Naturalism questions?

Question

Could someone, who has knowledge or experience in this topic, please explain to me how the right and wrongs within naturalism are determined? I am writing a paper on this topic and need some more information based on the rights and wrongs within this religion.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Naturalism isn't a religion. A religion is a systematic set of supernatural beliefs, often involving ritual and dogma. Naturalism says that there is no supernatural or that, at least, if there is it's unknowable and can't be distinguished from the natural. It is, therefore, not a religion. Naturalism is a philisophical stand.

There are many different ways that naturalists would view right and wrong. They share the view that value judgments like right and wrong do not originate from a supernatural source. No gods, demons, spirits, etc. dictate our standards for what is good or what is bad.

Where do our standards of right and wrong come from? Some naturalists would say that right and wrong are objective, that they can be determined by weighing the affect an action or thing has upon the universe and we can calculate whether it is right or wrong. Ethical Naturalists would say that in doing so we should avoid terms like good and evil that are too imbued with supernatural meaning and we should substitute more naturalistic words.

Humanist naturalists would say that right and wrong can be determined by evaluating how the act or thing fits with humanistic values such as avoiding pain for people and animals, advancing knowledge, helping the eco-system, etc.

Some naturalists are objectivists- they think that values like right and wrong are fixed and absolute. Others are subjectivists and think that such values are relative to the individual and the situation and that different conclusions can validly be reached about what is right or wrong.

There's a lot more that could be said, but this isn't a good forum for writing a book.
Check out wikipedia for naturalism, though some of what's written there might be a tad advanced for the novice.

Answer 2

I am biased.....so I said it up front.

Main stream religions have long used their holy books to destroy the connection between nature and religious truths. In the early religions the connections were taken for granted.

Good--In the abstract. The Sun shining through a drop of dew on a blade of grass at dawn, holds more beauty and closeness to the infinite than any religious edifice ever erected by humankind.

Bad--Nature is easily destroyed and thrown away by Humankind.

Answer 3

Naturalism says that there is no absolute outside of ourselves. No such thing as right and wrong .

Naturalism tries to deal with the question of ethics by providing several unsatisfying answers. One is the belief that there is no free choice, that all our behaviors and beliefs are driven by our genes. We are just as determined in our behavior as the smallest animals or insects. Another is the belief that moral values are determined from what is; the way things are is the way they ought to be.

Answer 4

Naturalism is an act of praising the nature as it is. One religion that focuses or close to it is Taoism. "One must be single-minded with nature".
Good thing is, you get an uninterrupted life with nature's cause. Bad news is, it is a very uncivilised act of praying to anything considered elements of naturalism, eg. Stone, fire, water, tree, even lowly animals!

Answer 5

See: humanism. Secular humanism. And look up ALTRUISM