It's the Dogmatic Logic That Isn't Natural
What is "natural" about naturalism? It leaves out the super natural.
That is its essence, and nothing more. Anything more is only going to be descriptive of what the philosopher believes is "natural" and what is not.
Can we say God is natural? Well, there is a strange theory that God was created naturally, in other words, according to the laws of nature, just as modern science maintains that man was created according to the laws of nature, beginning in the primeval ooze, an enzyme forming from the elements in the ooze, and the enzyme combining with other enzymes that must have been created at virtually the same time, to create the first life.
And then came the evolution of the first combination of enzymes--or life--into more structured and more complicated structures of life.
But the "natural" creation of God by the laws governing existence would already have to have elements upon which to apply those laws, in the creation of God.
Since the elements were already in existence, God did not create existence, even if the laws of nature created Him. He cannot have created that which created Him.
So God did not create existence nor the elements of existence which were used in the creation of God Himself. Hence, even if God is "natural," He did not create nature, nor create its laws.
"...God is one simple and infinitely perfect spiritual substance or nature." Catholic Encyclopedia [CA]
What is a spiritual substance? I thought spirit was "sometimes the supernatural action of God in man, [and] stands for the unseen mysterious force behind the vital processes." [ibid] [Note: each [ibid] link will take you to a different page of the Encyclopedia]
In this sense of the word "spirit" there can be no "substance," since "being a genus supremum, [substance] cannot strictly be defined by an analysis into genus and specific difference." [ibid]
"Substance" is "that by virtue of which a thing has it determinate nature. [ ] Besides [being defined as] the universal intelligible being of things, [for Aristotle] only individual things are generated and exist." "Dictionary of Philosophy"; Runes; 1942; p. 304
But the CA says of this "genus supremum" which "cannot be defined by genus and specificity," that we may "proceed by deductive analysis to examine the nature and attributes of this Being." [ibid]
So not only does God have no genus or species, but it is possible to deductively determine this non-genus and this non-species.
It is the logic of the Church which is not natural, whether or not God exists. How can an atheist argue with logic such as that?
No worry. Naturalists never need argue with unnatural logic again, because the Catholic dogma is that "Had the Theist merely to face a blank Atheistic denial of God's existence, his task would be comparatively a light one. [However,] formal dogmatic Atheism is self-refuting..." [ibid]
The Free Assemblage of Metaphysical Naturalists is the SM of
The Free Assemblage of Metaphysical Naturalists LLC.
The Academy of Metaphysical Naturalism TM,
The Academy of Metaphysical Naturalism Blogger TM, and
Academy of Metaphysical Naturalism Blogger Extra TM are the educational arms of the LLC and are:
© 2008 by Curtis Edward Clark and Naturalist Academy Publishing ®
mailto:freeassemblage@gmail.com
http://freeassemblage.blogspot.com/
