Modern Atheism under its forms of Pantheism, Materialism, Secularism, Development, and Natural Laws

J >> James Buchanan >> Modern Atheism under its forms of Pantheism, Materialism, Secularism, Development, and Natural Laws

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33

It is the more necessary to examine the various forms of this theory,
because unquestionably it can appeal to not a few _natural analogies_,
which may serve, on a superficial view, to give it the aspect of
verisimilitude. For many of the most signal works of God have been
manifestly framed on the principle of gradual growth, and matured by a
process of progressive development. We see in the natural world a small
seed deposited in the earth, which, under the agency of certain suitable
influences, germinates and springs up, producing first a tender shoot,
then a stem, and branches, and leaves, and blossoms, and fruit; and
every herb or tree, "having seed in itself," makes provision for the
repetition of the same process, and the perpetuation and indefinite
increase of its kind. The same law is observed in the animal kingdom,
where a continuous race is produced from a single pair. And even in the
supernatural scheme of Revelation itself, the truth was gradually
unfolded in a series of successive dispensations; the First Promise
being the germ, which expanded as the Church advanced, until it reached
its full development in the Scriptures of the New Testament. These and
similar instances may suffice to show that, both in the natural and
supernatural Providence of God, He has been pleased to act on the
principle of _gradual and progressive_, as contradistinguished from that
of _instant and perfect_ production; and they may seem, at first sight,
to afford some natural analogies in favor of the radical idea on which
the various modern Theories _of_ Development are based. In such
circumstances it would be an unwise and dangerous course either to
overlook the palpable facts which Nature and Revelation equally attest,
or to deny that they may afford signal manifestations of the manifold
wisdom of God. Nor is it necessary for any enlightened advocate of
Theism to betake himself to these expedients; he may freely admit the
existence of _such_ cases of gradual development, he may even appeal to
them as illustrative of the order of Nature, and the design which that
order displays; and the only question which he is at all concerned to
discuss amounts in substance to this: Whether the method of production
which is pursued in the _ordinary course_ of Nature can account for the
_original commencement_ of the present system of things?

But the state of the question, and the right application of the
argument, may be best illustrated by considering each of the _four_
forms of the theory separately and in succession.

SECTION I.

THEORY OF _COSMICAL_ DEVELOPMENT, OR OF THE PRODUCTION OF WORLDS AND
PLANETARY SYSTEMS BY NATURAL LAW.--"THE VESTIGES."

The doctrine of a Nebular Cosmogony was first suggested by some
observations of the elder Herschell on those cloud-like appearances
which may be discerned in various parts of the heavens by the aid of the
telescope, or even, in some cases, by the naked eye. It assumed a more
definite form in the hands of La Place, although even by him it was
offered, not as an ascertained discovery of science, but simply as a
hypothetical explanation of the way in which the production of the
planets and their satellites _might_ possibly be accounted for _by_ the
operation of the known laws of Nature.

The explanation of the whole theory may be best understood by dividing
it into two parts: the _first_ being that which attempts to account for
the formation of planets and satellites, _on the assumption of the
existence of a central sun_, and _of certain other specified
conditions_; the _second_ being that which undertakes to account for the
formation of the sun itself, on the assumption of the existence of _a
diffused nebulous matter_ in space, or, as it has been aptly called, "a
universal Fire-Mist."[28]

When the theory is limited to the explanation of the origin of the
planets and their satellites, the original condition of our solar system
is assumed to have been widely different from what it now is; the sun is
supposed to have existed for a time alone, to have revolved upon his
axis, and to have been surrounded with an atmosphere expanded by intense
heat, and extending far beyond the limits of our system as it now
exists. This solar atmosphere revolved, like the sun itself, around its
axis; but its heat, constantly radiated into sidereal space, gradually
diminished, and the atmosphere being contracted in proportion as it
cooled, the rapidity of its rotation was accelerated, until it reached
the point at which the central attraction was overcome by the
centrifugal force, and then a zone of vapor would be detached or thrown
off, which might either retain its form as a nebulous ring, like the
ring of Saturn, or first breaking into fragments, from some want of
continuity in its structure, and afterwards coalescing into one mass,
might be condensed into a planet as the vapor continued to cool. These
rings or planets, thus detached from the central atmospheric mass, would
continue to revolve, in virtue of the force originally impressed upon
them, and their motion would be nearly circular, in the same plane and
in the same direction with that of the sun. The first planet, so
formed, must have been that at the extreme limit of our solar system;
the second the next in point of remoteness from the centre, and so on;
each resulting from the operation of the same natural laws, and emerging
into distinct existence at that precise point in the gradual cooling and
contraction of the atmosphere at which the centrifugal became stronger
than the centripetal force. But each planet might also be subjected to
the same process of cooling and contracting, and might therefore throw
off, under the operation of the same mechanical laws, zones of vapor
more or less dense, which might consolidate into moons or satellites,
and which should also revolve, like the planets, round their primary.
Thus, Uranus has six satellites, and Saturn seven; while the latter has
also thrown off two zones so perfectly uniform in their internal
structure that they remain unbroken, and constitute a double ring around
the planet.

