Christianity Incompatible With Nature - Classical Warnings

Tyrants invent their own rules
The Greatest Evil is that which Masquerades as Good

Imagine a culture who's rules were inferred from and perfectly harmonious to nature, where social life and human behavior flowed effortlessly from the natural order, where the rules of life are obvious to all. Such a culture would be simple, effective, and self-sustaining - but it also leaves little room for tyrants, since arbitrary power cannot easily take hold when humans derive their definition of Justice by following the examples of nature.

• Pre-Christian Hellenic religion was grounded in this principle: justice (díkē) meant alignment with nature’s order, maintaining equilibrium between humans, gods, and the world. Such a culture needed few imposed rules, for its people understood that to act against nature was to act against justice itself.

Now imagine that same culture disrupted: its natural norms replaced with rules invented by rulers, detached from human instincts and the natural world around them - a perfect recipe for tyranny and corruption.

• Christianity, in the eyes of many classical critics, represented exactly this break — a system of beliefs and prohibitions untethered from nature, exalting an abstract, otherworldly morality over the living order of the cosmos. Where Hellenic religion sought harmony with nature, Christianity sought dominion over it, replacing natural balance with obedience to doctrine.

Many classical Greco-Roman authors saw Early Christianity (100-400CE) negatively, criticizing it as “unnatural,” opposed to human nature, and full of artificial rules that sever humans from the natural world. They warned that such a worldview would, in time, estrange humanity from the natural order and lead to a civilization ruled by abstraction rather than life itself, enslaved to its own unnatural creations.

Emperor Julian 331–363 CE is the most famous example, but there are several others, philosophers, rhetoricians, and historians. Here’s a curated list with relevant details:

• Emperor Julian 331–363 CE
• Celsus 2nd century CE
• Porphyry of Tyre 234–305 CE
• Lucian of Samosata 125–180 CE
• Caius 2nd century CE
• Helvidius 4th century CE
• Key Themes Across These Critics
• Timeline
  • Observations

Emperor Julian 331–363 CE

• Work: Against the Galileans (Contra Galilaeos, mostly surviving in fragments quoted by Christian writers like Cyril of Alexandria, Socrates Scholasticus, and Photios)
• Critique:
  • Christianity is contrary to the natural order (φύσις).
  • The Christian focus on ritual, prohibition, and spiritualized morality “distorts human nature” and isolates humans from the natural, physical world.
  • Julian argued that Christians reject civic duties, communal life, and the pagan integration of humans with nature and the cosmos.
  • He predicted a future where humanity, dominated by Christianity, would be divorced from natural instincts, ecological knowledge, and aesthetic appreciation of the world.

Celsus 2nd century CE

• Work: The True Word (Λόγος ἀληθής, preserved in Origen’s Contra Celsum)
• Critique:
  • Christianity is a foreign, unnatural philosophy.
  • Celsus argues that Christian life renounces reason and the natural social order.
  • He criticizes asceticism and denial of natural pleasures as “against human nature,” implying that Christians impose artificial rules contrary to how humans are meant to live in harmony with nature.

Porphyry of Tyre 234–305 CE

• Work: Against the Christians (Ad Christianos, mostly lost, fragments preserved in Eusebius)
• Critique:
  • Christianity undermines natural religion and traditional philosophy.
  • Porphyry emphasizes that humans are naturally rational and ethical beings; Christianity imposes supernatural rules that distort innate moral instincts.
  • He warns that over time, Christianity’s “otherworldly” orientation will alienate humans from their proper place in nature and society.

Lucian of Samosata 125–180 CE

• Work: The Passing of Peregrinus (Περί Περικλείτου), satirical dialogues
• Critique:
  • Although primarily satirical, Lucian attacks Christian asceticism and withdrawal from civic/natural life.
  • Christians are portrayed as rejecting ordinary pleasures, practical engagement with the world, and natural human instincts, embracing an artificial, otherworldly life.

Caius 2nd century CE

• Work: Fragmentary, known through Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History
• Critique:
  • Christianity is a “foreign superstition” that replaces natural Greek ethical and civic norms.
  • Argues that Christian rules are imposed, unnatural, and remove humans from their natural social and moral contexts.

Helvidius 4th century CE

• Work: Known through polemics in Jerome and Augustine
• Critique:
  • Though more focused on sexual/moral matters, he criticized Christian doctrines for imposing unnatural restrictions, particularly regarding celibacy, marriage, and family life, which he framed as contrary to the natural order of humans.

Key Themes Across These Critics

1. Unnaturalness: Christianity is “against nature” (πρὸς φύσιν). Denial of natural human instincts and desires.
2. Artificial morality: Christians create rules not grounded in rational or natural law, e.g., celibacy, fasting, dietary prohibitions.
3. Alienation from society: Withdrawal from civic life, economic activity, and traditional ritual disrupts the integration of humans with the natural and social world.
4. Future consequences: Some, like Julian, forecast a future where humanity’s connection with nature is permanently weakened due to Christian moral and legal frameworks.

Timeline

Here’s a timeline-style chart of significant pagan authors criticizing Christianity specifically for being “unnatural” or disconnecting humans from nature. Includes approximate dates, works, and key arguments with surviving fragments where possible.

Observations

• Early critiques (Lucian, Celsus) focus on asceticism, pleasure, and rationality.
• Later critics (Porphyry, Julian) develop a more cosmic, philosophical argument: Christianity is unnatural not just socially, but metaphysically, distancing humans from the natural order.
• “Unnatural” arguments often overlap with political and civic critiques: withdrawal from public life is seen as anti-human and anti-natural.