Conversely, it is also used in philosophy to describe some aspects of religion that are said to be knowable apart from divine revelation through logic and reason alone, for example, the existence of the unmoved Mover, the first cause of the universe.
In the fourth century, Christians were concerned that Jesus had not returned and wondered what happened to those who died before the Second Coming of Christ.
Christians, led by Augustine of Hippo and under the influence of both gnosticism and neoplatonism, developed a new belief in the soul as capable of a separate existence abstract from the material world.
[10] One of the first attempts to develop a science of religion was The Varieties of Religious Experience, by the American philosopher William James.
[12]Certain aspects of natural religion (that is, religious truths that are knowable by human reason alone) are found among different cultures, though not always entirely intact, and to varying degrees, according to philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas and Malebranche.
[13] A few modern scientists such as British biologist Rupert Sheldrake believe new discoveries coincide with Aristotle's belief in the soul.