In this _first_ form of the theory, which assumes the existence of the
sun and its atmosphere, and the rotation of both round an axis, La Place
sought to give a scientific form to the speculations of Sir William
Herschell on the condensation of Nebulae, by proving simply the
_dynamical possibility_ of the formation of a planetary system by such
means, according to the known laws of matter and motion; but he did not
affirm the scientific certainty of his conjecture, and far less the
actual production of the solar system in this way. He has been followed
by M. Comte, who has attempted to furnish, if not a complete
demonstration, at least a plausible mathematical verification, of the
hypothesis.[29] Utterly excluding all supernatural agency in the work of
creation, he equally excludes from the problem which he attempts to
solve, the origin of the sun and its atmosphere; and confining himself
to the task of accounting, in the way not of demonstrative certainty,
but merely of plausible hypothesis, for the formation of the planets and
satellites of our solar system, he conceives the theory of La Place to
be susceptible of such a numerical verification as is sufficient to give
it a high degree of verisimilitude. Assuming that the periodic time of
each planet must be equal to that of the portion of the solar atmosphere
of which it was formed at the era when it was thrown off, and combining
the theorems of Huygens on the measure of centrifugal forces with
Newton's law of gravitation, he establishes a simple equation between
the time of the rotation of each zone or section of the solar
atmosphere, and the distance of the corresponding planets. On applying
this equation to the various bodies of our system, he found that the
periodic time of the moon agrees, at least within the tenth of a day,
with the duration of the earth's revolution, when her atmosphere is
supposed to have extended to the moon; and that the periodic times of
the planets maintain a similar correspondence with what must have been
the duration of the solar revolution when they were severally thrown off
from its atmosphere. It is the less necessary, however, to enter on a
detailed exposition of his argument, because he admits that it can
afford at the utmost only a probable proof of an hypothesis; and
further, because it is expressly limited to the production of the
planets and their satellites, while not only is the existence of the
solar atmosphere presupposed, but also its existence in _a certain
state_, and with _several determinate conditions_; while no account
whatever is given of the origin either of the sun or its atmosphere, and
none of the laws or conditions on which the whole process of development
is confessedly dependent.

But the author of "The Vestiges" takes a much wider range, and attempts
a more arduous task. He seeks to account for the origin both of suns and
of solar systems by the agency of natural laws. Not content with the
more limited form of the theory, which M. Comte holds to be the only
legitimate or practical object of scientific treatment, he holds that
the origin of the sun itself, and the _forms_, the _positions_, the
_relations_, and the _motions_, of all the heavenly bodies, may be
accounted for by supposing a previous state of matter, fluid or
gasiform, subject only to the law of gravitation. The Nebular Cosmogony,
which is well characterized by himself as his "version of _the romance
of Nature_," is based on the assumption that "the nebulous matter of
space, previously to the formation of stellar and planetary bodies, must
have been a universal FIRE-MIST,"[30] in other words, a diffused
luminous vapor, intensely hot, which might be gradually condensed into a
fluid, and then into a solid state, by losing less or more of its heat.
The existence of such a luminous matter being assumed, and it being
further supposed that it was not entirely uniform or homogeneous, but
that it existed in various states of condensation, and that it had
"certain nuclei established in it which might become centres of
aggregation for the neighboring diffused matter,"--the author attempts
to show that on such centres a rotatory motion would be established
wherever, as was the most likely case, there was any obliquity in the
lines of direction in which the opposing currents met each other; that
this motion would increase as the agglomeration proceeded; that at
certain intervals the centrifugal force, acting on the remoter part of
the rotating mass, would overcome the agglomerating force; and that a
series of rings would thus be left apart, each possessing the motion
proper to itself at the crisis of separation. These, again, would only
continue in their annular form, if they were entirely uniform in their
internal structure. There being many chances against this, they would
probably break up in the first instance, and be thereafter "agglomerated
into one or several masses, which would become representatives of the
primary mass, and perhaps give rise to a progeny of inferior masses." In
support of this theory, reference is made to the existence, at the
present moment, of certain cloud-like nebulae, or masses of diffused
luminous matter, exhibiting a variety of appearances, as if they were in
various degrees of condensation, and which are described as "solar
systems in the process of being formed" out of a previous condition of
matter. And the observations of M. Plateau, of Ghent, are adduced as
affording an experimental verification of some parts of the theory, and,
especially, as serving to explain the spherical form of the planets, the
flattening at the poles, and the swelling out at the equator.

