Greetings everybody, and welcome to Allies of Naturalism. This group is sponsored by the Center for Naturalism, and takes over from Causality Club (no longer meeting) as a face-to-face get together for those interested in exploring and applying scientific naturalism. Just so there's no confusion, the naturalism we're dealing with here doesn't involve unclothed activities, but more or less what's described at Naturalism.Org; please have a look if you haven't been there.

So, who are we? Basically those who hold a naturalistic world view, and therefore people who count as naturalists as opposed to supernaturalists. If you're an atheist, skeptic, freethinker, secular humanist, bright, or inclined to justify your beliefs by objective evidence instead of faith, intuition, or tradition, then it's very likely you're a naturalist in this sense. You probably don't put much stock in the supernatural.

But naturalism goes beyond the denial of god and the supernatural. It's a positive, comprehensive worldview that has considerable personal, social, and existential implications. It understands that human beings are fully natural creatures, made up of the ultimate constituents of the universe that science shows to exist. All our capacities, including consciousness, thinking, feeling, choosing and behaving, arise out of the complex physical system that we are, not out of anything immaterial. So we're fully caused beings, connected in every respect to the conditions that create us and sustain us, including, of course, each other.

This naturalistic understanding of ourselves may have ramifications for a host of beliefs and attitudes, for instance about human agency, morality, responsibility, credit, blame, creativity, individuality, and meaning. So it might affect how we think about ourselves, our relationships, and even about what life as a whole is all about. It might also affect how we approach various social policy issues, including criminal justice, social and economic equality, environmental sustainability, science education, and behavioral disorders such as addiction, obesity and mental illness.

So part of what the Allies of Naturalism group might do is explore some of these issues and see what resources naturalism might provide us, both personally and socially. But on a less serious note, the group is also intended as a way to meet like-minded naturalists in a casual setting just to socialize, not save the world (although that's allowed).

I encourage people to post on this Message Board their ideas for discussion topics, activities, readings, outings, etc., etc. (click "start new discussion"). Keep in mind there are several other forums for open-ended online discussion related to naturalism, namely the Applied Naturalism group, the Naturalism Philosophy Forum, and the Determinism group. So I encourage use of this message board mostly for informational postings, not general debate and conversation, which I hope we'll have face-to-face at our actual meetings.

Remember, this is your group, so your ideas are always welcome. I hope to see you at our meetings, the second Monday of the month at 7 pm, now happening in the back room of Redline in Harvard Square. RSVPing is always nice, and bring a friend if you think they might be interested. For other events and activities sponsored by the Center for Naturalism, check the Events page from time to time.

best,

Tom Clark