Naturalism

I am a Philosophical Naturalist. Given what I have seen of the world:

There is no reason to assume the existence of anything supernatural. While there may continue to be unexplained phenomena for as long as the human race exists, every phenomena we ever have found an evidence-based explanation for has turned out to be natural. If it turns out that psychic powers exist (still waiting for that evidence), they will turn out to be a natural phenomena. In fact, the universe is defined* to be everything that exists. If there are fairies or leprechauns, they have to exist in the universe. They will turn out to be just as natural as the celestial realm of the stars.

This is a slightly different position than many scientists take. For scientists, the position is Methodological Naturalism. It's more like this:

All we can detect is the natural world. If something is supernatural, we cannot know anything about it. It is not measurable, and therefore cannot be used as an explanation for things that are.

It's a great start. It's what let great thinkers like Newton become scientists. You can be religious and still be a scientist. You just have to check your supernatural explanations at the door. Supernatural explanations can't explain real phenomena. Which is why Newton came up with a natural explanation for the falling apple, rather than saying "Angels make the apple move".

But Methodological Naturalism falls short. If only the natural world is detectable, why believe in the supernatural at all? Something that exists, but doesn't in any way affect the natural world is indistinguishable from nonexistant.

*Universe: "the aggregate of all existing matter, energy, and space" - if we find something that isn't matter, energy, or space, we'll have to update the definition to include it.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/universe

Realism

I am a Philosophical Realist. If there is one thing that I take on faith it is this:

There exists a world external to my mind. My senses perceive it, and they are my only link to this real, external world. The various things in this world do not depend on my mind for any of their attributes. If I did not exist, the world would remain. So, to any properly phrased question, there is one right answer. There may be many wrong answers.

* Is Aaron Deemer a male homo sapiens currently located on the third planet in the solar system?
* Does an atom of Cadmium have 48 protons?
* Are there any planets orbiting Sirius?

Notice, I am not saying that I (or any other human) know the answer to every question, just that an answer exists. Cadmium still had 48 protons 1 bya (billion years ago).

I guess, in a way, this is my practical definition of truth. A statement is true when it describes reality, false when it does not. Those that disagree, I don't see that we have much to argue about. You can argue Solipsism (the idea that only you are real) all you want, but it's not practical to live by it. No one ever gets out of the Matrix by disbelieving in it. When it comes to practical matters like not stepping in front of traffic, you agree with me (unless a ghost is reading this).