It does not belong to our proper province, nor is it necessary for our
present purpose, to discuss the merits of this theory, considered as a
question of science. This has been already done, with various degrees of
ability, but with unwonted unanimity, by some of the ablest men of the
age,--by Whewell, Sedgwick and Mason, in England, by Sir David Brewster
and Mr. Miller, in Scotland, and by Professor Dod and President
Hitchcock, in America.[31] But, viewing it simply in its relation to the
Theistic argument, we conceive that the adverse presumption which it may
possibly generate in some minds against the evidence of Natural
Theology, will be effectually neutralized by establishing the following
positions:

That it is _a mere hypothesis_, and one which, from the very nature of
the case, is incapable of being proved by such evidence as is necessary
to establish _a matter of fact_.

That the progress of scientific discovery, so far from tending to
verify and confirm, has served rather to disprove and invalidate the
fundamental assumption on which it rests.

That even were it admitted, either as a possible, or probable, or
certain explanation of the origin of the present planetary systems, it
would not necessarily destroy the evidence of Theology, nor establish on
its ruins the cause of Atheism.

Each of these positions may be conclusively established, and the three
combined constitute a complete answer to the theory of Development, in
so far as it has been applied in the support or defence of Atheism.

1. That it is a mere hypothesis or conjecture, designed, not to
establish the _historical fact_, but to explain merely the _dynamical
possibility_ of the production of the planetary bodies by the operation
of known natural laws, must be admitted, I think, even by its most
enthusiastic admirers. It might have seemed, indeed, to have something
like a basis of fact to rest upon, had the conception of the elder
Herschell been verified, when he announced the existence of a nebulous
fluid, capable of being distinguished, by certain well-defined marks,
from unresolved clusters of stars; but even then it presupposed so many
postulates, which could in no way be established by experimental or
historical evidence, that it could scarcely be regarded in any other
light than as an ingenious speculation or a splendid conjecture. For,
let it be considered, first of all, that the theory proceeds on the
assumption of the existence and wide diffusion of a nebulous fluid of
whose reality there is no actual proof; secondly, that it necessarily
requires, also, the supposed existence of certain favorable conditions;
and, thirdly, the operation of certain invariable laws; and it will be
manifest at once that it is purely hypothetical throughout, and that it
includes a variety of topics which never have been, and never can be
made the subjects of experimental verification. For it postulates, in
the words of an acute writer, "the establishment of nuclei in the body
of the elemental mass, as well as the action of heat on its substance,
and then seeks to explain the concentration of the nebulous particles
into these nuclei by the force of gravitation, the rotation of the
bodies so produced by the confluence of the nebulous fluid, the
separation of a portion of the outer surface of these revolving masses
in the form of rings, the disruption of these rings, and the subsequent
recomposition of their fragments into separate spheres, answering to the
planets and satellites of our system."[32] But even were the existence
of a nebulous fluid admitted, we have no access to know what was its
internal structure; we cannot determine whether it was uniform and
homogeneous throughout, or whether it contained nuclei which might
become centres of aggregation; we have no means of estimating the
intensity of the heat which belonged to it, or of calculating the
process by which it was dispersed, so as to occasion the condensation of
successive portions of the mass. No eye ever saw the separation of any
part of it in the form of a ring, or the disruption of that ring, or the
subsequent recomposition of its fragments into a solid sphere. And even
had all this been matter, not of mere conjecture, but of actual
observation, it would still have left much to be explained which can
only be accounted for by ascribing it to a designing Intelligent Cause.

