Nature Is Enough: Religious Naturalism and the Meaning of Life

by Loyal Rue

Nature is enough to allow us to find meaning in life and to answer our religious sensibilities. This is the position of religious naturalists, who deny the existence of a deity and a supernatural realm. In this book, Loyal Rue answers critics by describing how religious naturalism can provide a satisfying vision of the meaning of human existence. The work begins with a discussion of how to evaluate the meaning of life itself, referencing a range of thought from ancient Greek philosophy to the Abrahamic traditions to the Enlightenment to contemporary process and postmodern philosophies. Ultimately proposing meaning as an emergent property of living organisms, Rue writes that a meaningful life comes through happiness and virtue. Spiritual qualities that combine evolutionary cosmology and biocentric morality are reverence, gratitude, awe, humility, relatedness, compassion, and hope. Rue looks at why religious naturalism is not currently more of a movement, but nevertheless predicts that it will become the prevailing religious sensibility.

Genres: Spirituality, Philosophy, Nature, Religion

175 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2011

About the author

Loyal Duane Rue is an American philosopher and writer whose research focuses on naturalistic theories of religion. He is Professor Emeritus in the philosophy and religion departments at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.

Reviews

[Frank Jude · Rating 5 out of 5]

I teach an approach to Zen Buddhism I call Zen Naturalism. I am also a member of the Religious Naturalist Association which is a part of a growing group of people who identify as religious but reject all forms of supernaturalism. Loyal Rue's wonderful book could serve as a grounding primer on what religious naturalism is as well as what it isn't.

One important point Rue makes is that Religious Naturalism shares with Hinduism a broad diversity of approaches and beliefs. There are religious naturalists quite comfortable with using the term "God" for instance, and others who feel such terms cause more confusion than they are worth keeping and simply reject such theistic language.

Rue opens his book with an introductory chapter entitled "What Is a Human Being For?" and then asks "Is the question answerable?", "Is the question misleading?", "Is the question authentic?" and "Is it a philosophical question?" before diving into any response. First, he looks into "The meaning of meaning" which is a really important issue that most never really consider.

Part One, "The Meaning of Life" follows which presents four responses to the question about the meaning of life that leads to different understandings of teles (do things happen so that or because of:

1. Meaning is in the world which says meaning is inherent in the world; it's "out there" and we need to discover it. This inherentism is also often called "essentialism".

2. Meaning is in the mind, which is the stance of constructivism, the general view of postmodernism. Such a view is also known as "perspectivism" and "inventionism" and asserts that all meaning is purely constructed, grounded on psychological and social contingencies. It's pretty much the opposite of inherntism.

3. Meaning is illusory is pure reductionism denying any reality to meaning.

Inherents claim that goals and purposes are real and exist in the extra-mental world and can be apprehended by objective inquiry or revelation. While Plato would suggest inquiry into the 'ideal forms' the Abrahamic religions offer revelation as the way to apprehension. Constructivists dismiss any claim to inherentism and insist that any telē are real only in the sense of existing in the mind of individuals or in the collective cultural constructions of different groups.

The basic idea of reductionism is "nothing but." For instance, a reductionist might say we humans are "nothing but" sub-atomic particles, thus reducing all human culture to such particles: meaning is neither in the world nor in the mind, it is an illusion.

4. Meaning is an emergent property is the 4th response to the question of meaning and is the one taken by Religious Naturalists as well as a scientist such as the cosmologist, Sean Carroll, whose Poetic Naturalism posits real meaning as an emergent property.

The position of emergence is based upon at least two principles:
1. The material world consists of various levels of organization with prior, less complex organization the necessary condition for the existence of emergent, more complex organization.

2. These higher-level, more complex organizations manifest emergent properties (structures, patterns, behaviors) that are not predictable from, or reducible to, the properties and dynamics of the less complex systems. For instance, water in its solid form has the property of buoyancy that it does not have in its liquid or gaseous state: buoyancy emerges from the pattern or structure of the solid state.

What Rue does that I found incredibly creative and interesting is he integrates some aspects from inherentism, constructivism, AND reductionism in his presentation of emergence. Each of the other three options have some positive aspects for meaning but only fall apart at the extremes. How he does this makes for some truly exciting reading and thinking!

Part Two, "Religious Naturalism" presents his argument as to how the emergence perspective offers an adequate platform for a plausible naturalistic vision of religious life. In Chapter Four, "Religion Naturalized, Nature Sanctified" he argues that it indeed does and offers a convincing rebuke to the Catholic theologian, John Haught, who has argued that naturalism "lacks the resources necessary for satisfying our deepest intellectual and spiritual longings." Of course, Rue decimates such a position without ever making the obvious (to me) point that in saying such nonsense, Haught is simply being an arrogant prig speaking as if he could know what is "necessary for satisfying out deepest...longings."

The concluding chapter, "Confessions of a Religious Naturalist" offers Rue's own path toward religious naturalism from the austere sounding Norwegian Lutherism his family practiced. He naturalizes theological concepts such as "Sin and Grace", "Evil and Suffering" "Death and Salvation" and "Faith, Hope, and Love". It is in this chapter that, while I can appreciate Rue's individual path, as a Zen Buddhist, some of these concepts are less relevant as presented here, though I did find that some of what he offers can enrich my own approach and for that reason alone I am delighted to have read this book.

I can heartily recommend this book to anyone who is alienated from supernatural theism but feels the core religious emotion of awe when looking up into the night sky, or looking out over the expanse of the ocean. While many are turned off by the dogmatism and hypocrisy of institutional religions, there is the actual religious experience where we feel both small in the face of infinitude and at the same time a sense of expansiveness as part of it all. If you know what I'm talking about, you too may be a religious naturalist. Read this book and find out for yourself!

[Leroy Seat · Rating 3 out of 5]

An honest book forwarding “religious naturalism” and written in response to John Haught’s "Nature Is Not Enough," but quite bleak and sad.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most important questions humans ask is, "What is the meaning of life," and this book by Loyal Rue offers an excellent assessment of the question from the perspective of religious naturalism. Rue is a naturalist, and a professor of religion and philosophy at Luther College; and as such, he writes this book from a decidedly philosophical perspective. I especially appreciate how he carefully defines the topics treated while, at the same time, offering a readable (i.e., not too technical) philosophical discussion of the meaning of meaning, the nature of religion, and the alternative of religious naturalism to other traditionally religious life-stances. This book is so good that I added it to my list of favorites on philosophy, natural theology and secular studies even before I finished reading it. It is, in my opinion, an excellent book well worth the price and the effort of reading.