The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-11-24
BLACK VS.. INGERSOLL.
Concluded from Page 9

tory or applied TO IL an erroneous inter-
probation. But 1 am tempted not to quit
without giving a sample of his efforts
at scientific reasoning.
If he does not deny the existence of a
God his occupation is gone. The object.
therefore, of his highest ambition ever
since he took the stump against Christi
anity, has been and is to annihilate the
evidence which shows that the world
has a Maker and Moral Governor. This
being his great central point on which
all other points must turn, he has, of
course, laid himself out to do his very
best for it. Let us see what he has
achieved.
thought l was giving true and ac---
cuTate account of his theory when / said
he regarded the universe as naturaI;
that 1T came into being of its own ac-s
cOrd;" that lit made its own laws at the
start, and afteTward improved itself con-
by spontaneous evolution"
But he denies that this statement is
true exposition of his views, and he ex-%
eTcises his conceded right to define them
again more sharply than he did before
Now he says the universe did not come
into being at all; it always was; nor did
it make its own laws, for it has no laws.
If the material universe existed, Just
as it is now, from all unbegun eternity,
there is, to be sure, not much chance for
creator to have done any work; if its
harmony is preserved, and the uniform
ity of its action maintained without
any rule or regulation prescribed by
superior power, then there is and has
been no need of law-giver; God is,
therefore, so useless a being that he may
be theoretically blOtted out of existence
For the proposition that the universe
always was without creatOrl and Will
be forever without a pTeSerYeT) he OFF,
fers only one proof, tO-wit, that 1t is ac-
cording to HIS idea. This he considers
potent enough to OveTrui6 all the evil
dence, direct and circumstantial, by
which his idea" is opposed. All testt-
mOny borne by the common sense OF
mankind, all the deductions of reason,
all philosophy, and all faith in Holy
Wri; must be swept aside, so that HIS
IDEA may have free course to run and be-
glOrifed. But this ascriptiOn of su--
preme authority to an idea, merely be-
cause 1T happens to be his idea, will
hardly be cOncurred in. The assertion
of it, indeed, proves nothing except that
his bump of self-esteem is in state of
chronic Inflammation.
He starts another idea, which has the
sans special merit of being his own,
namely, that the material universe is
not governed by laws. The planets do
move at rate and orbits which can be-
calculated with absolute certainty; the
earth TeyOlyes on its axis with such per-
feet regularity that the very second of
time at which the sun will rise at par
ticular place can be predicted thOus--
and years beforehand; chemical substan-~
ceS c, mbine always i'll exactly the same
relative proportions; in the animal and
vegetable world like produces like; in all
organized beings causes are known to
produce certain effects favorable or un--
favorable to life and health. Mr.. Inger-~
coll - 10 hnf or Nnff fl,n
suits of law or any sort of intelligent
prearrangement; but they are phenOm--
ena which HAPPEN, and the world is by
mere accident prevented from falling
into chaos. In his wisdom he decides
''as matter of fact" that there is
no rule back Of the phenomenon which
a controlling power compels the sub
ject-matter to obey; it merely HAPPENS;
but it happens so uniformly that it cre-
ates the idea of law in our minds, which
is, however, a mere delusiun. II Calico
and Ne" ton and Kepler, and all the
other philosophers, great and small,
have been seduced into the weak belief
that the material universe Is under the
reign of law, it is rare good fortune for
us in these latter days to have found a
superior parsonage Who, by merely turn
ing the Drummond light of his intellect
on the subject, at once exposes the
blunders Of the ignorant living and
the barbarian dead
Let no man misunderstood or misrep--
resent Mr.. IngeTsOl. 1t is not in IRONY
or to point scurrile jest that he denies
the Op IA ion of natural laws upon mat
ter. He is in serious earnest, and if he
does not actua ly believe what he says,
his stimulation of sincerity is perfect.
| To make himself clear he takes a simple
case. Water, he says, always runs dAwn
hill, not because there is law behind
it-law does not cause the phenomenon
but the phe' OmenOn causes the idea of
law to exist in our minds-but that idea
is on this side of the fact. 1t follows
that Newton must have been grossly
| mistaken when he said the falling of
water and other bodies toward the CEN
ter of the earth was caused by the law
of gravitatiOn.
Mr.. IngersOll suppOses he is imputing
an absurdity to me when he says "Mr.
Black probably thinks the differences in
| the weight Of rocks and clouds is pro-
duced by law" Undoubtedly l do. 1
learned in my infancy(and | have kept
the credulity of the cTadle'O, that this
difference is caused by that same law of
| gravitatiOn operating according to rules
which are perfectly understood by all
tOlerably well informed men. | will
| go further, and confess that | think it a
most benefcent law which prevents the
rocks from flying through the air, and
| the clouds from becoming immOvably
fixed in the earth. Our great Creator
ought to be adOred and thanked for ma
king such an arrangement. But this
only proves to Mr.. IngersOll that | AN
believer in 'the mOnstTOus and miTacu-
| lOus, the impossible and immoral"
| Mr.. IngeTsOll is much accused of pla-
| giarism. Whether that be true or not
of his declamatOry spOuting, this notion
that the material world is not governed
by law is without doubt original. 1t
! never entered any human head before,
and / think that in all future time it
will find no lOdgment in the mind of
any reasonable being.
Another way he has of reaching the
atheistic conclusion. do not say that
l know what he wants to be at. But as
well as l can understand him, he asserts
that the universe could not have had a
design because we cannot track back
the designer to his own origin; the
world was not made because we cannot
tell who made the maker. The mechan-
ism of a watch is so curious that 'it
must" says he, "have had a maker;"b
he adds, the matchmaker himself is more
wonderfully made than the watch, and
hence he infers that he also must have
had mokpr Sinpa the npppSSitv of a