Natural theology is the idea that knowledge of God can be gained through human reason
and observation of the natural world.
Natural knowledge of God through an innate human sense of the divine:
Calvin talked about the sensus divinitatis, sense of divinity. This is the idea that inbuilt into all
humans are the basics of religious belief and a human inclination towards the divine. “There is within
the human mind, by natural instinct, an awareness of divinity. God himself has implanted in all man
a certain understanding of his majesty.” There are two main components of sensus divinitatis:
1. Human intellect as our tool to recognise God's existence and develop our understanding of
him.
2. Human openness to goodness and beauty being aspects of God. Humans have an innate
sense of aesthetics - the ability to appreciate beauty, and we can recognise God in this
beauty.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church supports the idea of this innate sense, “the desire for God is
written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God.” As all humans were
created in God’s image they have an inbuilt capacity and desire to know God.
AO2: Cicero supports Calvin with his ‘universal consent argument’ - the idea that so many
people believe in God in some way that it must be part of the natural makeup of humans.
Throughout time and history the idea of a divine being keeps arising; every human society
has some form of religion. St Paul writes about Athenians worshipping an unknown God in
the Bible as they have an innate sense of the divine, even without any revelation.
AO2: In Romans it says, “God’s law is written in their hearts.” Aquinas’ theory of Natural law
states we all have an innate sense of morality. Joseph Butler and John Henry Newman
believe that “conscience is the voice of God”. We feel guilty if we do something wrong, even
if no one knows about it and this is our inner voice given by God.
AO2: Tennant agrees that our ability to recognise & understand beauty comes from God.
There is no evolutionary benefit to be able to appreciate beauty, so this must have come
from God.
Natural knowledge of God seen through the order of creation:
God can be clearly seen in the order and beauty of creation. Nature is a reflection of God’s divine
qualities. Philosophers who believe you can gain knowledge of God through nature:
William Paley’s teleological argument states that the world is too intricate and complex to
have developed by chance. Just as there must be a watchmaker to a watch found in a field,
there must be an intelligent designer who created our world. Similarly, the consistent order
and pattern in the natural world - e.g the regular and predictable rotation of the planets -
are another indication of God’s design (design qua regularity).
Aquinas’ teleological argument points out that everything in the natural world acts towards
a goal or purpose (Telos), including things without intelligence e.g acorns become oak trees.
Things which cannot think for themselves must be directed towards this purpose by
something intelligent. He uses the analogy of an arrow flying towards a target. The arrow
must have an archer directing it towards its end goal, which is God.
AO2: Natural theology supports religious pluralism, whereas revealed theology is limited to only
Christianity
, AO2 for the teleological arguments:
- The leap from an intelligent designer to the God of classical Theism is a logical fallacy. There
is no evidence in support.
- The amount of goodness in nature is far outweighed by the amount of suffering. J.S Mill
rejects the notion of design due to the state of nature stating, ‘Either there is no God or
there exists an incompetent or immoral God’. Do natural disasters reflect God’s nature?
Christians would not want to think he possesses such qualities of chaos and malice.
AO2: Calvin spoke of the world as being like a theatre or mirror ‘for the display of divine goodness,
wisdom and power’. The natural world reflects God’s beauty and orderliness. However, Calvin
thought that the Fall made humans unable to always access their innate sense - it has created a gap -
the epistemic distance (as Hick called it) between human and God. Any lack of clarity about God
comes from human sin. The mirror has been clouded by the fall so we can no longer recognise God
in the natural world using our reason. This leads to the conclusion that the only way to gain
knowledge of God is through revelation.
AO2: Natural theology is very subjective as people will make different observations and therefore
different conclusions. If there is one sensus divinitatis why are there so many different ideas of God
and different types of religious belief, and why can atheists not access this sensus divinitatis?
In the parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant, each man feels a different part of the animal (e.g
the tusk, the trunk) and comes to a completely different understanding about the creature.
However, each was partly in the right and just because different conclusions are made in natural
theology, they can all help us build our understanding of God.
AO2: God is by definition ineffable, beyond our human experience. It is arrogant to suggest that we
can come to an understanding of God by ourselves.
Has the Fall completely removed all natural human knowledge of God?
No:
Emil Brunner believed that the fall did damage humans on many levels but not on a spiritual level;
we remain the pinnacle of God’s creation and are able to have a relationship with him. He believed
that the beauty of nature, conscience and sensus divinitatis are all points of contact between
humans and God, but due to the fall provide only glimpses, not the full picture. They provide a basic
understanding of God but if a person wishes to have full knowledge, and therefore a relationship,
they need to accept and have faith in Jesus Christ.
AO2: Despite the fall, we still remain Imago Dei and can learn about God’s nature by studying
ourselves. A painting will reveal something about the painter, a creation will reveal something about
the creator. “Without knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God.”
Calvin also believes that we can still have a basic understanding of God through natural theology.
The natural world is a point of contact between humans and God, acting like a mirror and reflecting
his divine characteristics. However, it is cloudy and mixed up with “confused imaginings”. You must
have faith to see the full picture. “God gave them some small savour of his divinity, so that they
could not claim ignorance.”
AO2: Aquinas agrees stating “There are some truths about which natural reason is able to reach.”
He, along with William Paley, believes that God and his qualities can still be understood through the
beauty and order of the natural world.
