از الهیات طبیعی تا طبیعت‌گرایی و بازگشت دوباره

This paper investigates the historical and analytical trajectory of the confrontation between theism and naturalism. It demonstrates how naturalism, bolstered by the achievements of modern science, gradually supplanted natural theology as the dominant worldview in academia. This transition is traced through four historical stages: the conflict between science and sacred texts; the denial of divine agency; the post-Darwinian rejection of the necessity for a designer; and finally, the attempt to provide a purely naturalistic explanation of human nature. However, the central argument is that this victory is not definitive. In recent decades, naturalism has faced profound conceptual and empirical challenges that undermine its fundamental pillars. On the one hand, in the realm of human existence, phenomena such as consciousness (the “hard problem”), intentionality, free will, and rationality resist physicalist reductionism. On the other hand, naturalistic assumptions regarding the physical world have been shaken by new findings in cosmology (the origin of the universe and fine-tuning) and biology (biological complexity and evidence of teleology). Ultimately, the article concludes that these challenges not only erode the credibility of comprehensive naturalism but also pave the way for a resurgence of natural theology grounded in scientific and philosophical evidence.