A Candid Examination of TheismHoughton, Osgood, 1878 - 197 pages |
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able absolute inconceivability adduced admit analogy antecedent anthropomorphic appear argument from Design assert attributes bability belief causation ceivability character clearly cogency conceive conception conclude consciousness cosmic harmony Cosmic Philosophy Cosmic Theism Cosmism degree Deity divine doctrine effect essay evidence evolution existence experience explain external fact favour of Theism Fiske force and matter formal considerations Hence Herbert Spencer hypothesis impossible inference knowledge known mind logical matter and force merely metaphysical teleology method natural law natural selection natural theology noumena objective observed Paley Pantheism persistence of force phenomena physical possible postulate present principle probability processes proposition proved question rational regard relative inconceivability relativity of knowledge scientific scientific method self-existing shown speculative Spencer substance supernatural supposed syllogism symbolic teleological argument term test of relative theistic theory of Theism theory of things thought tion train of reasoning true truth ultimate universe valid whole wholly words
Popular passages
Page 51 - Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?
Page 29 - If, as is the case, we feel responsibility, are ashamed, are frightened, at transgressing the voice of conscience, this implies that there is One to whom we are responsible, before whom we are ashamed, whose claims upon us we fear. If, on doing wrong, we feel the same tearful, broken-hearted sorrow which overwhelms us on hurting a mother ; if, on doing right, we enjoy the same sunny serenity of mind, the same soothing, satisfactory delight which follows on our receiving praise from a father, we certainly...
Page 153 - None of the processes of nature, since the time when nature began, have produced the slightest difference in the properties of any molecule. We are therefore unable to ascribe either the existence of the molecules or the identity of their properties to the operation of any of the causes which we call natural.
Page 117 - We have the ideas of matter and thinking, but possibly shall never be able to know, whether any mere material being thinks, or no...
Page 11 - There was a time, then, when there was no knowing being, and when knowledge began to be; or else there has been also a knowing Being from eternity. If it be said, " There was a time when no being had any knowledge, when that Eternal Being was void of all understanding ; " I reply, that then it was impossible there should ever have been any knowledge...
Page 40 - I know no better method of introducing so large a subject, than that of comparing a single thing with a single thing; an eye, for example, with a telescope.
Page 29 - ... receiving praise from a father, we certainly have within us the image of some person, to whom our love and veneration look, in whose smile we find our happiness, for whom we yearn, towards whom we direct our pleadings, in whose anger we are troubled and waste away. These feelings in us are such as require for their exciting cause an intelligent being...
Page 21 - Since therefore whatsoever is the first eternal •being must necessarily be cogitative ; and whatsoever is first of all things must necessarily contain in it, and actually have, at least, all the perfections that can ever after exist ; nor can it ever give to another any perfection that it hath not, either actually in itself, or at least in a higher degree ; it necessarily follows, that the first eternal being cannot be matter.
Page 117 - ... our notions, not much more remote from our comprehension to conceive that GOD can, if he pleases, superadd to matter a faculty of thinking, than that he should superadd to it another substance with a faculty of thinking; since we know not wherein thinking consists, nor to what sort of substances the Almighty has been pleased to give that power, which cannot be in any created being, but merely by the good pleasure and bounty of the Creator.
Page 30 - The wicked flees, when no one pursueth;" then why does he flee? whence his terror? who is it that he sees in solitude, in darkness, in the hidden chambers of his heart? If the cause of these emotions does not belong to this visible world, the Object to which his perception is directed must be Supernatural and Divine; and thus the phenomena of Conscience, as a dictate, avail to impress the imagination with the picture of a Supreme Governor, a Judge, holy, just, powerful, all-seeing, retributive, and...