cause of our injury, we may equally be induced by the same reasoning to
consider the kindness and benefits of our friends not worthy of
gratitude, believing that they were compelled to act in this manner,
and could not act otherwise.
3. Pantheism, by teaching All in One and One in All, is opposed to the
theory of man’s responsibility to a higher Being, denies the existence
of God in the ordinary sense of the word, and is, in its relation to
true religion, equal to atheism.
In the Bible atheism is stigmatised as the source of all evils. Thus
the patriarch Abraham suspected the people of Gerar, that there was “no
fear of God” in the place, and was afraid “they might slay him” (Gen.
xx. 11); whilst Joseph persuaded his brothers to have confidence in him
by the assertion, “I fear God” (Ib. xlii. 18). The first instance of an
atheist we meet in Pharaoh, king of Egypt, when he defiantly said, “I
know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go” (Exod. v. 2). Another
form of atheism is warned against in the words of Moses: “Lest thou
sayest in thine heart, My strength and the power of my hand has got for
me all this wealth” (Deut. viii. 17); and “Lest they say, Our hand is
high, and it is not the Lord that hath done all this” (Ib. xxxii. 27).
The prophets likewise rebuke the people for want of belief in God. In
the Psalms, the crimes and evil designs of oppressors are traced to
godlessness. “The wicked says in his heart, There is no God” (Ps. xiv.
1). But this atheism of the Bible is not a theoretical or dogmatic one;
it is not the result of thought, or of deep inquiry into the causes of
things, but merely the voice of an evil inclination which tempts man to
act contrary to the command of God, and assures him of immunity, under
the impression that his actions are not watched by a higher authority.
In post-Biblical literature we meet with the phrase, לית דִּין ולית דַּיָּן
“There is no judgment, and there is no judge,” as the basis of atheism.
4. Although the conviction of man’s responsibility to a higher
authority is the essential element in the belief in God, yet the notion
of godlessness was so intimately connected with crime and wickedness,
that those who rejected the authority and mastership of the Deity
refused to be called godless or atheists. Many philosophers retained
the name “God” (theos, deus) for their “First Cause” of the universe,
although it is deprived of the chief attributes of God. Thus we have as
the principal religious theories resulting from philosophical
investigations, Theism and Deism. Literally these two terms denote,
Theory of God, or Belief in God; the one word being derived from the
Greek theos, the other from the Latin deus, both meaning “God.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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