Modern Atheism under its forms of Pantheism, Materialism, Secularism, Development, and Natural LawsBuchanan, James
Religion
Modern Atheism under its forms of Pantheism, Materialism, Secularism, Development, and Natural Laws
Buchanan, James
Atheism
To some minds it has been recommended by its _apparent simplicity_. It
speaks only of _one_ substance as existing in Nature under various
modifications. It represents the universe, so far as created being is
concerned, as entirely composed of _matter_, more or less refined; and
thus excludes the complication which must necessarily arise from the
supposition of two substances, generically different, yet intimately and
indissolubly related. The principle, therefore, which prompts us to seek
unity in diversity, and to reduce, by some comprehensive generalization,
a multitude of phenomena under one general law, has led some to adopt
the theory of _unisubstancisme_ in preference to the opposite doctrine
of _dualism_. Not content with the generalization, alike safe and
legitimate, which ranks both mind and matter under the generic head of
_substance_, they have sought to reduce them to the same category, and
to give to matter a monopoly of the universe, at least of created being.
In support of their views, they remind us of the fundamental principle
of philosophy as laid down by Sir Isaac Newton, that "we are to admit no
more causes of things than are sufficient to explain appearances."[153]
The principle is a sound one; and the only question is, whether matter
alone is sufficient to account for mental phenomena? On _this_ question
the two parties are at irreconcilable variance; and the controversy
cannot be determined, _brevi manu_, by the mere assumption of the
simplicity and uniform composition of everything in Nature; it can be
settled only by an appeal to the facts as they are known to exist. It is
the aim of science, undoubtedly, to reduce all compound substances to
the smallest possible number of constituent elements, and all complex
phenomena to the smallest possible number of general laws. But we feel
that, desirable as this simplification may be, we are not warranted in
identifying light with heat, or even electricity with magnetism, however
closely connected with each other, simply because there are certain
observed differences between them, which could not be explained, in the
present state of our knowledge, consistently with any such theory of
their absolute identity: and so, there are such manifest differences
between Mental and Material phenomena, that we cannot yield to the
temptation of ascribing them to one cause or origin, until it has been
satisfactorily proved that the same cause is sufficient to account for
appearances so diverse. It should be considered, too, in connection with
this pretence of greater simplicity, that even if we could succeed in
getting rid of the _dualism_ of Mind and Matter in the constitution of
man, we never can get rid of it with reference to the universe at
large, otherwise than by denying _the spirituality of God himself_: for
the grand, the indestructible, the eternal _dualism_ would still
remain,--the distinction between God and His works,--between the Creator
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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