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

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We have thus seen that the Theory of Cosmical Development is a mere
hypothesis, incapable of experimental or historical proof; that the
recent progress of scientific discovery has tended to disprove the
fundamental assumption on which it rests; and that, even were it
admitted as a possible, or, still more, as a plausible explanation of
the origin of planets and astral systems, it would not serve to destroy,
and scarcely, if at all, to diminish the evidence of Theism.

The last of these positions, if well established, might seem to
supersede the necessity of discussing the hypothesis at all in
connection with our present theme. But such a discussion of it as has
been offered may be useful to those--and they are not a few--who,
superficially acquainted with Science in its more popular form, are
exposed to the danger of being seduced by the authority of a few
distinguished names which have unfortunately become identified with the
cause of Atheism. For, while the author of "The Vestiges" repudiates the
atheistic conclusions which some have deduced from his hypothesis, M.
COMTE boldly avows his creed in the following revolting terms: "To minds
unacquainted with the study of the heavenly bodies, Astronomy has still
the reputation of being a science eminently religious, as if the famous
verse, 'Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei' ('The heavens declare the glory OF
GOD'), had preserved all its force." And, he adds, in a note, "At
present, to minds that have been early familiarized with the true
astronomical philosophy, the heavens declare _no other glory_ than that
of Hipparchus, Kepler, Newton, and all those who have contributed to the
establishment of their laws!" The _reader_ of these laws may become
illustrious, but the Maker of them must be utterly ignored!

SECTION II.

THEORY OF _PHYSIOLOGICAL_ DEVELOPMENT; OR THE PRODUCTION OF VEGETABLE
AND ANIMAL RACES BY NATURAL LAW.--"TELLIAMED."--PHYSIO-PHILOSOPHY.

The Theory of Development has been applied not only to explain the
origin of worlds and of astral systems in the sky, but also to account
for the origin of the various tribes of vegetable and animal life which
exist on the earth itself. There is nothing, indeed, in any of the
kingdoms of Nature that may not be included in it, since the formation
of all material bodies, organic or inorganic, is supposed to be
sufficiently accounted for by the sole action of Chemical or Mechanical
laws. The wide range of this theory is strikingly illustrated by the
words of one whose powers of observation have added some interesting
discoveries to Natural History, but whose speculations on the origin of
Nature resemble the distempered ravings of lunacy, rather than the
mature results of philosophic thought "Physio-philosophy has to show,"
says Dr. Oken, "how, and in accordance indeed with what laws, the
Material took its origin, and, therefore, how something took its
existence from nothing. It has to portray the first periods of _the
world's development from nothing_; how the elements and heavenly bodies
originated; in what method, _by self-evolution_ into higher and manifold
forms, they separated into minerals, became finally organic, and, in
man, attained self-consciousness.... Physio-philosophy is, therefore,
_the generative history of the world_; or, in general terms, the history
of Creation, a name under which it was taught by the most ancient
philosophers, namely, as Cosmogony. From its embracing the Universe, it
is plainly the Genesis of Moses!"[37]

It will be observed that this strange speculation goes far beyond the
comparatively modest conjecture of La Place. It postulates _nothing_,
and undertakes to account for _everything_. In flagrant opposition to
the old atheistic maxim, "Ex nihilo, nihil," it boldly affirms, "Ex
nihilo, omnia." It speaks, indeed, of "laws in accordance with which the
world took its origin;" but these laws must be as abstract as those of
Mathematics, since they existed before matter itself; nay, more
abstract, or, rather, more inconceivable still, since they existed, it
would seem, even before Mind! Dr. Oken attempts to explain the
production of the world from nothing by comparing it to the evolution of
Arithmetical and Mathematical Science, out of the fundamental conception
of _zero_! But, waiving this, we shall direct our attention to the only
points in this theory which, in the existing state of speculative
thought, can be held to have any practical interest in connection with
our great theme.

That theory attempts to account for the production both of the FLORA and
the FAUNA of the natural world by _the process of Development_ rather
than by _the miracle of Creation_. It proceeds on the assumption, akin
to that of Epicurus, that atoms or monads alone existed in the first
instance; and that from these were derived, under the action of natural
law and by a process of gradual development, all existing substances and
beings, whether organic or inorganic, mineral, vegetable, or animal. "No
organism has been created," says Dr. Oken, "of larger size than an
infusorial point. No organism is, nor ever has one been created, which
is not microscopic. Whatever is larger has not been created, but
developed. Man has not been created, but developed." On this fundamental
assumption the whole theory is based. But we must carefully distinguish
between the Atomic Theory and the application which is here made of it.
The recent discoveries of Chemistry, by which all material compounds
have been decomposed into their constituent elements, amounting to
little more than fifty substances, which are either the primary or the
proximate bases of all existing bodies, and the marvellous
transformations which these elementary principles undergo, in respect
alike of form, of density, of solidity, and of magnitude, under the
action of natural laws,--may serve to make it credible that there is no
_a priori_ impossibility in the assumption on which the Atomic Theory
depends. Had it been the will of God to call into being the various
vegetable and animal races in the way of gradual evolution out of these
primary monads, no enlightened Theist will presume to say that it was
either impossible, or inconsistent with His wisdom to do so. It must be
observed, however, that the natural analogies which have sometimes been
appealed to in support of this hypothesis, labor under a grievous defect
when they are applied to account for the origin of the existing races,
and that they are extended far beyond their legitimate limits when they
are supposed to prove that these races might begin to be without any
direct interposition of creative power. For, while the oak may spring
from an acorn, and the largest animal from a microscopic monad, yet
within the whole range of our experience both in the vegetable and
animal kingdoms, _the seed is produced by the organism_, and necessarily
presupposes it; whence it follows, either that there must have been an
eternal succession of organisms producing seed, and thereby perpetuating
the race, or if this be inconceivable, still more if it can be disproved
by geological or historical evidence, then that the analogy of our
present experience leads us up, not to "an infusorial point" or
"microscopic monad," but to a primary living organism as the
commencement of each existing tribe. In the words of Dr. Barclay, "It
will not be easy, on any principles exclusive of the vital, to answer
these questions, What was the origin of the first egg, or what was the
origin of the first bird? For where is the egg that comes not from a
bird, and where is the bird that comes not from an egg? To the mere
materialists, who exclude every species of vitality but that from
organism, this problem is nearly as embarrassing as the origin of the
Universe itself."[38]

