Methodological Naturalism and Its Creation Story

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to survey how science, when aligned to materialist philosophy through methodological naturalism, answers questions about the origins of some of the entities that present the highest interest to science. It will discuss the elements of the materialist origins narrative and how successful these elements are in providing support for the exceptional claim of materialism: that everything (meaning among other things, life, living organisms of all sorts, brains, our solar system, our Earth, minds and consciousness) "``can be explained as manifestation or result of matter." The paper analyzes the nature and the internal complexity of living organisms through the use of the concept of machines.