Religion is the relation between man and his Maker--the most important
relationship into which man enters. Most of the relationships of life
are voluntary; we enter into them or not as we please. Such, for
illustration, are those between business partners, between stockholders
in a corporation, between friends and between husband and wife. Some
relationships, on the other hand, are involuntary; we enter into them
because we must. Such, for illustration, are those between man and his
government, between man and society, and between man and his Maker.
Tolstoy declares that morality is but the outward manifestation of
religion. If this be true, as I believe it is, then religion is the most
practical thing in life and the thought of God the greatest thought that
can enter the human mind or heart. Tolstoy also delivers a severe rebuke
to what he calls the "Cultured crowd"--those who think that religion,
while good enough for the ignorant (to hold in check and restrain
them), is not needed when one reaches a certain stage of intellectual
development. His reply is that religion is not superstition and does not
rest upon a vague fear of the unseen forces of nature, but does rest
upon "man's consciousness of his finiteness amid an infinite universe
and of his sinfulness." This consciousness, Tolstoy adds, man can never
outgrow.
Evidence of the existence of an Infinite Being is to be found in
the Bible, in the facts of human consciousness, and in the physical
universe. Dr. Charles Hodge sets forth as follows the principal
arguments used to maintain the existence of a God:
I. The _a priori_ argument which seeks to demonstrate the being of a
God from certain first principles involved in the essential laws of
human intelligence.
II. The cosmological argument, or that one which proceeds after the
_posteriori_ fashion, from the present existence of the world as
an effect, to the necessary existence of some ultimate and eternal
first cause.
III. The teleological argument, or that argument which, from the
evidence of design in the creation, seeks to establish the fact that
the great self-existent first cause of all things is an intelligent
and voluntary personal spirit.
IV. The moral argument, or that argument which, from a consideration
of the phenomena of conscience in the human heart, seeks to
establish the fact that the self-existent Creator is also the
righteous moral Governor of the world. This argument includes the
consideration of the universal feeling of dependence common to
all men, which together with conscience constitutes the religious
sentiment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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