The Truth of Christianity: Being an Examination of the More Important Arguments For and Against Believing in That ReligionTurton, W. H. (William Harry)
Religion
The Truth of Christianity: Being an Examination of the More Important Arguments For and Against Believing in That Religion
Turton, W. H. (William Harry)
Apologetics
Again, the eye can perceive objects in different _directions_; for
it is so constructed that it can turn with the greatest rapidity
right or left, up or down, without moving the head. It is also
provided _in duplicate_, the two eyes being so arranged that though
each can see separately should the other get injured, they can, as a
rule, see together with perfect harmony. Lastly, our admiration for
the eye is still further increased when we remember that it was
formed _before birth_. It was what is called a _prospective_ organ,
of no use at the time when it was made; and this, when carefully
considered, shows design more plainly than anything else.
On the whole, then, the eye appears to be an optical instrument of
great ingenuity; and the conclusion that it must have been made by
someone, and that whoever made it must have known and designed its
use, seems inevitable.
These conclusions, it will be noticed, like the similar ones in
regard to the watch, are not affected by our ignorance on many
points. We may have no idea as to how an eye can be made, and yet
feel certain that, as it exists, it must have been made by someone,
and that its maker designed it for the purpose it serves.
Nor should we feel that the eye is explained by being told that
every part of it has been produced in strict accordance with natural
laws, and could not have been otherwise; in fact, that there is no
design to account for. No doubt every single part has been thus
produced, and if it stood alone there might be little to account
for. But it does not stand alone. All the various and complicated
parts of the eye agree in this one remarkable point, and in this one
only, that they all help to enable man to see; and it is this that
requires explanation. We feel that there must be some connection
between the cause which brought all these parts together and the
fact of man's seeing. In other words, the result must have been
designed.
Nor does the fact that every organism in nature is produced from a
previous one of the same kind alter this conclusion. Indeed, as was
shown with reference to the watch, it can only increase our
admiration for the skill which must have been spent on the first
organism of each kind. Moreover, no part of the design can be
attributed to the _parents_. If, for instance, the eyes of a child
show design, it is not due to the intelligence or designing power of
its father and mother. _They_ have not calculated the proper shape
for the lens, or the mechanism of the iris, and as a rule know
nothing whatever about it. And the same applies to _their_ parents,
so that our going back ever so far in this way brings us no nearer
to what we are in search of. The design is still unaccounted for, we
still want a designer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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