Philosophical Worldviews: Theism, Naturalism, and Their Rivals
This domain tests whether you can sort philosophical positions precisely and connect them to the standard arguments.
The positions
- Classical theism: one God, creator, omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, self-existent (aseity), simple, and - in the classical tradition - impassible; personal and active in history.
- Deism: a creator who does not intervene; no miracles, no special revelation; associated with Enlightenment figures such as Tindal and Jefferson.
- Pantheism: God and the universe are identical (Spinoza; Advaita's nirguna Brahman).
- Panentheism: the world is in God while God exceeds it; central to process theology (Whitehead, Hartshorne).
- Naturalism: metaphysical naturalism holds that nature is all there is; methodological naturalism is a constraint on scientific method and does not by itself deny God.
- Alternatives: physicalism, Cartesian dualism, idealism, existentialism (existence precedes essence; Sartre, Camus), postmodern suspicion of metanarratives (Lyotard).
Arguments and the problem of evil
Cosmological (al-Ghazali; Craig's kalam), teleological (Paley; fine-tuning: Swinburne, Collins), ontological (Anselm; Plantinga's modal version), and moral arguments. Against theism: the logical problem of evil (Mackie) and the evidential problem (Rowe); Plantinga's free-will defence targets the logical version specifically.
Worked example
Ask a single question: does God act in history? Classical theism says yes - creation, revelation, incarnation, miracle. Deism says no, while still affirming a designer. Naturalism says there is no God to act. One question sorts three positions that are otherwise easy to blur, and it shows why 'believes in God' is too coarse for exam answers.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating methodological naturalism as metaphysical naturalism, and so inferring atheism from scientific practice.
- Using 'theism' and 'deism' interchangeably.
- Confusing pantheism (God = world) with panentheism (world in God).
- Collapsing weak atheism, strong atheism, and agnosticism into one category.
- Treating existentialism as a doctrine about ultimate reality rather than about meaning, choice, and anxiety.