It is thus that we are led to the fundamental doctrine of Theism, to
belief in an intelligent First Cause, according to whose design the
universe has been fashioned; a cause which must have all that is found
in the universe or any part of it, including man, and more--for it has
of itself what all else derives from it--whose purposes necessarily
transcend our mental grasp--but whose modes of thought are reflected in
our own, by which they can in some measure be followed through a study
of their results.
If such a belief, so grounded, be unscientific, as is constantly
assumed, there must be good arguments to the contrary. It should be
demonstrable, either that Science has shown such a line of reasoning to
be unsound, or that she has discovered within her own domain something
which, at least conceivably, can do the work thus attributed to
Intelligence--in which case the much-quoted dictum of Lord Kelvin will
be in point,--that if a probable solution of any problem can be found
which is consistent with the ordinary course of Nature, we must not go
beyond Nature in search of one.
If, on the other hand, the above line of reasoning cannot be
invalidated, and if scientific methods can discover nothing competent to
effect what has undoubtedly been effected, it is not easy to see how it
can be unscientific to proceed by inference to what is confessedly
beyond the scope of observation and experiment.
That "Teleology," or the doctrine of Final Causality,[136] is unworthy
of serious consideration, is without doubt a common assumption, and some
writers seem to think that an argument is sufficiently discredited if it
be styled "teleological." Yet this rather formidable term represents no
more than the belief that the infinite adaptations of means to results
observed in Nature are the effect of purpose, not of chance. And if we
eliminate purpose, what is there left to furnish an explanation, beyond
the indubitable fact that such adaptations have always been found in
organic nature, and that we have learnt confidently to anticipate that
they will appear generation after generation according to the "law of
heredity"? But this obviously only tells us that they have been produced
and are likewise transmitted, and throws no light whatever on the cause
of the marvellous processes to which their production and their
transmission are due. If we have any rational grounds for expecting that
such processes will continue to occur, it cannot be merely that they
have occurred before, but we instinctively infer that the cause to which
they are ultimately due continues to operate. We are thus as far as ever
from an answer to the question, What is that cause?
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