Philosophia Christi

Volume 18, Issue 2, 2016

Symposium on the Trinity in Modern Context

Theism, Naturalism, and Worlds
The Puzzle and the Problem

Theism and naturalism are rival worldviews. Both seek to explain the nature of reality, but often give radically different explanations. One of the most important areas of conflict is the differing accounts for the existence of the world in which we live. Why is the actual world the one that has been instantiated instead of any other of the apparently infinite number of other possible worlds? In this paper I argue that whereas theism has a puzzle as to why God actualized this particular world, naturalism has a major problem as why any ordered world exists.