to Students of the Academy.
Links to independent materials concerning "free churches"
But as you can see, each of those referential links connects a free church to Christianity. How does a free church work that is not connected to a religion that affirms a diety and purposeful creation of existence?
According to a website that attempts to define "religion," one definition is "A belief concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the practices and institutions associated with such belief."
Metaphysical Naturalism is very definitely concerned with defining such things, and with the denial of their existence, replacing the belief in the supernatural with a certainty about the natural cosmology of the universe and existence itself.
The same website alternately defines "religion" as "The sum total of answers given to explain humankind's relationship with the universe."
[Thanks to "allaboutreligion.org and
In the case of The Free Assemblage, the "sum total of answers" has many descriptions and many summations. One of this author's favorites comes from the "Dictionary of Philosophy", Dagobert D. Runes, Editor, 1942, Littlefield, Adams and Co. http://www.ditext.com/runes/index.html
"Naturalism, challenging the cogency of the cosmological, teleological, and moral arguments, holds that the universe requires no supernatural cause and government, but is self-existent, self-explanatory, self-operating, and self-directing, that the world-process is not teleological and anthropocentric, but purposeless, deterministic (except for possible tychistic events), and only incidentally productive of man; that human life, physical, mental, moral and spiritual, is an ordinary natural event attributable in all respects to the ordinary operations of nature; and that man's ethical values, compulsions, activities, and restraints can be justified on natural grounds, without recourse to supernatural sanctions, and his highest good pursued and attained under natural conditions, without expectation of a supernatural destiny."
If this does not describe "The sum total of answers given by Metaphysical Naturalism to explain humankind's relationship with the universe," then nothing does.
The Academy will distribute materials having a rational relationship with this Philosophy, through its publishing arm, Naturalist Academy Publishing.
This blog, and The Newsletter of the Free Assemblage of Metaphysical Naturalists copyright 2008 by
Curtis Edward Clark and The Free Assemblage of Metaphysical Naturalists, Naturalist Academy Publishing
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