The Philosophy of Natural Theology: An Essay in confutation of the scepticism of the present dayJackson, William
Religion
The Philosophy of Natural Theology: An Essay in confutation of the scepticism of the present day
Jackson, William
Natural theology; Religion -- Philosophy; Religion and science
So long as such distinctions are confined to the territory of pure
science, whether that of the Physicist or of the Biologist, they do
not in themselves affect the religious (or ethico-religious) position
of any thinker; and need not, therefore, occasion any trouble to the
Natural Theologian. But it is worth while to observe how rashly, on
account of some such scientific discussion, a writer is said to be a
Materialist or no Materialist, by persons who (understanding little
or nothing of science themselves) drag the unhappy author outside the
pale of his own domain, and affix to him some religious or irreligious
epithet which he has neither desired nor deserved.
The philosophic idealist often escapes; he is pronounced "no
Materialist," because he doubts the substantive existence of Matter,
yet he may and often does hold that the ideal thing he calls his soul,
has a life inextricably bound up with that other ideal thing he calls
his body, and must perish with it, never to live again.
We may add the useful remark that so far as Ethico-religious
Materialism is concerned it is much more easily tested by the
Doctrine of Soul than the Doctrine of Body. For example, consistent
Materializers will always maintain that the reasoning human soul
differs from the animal soul of brutes, not in quality, but in
quantity. Dr. L. Büchner (sometimes called a "crass Materialist")
makes this assertion repeatedly, and explains it by adding--"Man has
no absolute advantage above the animal; his mental superiority being
merely relative. There is not one intellectual faculty which belongs to
man _exclusively_; his superiority is merely the result of the greater
intensity, and the proper combination, of his capacities. The enlarged
human faculties are, as we have already seen, the natural and necessary
result of the higher and more perfect development of his material organ
of thought."[147]
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