Christian Churches and Churches of Christ; Lutz, Henry Frey, 1868-1926 -- Biography; Restoration movement (Christianity)
I stated at the beginning of my reply to Mr. Liberal that many
religious facts must be accepted without thoroughly understanding them,
and claimed that it is reasonable to so accept them. I will now
endeavor to explain myself more fully. It seems to me that if anything
has been proven, it is that our logical reason is not always a safe
guide. For example, we cannot conceive of an end to divisibility of
space; and therefore we cannot conceive how we can reach a given point.
Now, practice gives the lie to this conclusion, and if some rationalist
should follow his reason here, he would conclude that he can never get
a piece of food into his mouth; or, in other words, the logical
conclusion would lead to starvation. I know that some will deny this as
a logical conclusion to get out of the difficulty. But I could never
see it as otherwise than logical, and I have a goodly list of thinkers
who have reached the same conclusion before me. Again, it is admitted
by all thinkers of all ages that our reason tells us that there cannot
be existence without beginning, or, on the other hand, there can be no
beginning of existence without something existing before to cause its
existence.
The conclusion is that inconceivability is not an infallible proof of
the absence of a fact, and that we must follow our experience even if
it conflicts with our reason. This is what we claim to do in religion.
Whether experience is the sole source of knowledge is a question we
need not discuss here. It is certainly the only safe method in most
things. For example, I wish to know what will cure a certain disease.
Suppose that I find a medicine that has cured every case in which it
has been administered. Would it not be irrational for me to refuse to
use that medicine because I cannot conceive how it effects the cure? Of
course it might be possible that the medicine did not effect the cure;
that it was the belief in its curative power that produced the effect.
Cases have frequently occurred where a thing was for a long time
believed to be the cause, while future investigation proved that it was
some other attendant circumstance that was the real cause. But if our
experience is that a given medicine cures a certain disease invariably,
and that no other known medicine will cure it, we would be foolish not
to use that medicine. The same is true in religion. If we wish to
accomplish certain results and we have found a way in which those
desirable results can be brought about, and know of no other way to
bring them about; it would be irrational not to adopt that way, or
follow out the requirements of that theory. I told you, Mr. Liberal,
that your theory or doctrine was too simple. This is still more true of
our friend, Mr. Freethinker. You claim to hold very broad, liberal and
enlightened views. But although they are broad, they are not deep
enough. They are stretched out over the surface merely, and thus hide
from your view the great ocean of reality below. Yes, you have an
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account