The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1896-03-26


ing upon the processes of evolution
working under similar methods, and
this has forced upon us the belief in the
unity of nature and thus we have been
and we are being driven from it more
and more forcibly and irrevocably to
that conception of God which was held
by st. Clement of Alexandria, by Ori-
gen and Athanasius--a conception Of
God working in and through nature
without infraction Of law. The element
of chance, which some atheists formerly
admitted into their scheme Of things,
has been dispelled. do not think any
body wastes his time today in disputing
about the 'fortuitous ooncourse Of
atoms. We have as yet scarcely finished
the alphabet of science, but we have
spelled out enough to see that all is
done in accordance with law. The more
we study evolution the more we come
to discover one thing--intelligible CO.
horence. One part CT the study never
gives the lie TO another part.
$50 beautiful is all this conference, so
satisfying, that many minds are inclined
to doubt if anything more need be said
of the universe but that it is an endless
law-an aggregate of coexistences and
sequences. when we have described
what we see, they say, is not that
enough? Such a state of mind-resting
! content with the mere contemplation of
! facts-is the characteristic of positivism.
| Positivism is phase Of thought perhaps
not so common in the present day, for
the impetus of modern scientific thought
! tends with such overwhelming force to-
ward the conception of single first
cause manifest from moment to moment,
through all the protean changes which
make the universe, that few men of
science can disbelieye it. But when ask
! ed the nature of this prime moving force
they answer with general disclaimer
of knowledge, and thus are called ag-
nostics. "
outside the Realm of knowledge.
At this point the speaker made brief
excursus into metaphysics to show that
the name "indwelling deity" first
given to the divinity by st. Athanasius,
could be used more fitly than the term
"force," preferred by the materialists.
1t was as easy, he said, to conceive Of
an infinite entity possessing attributes
similar to those of humanity as it was
to conceive of material force, which
man has never known except as circum-
scribed and acting in conjunction or op-
position to other forces, being raised to
point infinite and limitless. Each con-
ception was outside the realm of human
experience. Words that we have gained
from experience of finite things" he
said, "must inevitably falter when they
attempt the infinite, but we do not mend
matters by taking terms from the inor-
ganic world
To show that the human mind was as
yet unable to grapple with many phe-
nomena, physical as we'll as spiritual,
the speaker cited as an instance the fact
that a piece of iron, when heated to a
white heat, may at the same time pos
sess ienuity and elasticity-a phenome-
non demonstrable, but incomprehensible.
He continued: "Let us proceed to
consider the assumption that the infinite
power which is manifested in the uni
verse is humanlike in its nature. In
other words, between God and the hu-
man soul there is real kinship. We will
leave metaphysics and treat the question
historically. Suppose we are visitors
here from another planet. We find the
inhabitants of this earth all entertain
ing certain assumption. What is the
scientific possibility of that assumption
being true? use the word assumption
with purpose, for it should be observed
that all people have taken it for granted.
"Omittin8 from the count few score
of ingenious philosophers, it may be
said that all mankind, the wisest and
simplest, have taken for granted the ex-
istence Of deity or deities of psychic
al nature somewhat similar to humani.
ty. Such postulate has formed a part of
all human thought from distant ages
down to the present time. The early
forms of this postulate were fetichism
and animism-the one saying that
when the wind blows down q tree the
tree falls because of the power Of God
within; the other that the wind is ami,
mated by the spirit of a dead man. In
these earliest phases each phase Of hu-
man nature had some humanlike power
behind it. In the course of ages there
was great deal of generalizing done.
Nothing but an increasing knowledge OF
nature was needed to convert polythe-
ism into monotheism. AS the notion of
deism has been thus consolidated into
one it has been gradually stripped of its
grosser substance The gods of Olympus
made war and love and were the vic.
Tins of inextinguishable lust. From our
modern theism such accidents are elimi'
mated, but take away from our notion
of God the human element, and that as
pect of theism which has from the out,
set chiefly interested mankind is gone.
That supremely interesting aspect of
theism is part and parcel Of the general
belief in an unseen world in which hu,
man beings have an interest.
"The belief in the personal existence
of the human soul after death is very
ancient one. The savage custom of
buryipg tools with the dead to enable
them to carry on their pursuits in the
next world enables us to trace this be.
lief back to the glacial period. In the
lowest savages we find the belief in a
ghost world--a world which implies the
existence Of human beings after death
and almost universally in barbaric coun,
tries, where we have the opportunity Of
studying their belief, we find it implies
connection between the ghosts of mel
and some humanlike deity,
"The refinement in the conception OF
deity is paralleled by the refinement in