A Few Words About the Devil, and Other Biographical Sketches and EssaysBradlaugh, Charles
Religion
A Few Words About the Devil, and Other Biographical Sketches and Essays
Bradlaugh, Charles
Free thought
Mr. Gillespie has not defined infinity, and it is possible therefore his
argument may be misapprehended in this paper. Infinite signifies nothing
more than indefinite. When a person speaks of infinite extension he can
only mean to refer to the extension of something to which he has been
unable to set limits. The mind can not conceive extension _per se_,
either absolute or finite. It can only conceive something extended. It
might be impossible mentally to define the extension of some substance.
In such a case its extension would be indefinite; or, as Mr. Gillespie
uses the word, infinite. No one can therefore possibly have any idea of
infinity of extension. Yet it is upon the existence of such an idea, and
on the impossibility of getting rid of it, that Mr. Gillespie grounds
his first proposition. If the idea does not exist, the argument is
destroyed at the first step.
Mr. Gillespie argues that it is utterly beyond the power of the human
mind to conceive infinity of extension non-existent. He would have been
more correct in asserting that it is utterly beyond the power of the
human mind to conceive infinity of extension at all, either existent or
non-existent. Extension can only be conceived as quality of substance.
It is possible to conceive substance extended. It is impossible in
thought to limit the possible extension of substance. Mr. Gillespie
having asserted that we can not but believe that infinity of extension
exists, proceeds to declare that it exists necessarily. For, he says,
everything the existence of which we can not but believe, exists
necessarily. It is not necessary at present to examine what Mr.
Gillespie means by existing necessarily; it is sufficient to have
shown that we do not believe in the existence of infinity of extension,
although we may and do believe in the existence of substance, to
the extension of which we may be unable to set limits. But, says Mr.
Gillespie, "everything the existence of which we can not but believe is
necessarily existing." Then as we can not but believe in the existence
of the universe (or, to adopt Mr. Gillespie's phrase, the material
universe), the material universe exists necessarily. If by "anything
necessarily existing," he means anything the essence of which involves
existence, or the nature of which can only be considered as existent,
then Mr. Gillespie, by demonstrating the necessary existence of the
universe, refutes his own later argument, that God is its creator. Mr.
Gillespie's argument, as before remarked, is open to misconception,
because he has left us without any definition of some of the most
important words he uses. To avoid the same objection, it is necessary to
state that by substance or existence I mean that which is in itself and
is conceived per se--that is, the conception of which does not involve
the conception of anything else as antecedent to it. By quality, that by
which I cognize any mode of existence. By mode, each cognized condition
of existence.
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