Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-04-27
ORDER AND DESIGN.
Two Important Facts That Enter
Into the Argument for God.
REASONS ON THE SIDE OF NATURE.
Law and Evolution Only Explain the
Manner Of the Creation.
MARvELs IN THE PLUMAGs OF A BIRD
rwR,rrEN FOR THE nrspIrcul

WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH
The argument for God begins with the
fact Of cause. Cause is mental fact, being
one of the essential conditions of thought.
There is only one cause which adequately
corresponds to this mental necessity, and
that is an uncaused cause, or, as we say, q
first cause. If there is no first cause, itself
uncaused, then there is no such fact as ca use
at all. And if there is no such fact as cause,
we may as we'll stop thinking, for the de-
nial of this mental fact is intellectual sui
eide.
The nature of the first cause, whether 1t
is mind or matter, is to be learned from its
effects. These are of two kinds, nature and
man. We begin with nature.
Nobody can study the world about US very
long without discovering two facts about it.
First, that it is world of uniformity. and,
second, that it is world of adjustment.
There are two kinds OF things in this world,
things with life and things without life, and
In the realm of things without life there is a
singular uniformity, and in the realm of
things with life there is a wonderful adjust
order, and for adjustment is design.
A REALM OF ORDER.
The reign of order in the world is Just as
plain a fact as the existence of the world
itself. The uniformity OF nature is one Of
the conditions of our thinking. That the
same cause, under the same circumstances,
will always produce the same effect, that
fire will burn and ice will chill, that there
will be four seasons every year. and one of
them will be seed time and another harvest;
that the stars will keep on moving in their
courses; that the sun will rise tomorrow
morning, we take for granted. And these
commonplaces are simply expressions of our
recognition by the fact that the world is a
realm of order.
The whole purpose Of science, from the
beginning, has been to bring everything in
the world into Ineligible relations with
this realm of order. Science takes order for
its initial fact. 1t does not recognize the
possibility of the unordered. Century by
century, and more and more, the e1traordi-
nary is found to be bound by law. The
comets are discovered to be as regular in
their movements as the stars. Science, with
all its telescopes and microscopes and spec
troscopes, has not yet found anything too
large or too small to be lett outside the realm
of law.
ON MATHEMATICAL PRINCIPLES.
The prevalence OF law is emphasized by
the discovery that all organic nature is con-
stituted on mathematical principles, and is
capable of expression in symbols and figures.
Crystals are petrlhed geometry. Minerals
SNOW 1 aimays sne san ?ropoisiICn ?pI oi cnem-
20. Ua. ,..a,,;o. nd ,.nnIs;ar nu'
~ I - p ssEN orc ~
efneu w enssiyins laws Erery palticie
OF matter In 'ne universe attractS every otner
particle directly as It's mass ana inverseiy
as the square 81 i.s distance. s!i 90 tnas M II IS
smrmeo M WA. Il ons ,'ste aniS st9n on .ne sur
race Oh 'ne s.at var oilius % Snouiu m miss l.s caicu-
lation ana take euoe Ior square, the
the prevalence OF order. All this Is Illus,
force, Igh! passing into neat, neat Into
motion, all lnseparably Dound togetner. linus
the world is not only world OF order, but
of law, and of an all-embracing system OF
law.
Law is no more evident In the inorganic
world than Is design IN that part of the
world which grows and lives. Design Is
that fitting of several quite different things
together in such way that by union they
work out a result which could not be other
wise accomplished. The glass of watch
crystal, taken BY itself, might mean only
law; but the whole watch, to take the we'll
worn illustration of Paley, with its wheels
and screws, its hands and face, would be an
example of adjustment, of design.
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nave grown into its "onueriui shape ana
motion rom the unPtomlsing peglnnlng-
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noWer stlil IN seea, ana stalK, ana iea1, ana
ou., Hnu uioon1, M .n eIue VI
,om mmonly use. is a begging of the question.
DESIGN implies an inteiligent DESIGNER.
Even the word adjustment is not entirely
rec from the same logical defect. But this
very difficulty of finding words by which to |
lescribe the phenomena of the organic
Forld without ascribing them to a mind
,ebind them shows the almost irresistible
m nression which nature makes on the nm
biased iudemeut.
The world is full of adaptation, contri- |
vance adjustment. such as we are common
" in The hanit of associatino with nnrnose
With DESIGN The hand of man so marvsi,
,nslv formed to rull. to pusb. to point to |
,trike to grasp: the wings OF the birds so
adanted nv underlappino feath- |
,rs to nnsb AGAINST the air on the down
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