Natural theology
[10] Besides Hesiod's Works and Days and Zarathushtra's Gathas, Plato gives the earliest surviving account of a natural theology.
In the Timaeus, written c. 360 BCE, in the preamble to the account of the origin of the cosmos, we read: "We must first investigate concerning [the whole Cosmos] that primary question which has to be investigated at the outset in every case,— namely, whether it has always existed, having no beginning or generation, or whether it has come into existence, having begun from some beginning.
"[9] The subsequent parts of the text argues for the necessity of a divine craftsman, who rationally constructed the cosmos out of pre-existing chaos (Timaeus 27d-30c) In the Laws, in answer to the question as to what arguments justify faith in the gods, Plato affirms: "One is our dogma about the soul...the other is our dogma concerning the ordering of the motion of the stars".
The theologians of civil theology are "the people", asking how the gods relate to daily life and the state (imperial cult).
[17] Raymond of Sabunde's (c. 1385–1436) Theologia Naturalis sive Liber Creaturarum, written 1434–1436, but published posthumously (1484), marks an important stage in the history of natural theology.
[18] Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) established another term for natural theology as theodicy, defined exactly as "the justification of God".
[20] William Derham (1657–1735) continued Ray's tradition of natural theology in two of his own works, Physico-Theology, published during 1713, and Astro-Theology, 1714.
Malthus—a devout Christian—argued that revelation would "damp the soaring wings of intellect", and thus never let "the difficulties and doubts of parts of the scripture" interfere with his work.
William Paley, an important influence on Charles Darwin,[22] gave a well-known rendition of the teleological argument for God.
[24] The Bridgewater Treatises were eight works "the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation" published during the years 1833 to 1836.
They were written by eight scientific authors appointed by the President of the Royal Society using an £8000 bequest from Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater.
[25] Responding critically to one of the series, Charles Babbage published what he termed The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise: A Fragment.
Many opposed the idea of natural theology, but some philosophers had a greater influence, including David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Søren Kierkegaard, and Charles Darwin.
Barth argued that "by starting from such experience, rather that from the gracious revelation through Jesus Christ, we produce a concept of God that is the projection of the highest we know, a construct of human thinking, divorced from salvation history".
Barth held that God can be known only through Jesus Christ, as revealed in scripture, and that any such attempts should be considered idolatry.
But from such an order of things I will surely not attempt to prove God's existence; and even if I began I would never finish, and would in addition have to live constantly in suspense, lest something so terrible should suddenly happen that my bit of proof would be demolished.Fideists may reject attempts to prove God's existence.
