Paper: Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion and Naturalism

The EAAN (Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism), formulated by the eminent philosopher Alvin Plantinga, postulates through a rigorous demonstration of analytical epistemology that jointly holding a belief in ontological naturalism (the doctrine that the purely physical universe is all that exists) and in contemporary neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory constitutes a logically irrational and self-destructive position. Plantinga demonstrates that, if human cognitive faculties are the exclusive byproduct of a biological process that selects solely for 'adaptive behavior' for biological survival (and not for the apprehension of objective truths), the mathematical probability of such faculties generating 'true beliefs' is inscrutably low. Consequently, the evolutionary naturalist acquires an insurmountable epistemological reason (a 'defeater') to doubt the reliability of all his cognitive faculties, which inexorably undermines and destroys any rational justification for believing in his own theory of evolutionary naturalism.