NATURAL THEOLOGY, or NATU RAL RELIGION, that knowledge of God's existence and nature which mankind learn from observation of the world of nature. Biblical theology, or, as it is more commonly called, religion,'' is the knowledge of God's nature and operations derived from revelation; and revelation is impossible unless we first postulate a personal God. Thus natural theol ogy is the foundation of any system which pro fesses to give an account of the Supreme Being as well as of man's origin and destiny.
Method of Natural first proposition postulated in this department of speculation is that every effect requires a cause (q.v.). One of the self-contradictions of Lucretius is contained in his axiom ex nihilo nihil fit (enothing can come from• nothing"). after pronouncing which he proceeds in Lis at tempt to prove that the order and uniformity of nature proceeds from nothing, that is, ran dom disorder, the fortuitous concourse of atoms. Unless it is admitted that certain events and phenomena are invariably connected as cause and effect, there can be no science of natural theology, which is based upon the assumption that causation is a fact, the truth of which is accepted among the intuitive be liefs of the human mind.
How far a As Natural Theology claims for its domain the physical, intellectual and moral nature of man as well as the world of nature in the midst of which he is set, it starts out by saying with Natural Science that the present constitution of things had a be ginning. Plants and animals did not always exist on this planet. The questions arise, Whence did they come? How came man here? The theory that individual species as at present existing was the original form of organic life on the earth has now been abandoned, and two other theories have replaced it: (I) That ani mals and plants have been produced by forces eternally and necessarily inherent in matter (see NATURALISM) ; that nature is the product of a personal being, acting with deliberate de sign. In the history of recent speculation we come upon a suspensive judgment in this ques tion; on the other hand Positivists (see Pest` mist() have ruled it out from the field of human speculation. Suspensive reasorters do not profess to know because they declare the matter unknowable. This is agnosticism (q.v.) and its adherents style themselves agnostics. On the other hand, observers of nature have re marked in the works of nature an analogy with and a resemblance to the works, contrivances and methods of human artificers. They have accordingly reached a belief in a transcendently great and powerful maker who has originated all things. The existence of man as an indi vidual person has been taken as testimony to the existence of an infinite and eternal being as the one supreme God. It has also been averred that anti-intuitionalists destroy the basis of all knowledge and science and that a physicist who denies causation sweeps away the foundation on which his system is reared.
Main (1) It is claimed that the idea of God's existence is innate in every human being and is as necessary a fact of con sciousness as his own personal identity. In the most rudimentary and debased tribes is found this sense of a Supernatural Power. Lubbock and others deny to some degraded races this innate idea; it is sometimes added that deaf-mutes are in the same mental con dition. It does not, however, follow because an idea has not been expressed in language that it is, therefore, not present in the mind. The
mind may not have been explored by the sub ject; the readiness with which belief in the supernatural is accepted by savages and children is one reason for the belief that the response they make to communications on this subject springs from previous divinations of the con sciousness in realizing itself. If this idea is not innate it is certain that the faculties of the human mind are such that the study of nature, man, and the obligations of life bring each indi vidual face to face with the notion of God. Descartes, Leibnitz and others aver that the capacity of the human mind to entertain the conception of a being perfect and omnipotent, proves the existence of a reality which corre sponds to such a conception; but their argu ment has not satisfied metaphysicians such as Reid and Stewart and, through the metaphysical subtilties involved in it, must be laid aside as a popular argument. (2) The study of nature and of history, that is, of man as a physical, intel lectual and moral being, furnishes material for arguments from design, teleological arguments as they are sometimes called (see TELEOLAGY). This is the simplest and most obvious form of argument to be put forth in Natural Theology and has been put forth in all ages. Socrates constantly stated it; Cicero enforced it among his Roman followers. Although on the first publication of Darwin's and Wallace's theory of evolution it lost its place of importance in Apologetics, it was soon perceived that the theory of Natural Selection in fact multiplied many fold the evidences of design and ordina tion, and raised the level of intelligence to a higher plane. In consequence Natural Theol ogy has recently been revived and stated with renewed force. The laws of Natural Selection and Survival of the Fittest must have had a law-giver, and the discovery of additional links in the chain of causation does not necessarily destroy its continuity. The argument now in cludes the concept that the world is not a fin ished product, but is even now in process of evolution. The Hebrew writers constantly re fer to the power and goodness of Jehovah as evidenced both in the works of nature, the events of history and the faculties of mankind. Saint Paul begins his Epistle to the Romans with this argument against the degraded pagan ism of Rome; the Fathers have enforced it over and over again. Paley's Theology' has been a most important statement of the argument from design which has been enlarged in its application by Chalmers, Tulloch, Mc Cosh and Agassiz. The argument from design can of course only prove the existence of a Creator of the world. Man alone is conscious of a Creator, who, however, need not be the self-existent God, but once grant that man has a maker, and it would at once follow that a su preme self-existent God exists who is the First Cause. Consult Xenophon, 'Memora Plato, 'Laws X' ; Cicero, 'De Natura Deorum' ; Descartes, Philosophise); Leibnitz, 'Theodice); Paley, 'Natural Theol ; Chalmers, 'Natural Mc Cosh, J., 'Christianity and Positivism' (New York 1875); Seeley, J. R., 'Natural Religion) (Boston 1882); Robinson, E. K., 'The Religion of Nature) (New York 1906); Shearman, J. H. 'The Natural Theology of Evolution' (New York 1916); Thackray, E., 'The Revela tion of God in Nature and Man) (London 1916).