The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-07-27
THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
A Scholarly Argument.

To THE EDITOR OF THE SuN-Sir: I have
Just read few letters in The Sun on the
proofs for the existence OF God. eternity OF
matter and doRmas. / believe the common
arguments put forward to prove the existence
OF God are not logically sound. and the aver
age professor OF natural theology Is unable to
see that his premises do not contain his con-
clusion. Then they assume that the soul is an
effect. that the cosmos is an effect and that
their arguments are the only ones worth con-
sidering. Hence such men contribute their
share in peopinR the infde world with athe-
lists. Atheists deny that the cosmos is an
effect They deny that the world is contin-
gent being. But grant 1t is. you cannot con-
clude an infinite being from the finite.
Plato. Aristotle. PythaRoras and all pagan
philosophers maintained that as there is no
creative power In man 30 there is none In God.
Hence all OF them asserted the eternity Of
matter. God impressed, as q seal on wax, the
ideas and forms eternal in his own mind. He
simply operated on pre-existtng material. or
course this denies creation. Hence. the god
OF the pagans was not a creative god. New
man. In his "Apologia." tells us that he had
never been able to prove 10 his own satisfao-
ton the existence OF God by reason. To him
there we're two. and only. two. luminously
anS God and bs oJ beings IN
ssem is Pigment. Of the mind. 4 we
sad Gir'y at the tHes PrGS' h AF Tod
spinozs followed him; The God OF Plato. was
t int tR Ss FS the ss Of all
entity. He Is not the God OF o. whom are al
our our being. by whom all things were mnde. and
not seem to realize that the existence of God
II truth OF science and faith and the basis ~
6s the shsy pqs st. P and 10 resi- H. s"sd
the only one. St Thomas quotes him to show
what God IS rather than that He Is.
he could not prove the existence OF God by
natural reason except BY adopting the intuitiye
process he improbates. for God cannot be de-
duced from universal. since He is Himself
ton. called the synthetic method, cannot u en-
able us, to ascend to o universal not intui-
tivsy giysn ,R along With the PARTICULAR Hence
ton can give any objective reality not in
tnitvely presented: but he fought, that
that, His existence can be proved by reason.
He held the validity Of the reasoning OF SITS.
rsa.ss on snf he esenae and 6 G Ts
the truth of the intuItive method. He would also
hold that man reared by deaf and dumb
seeing corntingent things lie, would know
would not know any language. In face OF all
this think we ought not to insist that the
existence Of God Is easily demonstrated.
gisticaly demonstrable. yet it may he an un-
enable truth. for the truth Of an axiom Is not
sylloRistically demonstrable vet II would be
absurd to deny It. Let us suppose We deny
His existence. do we not deny our own?
tine in his Confessions. for the heavens and the
earth cannot contain Him. And what a
the TTny h sooS Wthomt dua prs o0 Srent
without size; creator. without need; presid-
ing. without site; contriving all things. with
out relation thereto; wholly everywhere. with
out place: eternal. without time; without
change in Himself. forming things subject TO
change. and liable to no evil" He was in the
beginning. and in Him was life. and the life
was the light OF men.
PH1LosoPHUs TRENToHENEIs.
TRENTON July