2. The progress of scientific discovery, so far from tending to verify,
has served rather to invalidate the fundamental assumption on which the
whole theory depends. That assumption was the existence of a Nebulous
Fluid or Fire-Mist, capable of being distinguished, by certain
characteristic marks, from unresolved nebulae or clusters of stars. The
existence of any such fluid has become more and more doubtful, in
proportion as astronomers have been enabled, with the aid of larger and
better constructed telescopes, to resolve several nebulae which had
previously defied the power of less perfect instruments. We do not
affirm that every cluster has been already resolved, nor is it necessary
for the purposes of our argument to suppose that, at any future time,
this stupendous achievement is likely to be effected; for it is a very
obvious consideration, that just in proportion as our telescopic powers
are enlarged so as to enable us to resolve many of the nearer nebulae,
they must also bring within the range of our extended vision _others_
more remote and hitherto unperceived, which may continue to exhibit the
same cloud-like appearance as the former, until, by a new improvement of
the telescope, we may succeed in separating them into distinct stars;
and even then the march of discovery is not ended,--we may reasonably
expect that with every fresh increase of telescopic vision, new clusters
will be brought into view, and new clouds appear in the utmost verge of
the horizon. But, unquestionably, the progress which has already been
made in this direction affords a strong presumption in favor of the
idea, that the apparent nebulosity of those masses which still appear,
even to our best telescopes, as cloud-like vapors, is to be ascribed
rather to the imperfection of our instruments than to any difference
between them and such as have been already resolved. Sir John Herschell,
a high authority in such a case, tells us that "we have every reason to
believe, at least in the generality of cases, that a nebula is nothing
more than a cluster of stars."[33] Sir David Brewster is equally
explicit: "It was certainly a rash generalization to maintain that
nebulae differed essentially from clusters of stars, because existing
telescopes could not resolve them. The very first application of Lord
Rosse's telescopes to the heavens overturned the hypothesis; and with
such unequivocal facts as that instrument has brought to light, we
regard it as a most unwarrantable assumption to suppose that there are
in the heavenly spaces any masses of matter different from solid bodies,
composing planetary systems."[34] And Professor Nichol, while he
gracefully acknowledges that he has "somewhat altered the views which he
formerly gave to the public, as the highest then known and generally
entertained, regarding the structure of the heavens," states, as the
result of more mature reflection, that "the supposed distribution of a
self-luminous fluid, in separate patches, through the heavens, has,
beyond all doubt, been proved fallacious by that most remarkable of
telescopic achievements,--the resolution of the great nebula in Orion
into a superb cluster of stars; and that this discovery necessitates
important changes in previous speculations on Cosmogony."[35]

In short, Lord Rosse's observations at Parsonstown have conclusively
proved that what appeared to be a nebula was in reality a cluster of
stars; and while they still leave many nebulae unresolved, they afford a
strong warrant for believing that discoveries in the same direction
might be indefinitely extended in proportion to the increase of
telescopic power.

