Posted by Chris Blair 03/25/26
Why not Naturalism? Part 3
While many secularists would argue that the universe is self-sustaining and that miracles aren’t real because they can’t be scientifically proven, this view struggles to explain things like human consciousness or the actual beginning of time. A Christian worldview offers a better foundation by showing that God is both the creator of the universe and the source of our moral compass.
Benedict Spinoza takes the argument of miracles to the next level. Spinoza agrees that miracles are violations of natural law but goes further by claiming that natural laws are immutable, and it is impossible for immutable laws to be violated.[1] Spinoza, like many secular humanists, base their reality on what can be repeatedly observed. The laws of nature, according to a secular humanist, are not created, they are merely witnessed and recorded. They are the stand-alone gears that methodically and rhythmically move in harmony, making the universe as we know it, stable and predictable. By this logic, we can measure the effects of gravity millions of times, like an apple falling out of a tree, and since there has never been an observable deviation, we can deduce this natural law is more than reliable, it is immutable.
The truth claim that Spinoza makes about natural laws being immutable is also fundamentally flawed. This argument would require full knowledge of all natural laws and know that there is nothing that has the ability to supersede, alter, or mute them. To claim that natural laws are immutable because there is no measurable proof of it being muted, is intellectually disingenuous. Miracles by nature are supernatural and are not repeatable and measurable by standard methods. An example of this is when you look at a video game; a programmer designs the code of a video game to create a world within the computer.
The code starts the game and follows the laws set by the programmer, and occasionally the programmer has to fine tune the code to keep everything running without errors. The programmer can also directly intervene and change an aspect of the world within the game on a temporary or permanent basis based on his will. These changes could be adding an item into the game for a particular player or changing a player’s condition. These changes can be one-time events and the method is often unmeasurable to the players within the game. Even if they list rules within the game that are a shared uniform experience, if a new powerful and unique item appeared in one player’s inventory for no known reason, the logical assumption would be that the programmer placed it there.
God didn’t just “start up the videogame” and walk away. He is the sustainer of the very laws that Spinoza claimed were “immutable”. The reason everything in the universe runs without catastrophic error is because God is actively balancing the code. The Bible tells us that, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:17). This gives us the reason to trust in the stability of science. We can rely on gravity and the laws of physics, not because they are gods themselves, but because they are under the order and control of the Creator Himself. When the secular humanist denies God as the Designer, they are trying to keep the rules of the house while at the same time evicting the Architect who built it. Christianity provides the only foundation where both the origin of the universe and the reliability of its laws actually make sense.
While secular humanism tries to explain the world through “immutable” natural laws of a self-existing universe, it falls short of explaining how the laws began or the consciousness they use to make their conclusions with in the first place. In contrast, the Christian worldview provides a complete foundation that accounts for the physical laws and order that we observe and the supernatural interventions that show God is in control. By accepting the biblical account of creation and miracles, we find a reality that is not only scientifically stable, but through the design of God, also deeply personal.
[1] Norman Geisler, “Miracles and Modern Scientific Thought,” in Christian Apologetics: An Anthology of Primary Sources, ed. Khaldoun A. Sweis and Chad V. Meister (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 318
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