Naturalists
Naturalists [1]
This name, which has now become nearly obsolete in a theological or philosophical sense, has been used to designate two sections of the antichristian school which rejects belief in supernatural causes or operations. (1) The name has been mostly used by German writers for those who identify God with nature, but who are more generally known as Pantheists. (2) By English writers it is generally taken as signifying those who consider natural religion to be sufficient for man's guidance and happiness without any supernatural revelation. But these latter may be subdivided also into two classes, the first of which has received the name of "Philosophical Naturalists," who accept revelation as containing truth, but as being at the best only a reduplication of natural religion, and so unnecessary. The name is rarely found in works written later than the 18th century, when it was used by Kant in Germany and by Boyle in England; and the school formerly known as Naturalists are now called Pantheists and Rationalists.
