The Millennium, and Other Poems: To Which is Annexed, a Treatise on the Regeneration and Eternal Duration of Matter — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Millennium, and Other Poems: To Which is Annexed, a Treatise on the Regeneration and Eternal Duration of Matter
John Stuart Mill · en
Moses did not see fit to inform us of what kind of materials the Lord
formed the earth, and indeed there was no need of revelation to guide
us on that subject; for we see for ourselves that it is composed of the
common elements which constitute matter in general, and of course this
element or matter already existed, and that too in sufficient quantity
for the formation of a globe like this. From the Mosaic account of
the creation, many have gathered the idea that God created all things
out of nonentity,--that solid matter sprung from nothing. But this is
for want of reflection, or an exercise of reason on the subject; for
instance, when a child inquires of its father, saying, father, who
made this house? the father replies, the carpenter made it. Again, the
child inquires, who made me? the father replies, the Lord made you.
Again, the child inquires, who made the earth? the father replies, the
Lord made the earth, and all things upon the face thereof. Now the
child might suppose that the carpenter created the house without any
materials; that he brought it into existence from nothing; and so, with
equal propriety, he might suppose that he was formed from nothing;
when in fact he was formed of materials which grew out of the earth.
And with the same degree of impropriety we might suppose that God made
the earth from nothing, when in fact he made it out of self-existing
element:
It is impossible for a mechanic to make any thing whatever without
materials. So it is equally impossible for God to bring forth matter
from nonentity, or to originate element from nothing, because this
would contradict the law of truth, and destroy himself. We might as
well say, that God can add two and three together, and the product will
be twelve; or that he can subtract five from ten and leave eight, as
to say that he can originate matter from nonentity; because these are
principles of eternal truth, they are laws which cannot be broken, that
two and three are five, that five from ten leaves five, and that nought
from nought leaves nought; and a hundred noughts added together is
nothing still. In all these, the product is determined by unchangeable
laws, whether the reckoning be calculated by the Almighty, or by man,
the result is precisely the same.