3. But even were the Nebular Hypothesis admitted, and were the Theory of
Development by Natural Laws conceived to afford a satisfactory
explanation of the origin of the planetary systems, it would not follow,
as a necessary consequence, that the peculiar evidence of Theism--that
on which it mainly depends, and to which it makes its most confident
appeal--would be thereby destroyed, or even diminished. The only
legitimate result of such a doctrine would seem to be, that we must
distinguish aright between a work of _Mediate_, and a work of
_Immediate_ Creation. In the Bible each of these is distinctly
recognized. We have a specimen of the one in the creation of the first
man by the direct agency of Divine power; we have a specimen of the
other in the creation, less direct but equally real, of all his natural
posterity, through the medium of ordinary generation. Men do not cease
to be the _creatures_ of God because they are born of their parents, in
virtue of that creative word, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth;" and hence children are admonished "to remember _their
Creator_ in the days of their youth."[36] The work of creation is
equally real and equally Divine, whether it be effected _mediately_ or
_immediately_, with or without the intervention of means, by the direct
and instantaneous exertion of Almighty power, or by the gradual and
successive operation of second causes acting according to established
laws. In the ordinary course of Providence, the method of mediate
production, gradual growth, and progressive development, may be observed
in innumerable instances; but it can never be justly held to exclude, or
even to obscure, the evidence of a presiding Intelligence and a
supernatural Power. On the contrary, it may serve rather to enhance that
evidence; since the very arrangements and provisions which have been
made with a view to the reproduction of every thing after its kind, may
bear on them the legible impress of a designing Mind and an ordaining
Will. Thus, year by year continually, the whole inhabitants of the world
are supported by the fruits of harvest, which are produced and matured
under the action of natural laws; yet every intelligent Theist ascribes
the result ultimately to the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, and
sees in the very processes by which it is brought to pass some of the
most signal proofs of these Divine perfections.

Now, as this method is followed in the work of Providence, which may be,
and often has been, described as a _continuous creation,_ and yet has no
tendency to destroy, or even to diminish, the evidence of a presiding
Intelligence in Nature, so no good reason can be assigned why it _might_
not also have been adopted in the production of planets and astral
systems, if so it had seemed good to Supreme Wisdom. If this method was
adopted for the propagation of plants and animals, no reason can be
given why it might not also have been adopted for the production of
planets and moons; nor would it in the latter case, any more than in the
former, impair the evidence of God's creative wisdom and power. For,
suppose it be possible that, by a marvellous process of self-evolution,
the material elements of Nature might assume new forms, so as to
originate a succession of new worlds and new planetary systems, without
the _immediate_ or _direct_ interposition of a Supernatural Will;
suppose that the earth and the other bodies now belonging to our own
system, were generated out of a prior condition of matter, existing in a
gasiform state and diffused through space as a Fire-Mist, subject to the
ordinary action of heat and gravitation; suppose, in short, that there
were LAWS FOR THE GENERATION OF WORLDS in the larger cycles of time,
just as there ARE LAWS FOR THE GENERATION OF ANIMALS in the short ages
of terrestrial life;--would a provision for such a succession of
marvellous developments necessarily destroy, or even impair, the
evidence for the being and perfections of God? Does the generation of
the animated tribes diminish the evidence of design in the actual
constitution of the world? And why should a similar provision, if any
such were found to exist, for the generation of stars and systems, be
regarded in any other light than as an exhibition, on a still larger
scale, of "the manifold wisdom of God?"

Let it ever be remembered that the Theistic argument depends, not on
_the mode of production_, but on _the character of the resulting
product_. The world may have been produced mediately or immediately,
with or without the operation of natural laws; but if it exhibit such an
arrangement of parts, such an adaptation of means to ends, or such a
combination of collocations and adjustments, as enables us at once to
discern the distinctive marks of intelligent design, the evidence cannot
be diminished, it may even be possibly enhanced, by the method of
production. Provision is made, doubtless, for the growth and development
of the eye, the ear, and the hand, in the human foetus, and the
process by which they are gradually formed is regulated by natural laws.
But the resulting products are so exquisitely constructed, so admirably
adapted to the elements of nature, and so evidently designed for the
uses of life, that they irresistibly suggest the idea of wise and
benevolent contrivances; and this idea is as strong and clear as it
could have been had they been produced instantaneously by the _direct_
act of creative power. And so of the planets and astral systems: they
may have been generated, that is, produced, in a way of natural
development; yet the resulting products are such as to evince the
supreme wisdom and beneficence which presided over their formation. But
even this is not all. Let us suppose, further, that Philosophy may yet
reach its extreme, and, as we humbly conceive, unattainable limit; let
us suppose that it may succeed in decomposing all the chemical elements
now known, by resolving them into ONE primary basis; let us even suppose
that it may succeed in reducing all the subordinate laws of Nature into
ONE supreme and universal law; still the development of such a system as
we see around us out of such materials, and by such means, would not be
necessarily exclusive of the idea of God, but might afford evidence of a
Supreme Mind, creating, combining, and controlling all things for the
manifestation of His adorable perfections.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33