Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 78:311 (Jul 1921)
Article: Naturalizing The Supernatural
Author: Orville B. Swift

BSac 78:311 (July 1921) p. 281

Naturalizing The Supernatural

Orville B. Swift

No conception of ultimate causes seems to be present in the minds of a vast number of men to-day. All thought of the necessity or the possibility of the supernatural has been obviated by what they regard to be the findings of science. For them, what men for want of knowledge have long termed “the supernatural,” has in these latter days been quite completely naturalized. The writer has had a number of conversations with recent university graduates, and with a professor in one of our great Eastern universities, in which the position has been taken that chemistry and biology explain all things. Such concepts as “soul,” “immortality,” “God,” are regarded as nice thoughts for those not yet educated to the sufficiency of “matter “as an explanation for all that is, but are quite untenable for a man of scientific training. As a matter of fact the impression conveyed is that Science, with astounding facility, has naturalized the Supernatural; and that whatever the major portion of humankind may be to-day, all men will be materialists when the results of scientific study have fully become known.

This attitude, of course, ignores all other disciplines. What used to be regarded as the “Queen of Sciences” is now regarded as the “King of Stupidities.” The permanent function of philosophy is entirely ignored, or, as in the case of metaphysics, is treated as a sort of by-product of Science. But philosophy is the Mother of Science, and its indispensable adjutant when the question of the meaning and value of observed facts is raised. Therefore we must insist upon certain definite considerations which give pause to this process of naturalization.

Naturalism and materialism are simply different names for the same popular outlook upon the universe. The one

BSac 78:311 (July 1921) p. 282

regards the world from the standpoint of its processes; the other regards it from the standpoint of its constituents.

Many people hail the dogmatism of the naturalists as the declarations of a desired deliverance. The spiritual and the ethical seem to demand too much of mankind. Others not well grounded in the facts, but earnestly interested in religion, think all is lost, and echo in their several ways the idea of the melancholy lines of Clough,—

“Eat, drink and die, for we are souls bereaved;
Of all the creatures under heaven’s wide cope,
We are most hopeless who had once most hope,
And most beliefless that had most believed.”

But this is not the limit readied by some in their despair. These might well express their feeling in the words used some five and twenty years ago by Professor He...