Great post. This business of natural science as the only acceptable model for scientific discussion is an absurd strawman.
Explain what’s natural about doing surgery on a child still in the womb?
How about a partial birth abortion...is there anything more UNnatural?
Removing, no sterlizing God/ethics/religion from sicentific discussions is a recipe for disaster and is the PC kind of godless liberalism that delivers idiocy like global warming to our doorstep.
You make several good points.
I’m using the term “naturalism” is a special way.
From Wikipedia:
Philosophical naturalism is, as a position, the idea that all phenomena can be explained in terms of natural causes and laws. In its broadest and strongest sense, naturalism is the metaphysical position that “nature is all there is and all basic truths are truths of nature.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalism_(philosophy)
From Conservapedia:
Naturalism is a philosophy that rejects the possibility of supernatural phenomena, describing such phenomena as misunderstood natural phenomena or falsehood.
http://www.conservapedia.com/Naturalism
From Answers.com
Philosophy. The system of thought holding that all phenomena can be explained in terms of natural causes and laws.
http://www.answers.com/topic/naturalism
Here is a good quote from an unfamiliar source:
Naturalism - Philosophical and Theological Disposition
Naturalism, commonly known as materialism, is a philosophical paradigm whereby everything can be explained in terms of natural causes. Physical matter is the only reality — everything can be explained in terms of matter and physical phenomena. Naturalism, by definition, excludes any Supernatural Agent or activity. Thus, naturalism is atheism. Naturalism’s exclusion of God necessitates moral relativism. Philosophers agree, without God there is no universal moral standard of conduct.
http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/naturalism.htm
A somewhat different approach:
Naturalism is an approach to philosophical problems that interprets them as tractable through the methods of the empirical sciences or at least, without a distinctively a priori project of theorizing. For much of the history of philosophy it has been widely held that philosophy involved a distinctive method, and could achieve knowledge distinct from that attained by the special sciences. Thus, metaphysics and epistemology have often jointly occupied a position of “first philosophy,” laying the necessary grounds for the understanding of reality and the justification of knowledge claims. Naturalism rejects philosophy’s claim to that special status. Whether in epistemology, ethics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, or other areas naturalism seeks to show that philosophical problems as traditionally conceived are ill-formulated, and can be solved or displaced by appropriately naturalistic methods. Naturalism often assigns a key role to the methods and results of the empirical sciences, and sometimes aspires to reductionism and physicalism.
http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/naturali.htm
I selected these quotes to present one coherent meaning to the word naturalism. However, many of the sites make additional distinctions. For example, philosophical naturalism claims much more than does methodological naturalism.