Natural Religion

[Bubba_Switzler]

What is Natural Religion?

I started thinking about this question after two recent threads (Do Chrisitans and Hindus Worship the Same God? and Authentic Religion and Human Sacrifice).

I would define it as religion that relies on reason and worldly experience alone. It is an idealization of religion absent God’s revelation. Because it is an idealization is not limited to what historically preceded Judeo-Christianity so we can criticize such practices as human sacrifice as being an erroneous religious practice insofar as we can confindently say that human sacrifice is an improper method of worship without relying on God’s revelation.

Has anyone formally explore Natural Religion? Some would nominate Aristotle, I think.

 

[Servant19]

What is Natural Religion?

I started thinking about this question after two recent threads (Do Chrisitans and Hindus Worship the Same God? and Authentic Religion and Human Sacrifice).

I would define it as religion that relies on reason and worldly experience alone. It is an idealization of religion absent God’s revelation. Because it is an idealization is not limited to what historically preceded Judeo-Christianity so we can criticize such practices as human sacrifice as being an erroneous religious practice insofar as we can confindently say that human sacrifice is an improper method of worship without relying on God’s revelation.

Has anyone formally explore Natural Religion? Some would nominate Aristotle, I think.

From a Baha’i perspective, there is released into Creation a flood of grace whenever a Manifestation of God reveals God’s teachings into the world.

Natural religion stems from this grace. The Holy Spirit also plays its part.

An example is that when Baha’u’llah revealed that we should “Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom” the entire educational system and scholarly research moves towards this realization that we are born with potential that needs to be “unearthed” and “revealed”…a humble posture of learning from our mistakes results, not a culture of punishments for our mistakes in the educational sphere of children.

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[adamhovey1988]

What is Natural Religion?

I started thinking about this question after two recent threads (Do Chrisitans and Hindus Worship the Same God? and Authentic Religion and Human Sacrifice).

I would define it as religion that relies on reason and worldly experience alone. It is an idealization of religion absent God’s revelation. Because it is an idealization is not limited to what historically preceded Judeo-Christianity so we can criticize such practices as human sacrifice as being an erroneous religious practice insofar as we can confindently say that human sacrifice is an improper method of worship without relying on God’s revelation.

Has anyone formally explore Natural Religion? Some would nominate Aristotle, I think.

I just read the first two chapters of C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, I think you should too (just a suggestion) since it gives a pretty good prologue for explaining natural law (since I am sure this relates to this). Do you mean natural religion or primitive religion?

 

[Bubba_Switzler]

I just read the first two chapters of C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, I think you should too (just a suggestion) since it gives a pretty good prologue for explaining natural law (since I am sure this relates to this).

Thanks for the suggestion, I will find a copy.

Do you mean natural religion or primitive religion?

Well, this is an interesting question.

I am thinking of natural religion as an idealized form of primitive relgion.

So, for example, primitive religions include such practices as human sacrifice (Authentic Religion and Human Sacrifice). The argument could be made that were they allowed to develop independently of Judeo-Christian influence they would eventually have discarded this and other barbaric practices and would approached some approximation of Christian ethics through reason and observation alone.

There is some reason to believe this as India and China had their own path of progress. The problem is that we know China was influenced by India and that India was in contact with the Middle East. The Americas were virtually independent until Christopher Columbus but they were more primitive.

Then, again, we can’t really say that Hindus (for example) were without the influence of the Holy Spirit (Do Chrisitans and Hindus Worship the Same God?). So perhaps our notion of natural religion should include that and then it becomes a question of how much of the Judeo-Christian revelation was just that. Maybe revelation is not so black/white.

Thus:

From a Baha’i perspective, there is released into Creation a flood of grace whenever a Manifestation of God reveals God’s teachings into the world.

Natural religion stems from this grace. The Holy Spirit also plays its part.