If these views be correct, all the natural analogies would lead us to
acquiesce, as Dr. Barclay did, in the Mosaic narrative as the most
philosophical account of the commencement of the present order of
things. It traces up every race to a primary organism, endowed with
reproductive powers; for it tells us, in regard to the FLORA, that God
said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, _the herb yielding seed_, and
the fruit-tree yielding fruit _after his kind_, whose _seed is in
itself_, upon the earth; and it was so." And it tells us, with regard to
the FAUNA, that God said, "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the
moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in
the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every
living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly,
_after their kind_, and every winged fowl _after his kind_. And God
blessed them, saying, _Be fruitful, and multiply_, and fill the waters
in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth."

Here the distinction between different genera and species, and the
provision that was made for the perpetuation of different races, are
prominently presented; while the production, in the first instance, not
of an "infusorial point" or "microscopic monad," but of a living
organism capable of multiplying its kind, is expressly declared; and
every race is traced up to that primary organism, in perfect consistency
with the only law, whether of vegetable or animal reproduction, which is
known to be in operation at the present day. And _this_ law of
reproduction, so far from being exclusive of a primary act of Creation,
seems to presuppose and require it; for there must be a living organism
before there can be vital transmission. But the theory of Physiological
Development proceeds on a totally different supposition,--a supposition
for the truth of which we have not only no historical evidence, but not
even the slightest _analogical presumption_, since we have no instance
of development anywhere except from a germ or seed, produced by an
organism preexisting in a state of maturity.

But the exigencies of that theory demand a wide departure from all the
familiar lessons of experience; and hence recourse has been had to a
series of the wildest and most extravagant conjectures, such as may well
justify the opinion of those who have held that the creed of certain
philosophers makes a much larger demand on human credulity than that of
almost any section of the Christian Church. For, according to that
theory, the origin of the FLORA is first accounted for by the action of
some element--probably electricity--on a certain _mucus_, which is
supposed to be generated at those points where the ocean comes into
contact with the earth and air; that is, on the shore of the sea at low
water mark. MAILLET had broached the idea of the marine origin of all
our present "herbs, plants, roots, and grains,"[39] at a period when the
Universal Ocean, of which Leibnitz said so much, was still the creed of
some speculative minds; but it has been more recently revived, and
exhibited in greater detail, though not with stronger evidence, by some
writers of our own age. Thus Dr. Oken tells us that "all life is from
the sea;" that "when the sea organism, by self-elevation, succeeds in
attaining into form, there issues forth from it a higher organism;" and
that "the first organic forms, whether plants or animals, emerged from
the shallow parts of the sea." And so the author of "The Vestiges"
attempts to show that new races, both of plants and animals, marine and
terrestrial, may be accounted for, without any act of immediate
creation, by a change or transmutation of species resulting from the
agency of natural causes. "There is," as he tells us, "another set of
phenomena presented in the course of our history; the coming into
existence, namely, of a long suite of living things, vegetable and
animal, terminating in the families which we still see occupying the
surface. The question arises,--In what manner has this set of phenomena
originated? Can we touch at, and rest for a moment on, the possibility
of plants and animals having likewise been produced in the way of
Natural Law, thus assigning but one class of causes for everything
revealed to our sensual observation? Or are we at once to reject this
idea, and remain content either to suppose that creative power here
acted in a different way, or to believe, unexaminingly, that the inquiry
is one beyond our powers?"[40] In reply to these questions, he proceeds
to show that "there is a balance of probability from actual evidence in
favor of _an organic creation by law_," and that "in tracing the actual
history of organic beings upon the earth," as revealed by Geology, we
find that "these came not at once, as they might have been expected to
do if produced by some special act, or even some special interposition
of will, on the part of the Deity; they came in a long-continued
succession, in the order, as we shall afterwards see more convincingly,
of progressive organization, grade following grade, till, from an humble
starting-point in both kingdoms, the highest forms were realized." Such
is his general principle; and, without entering into the details, we may
sum up his general argument by saying, in the words of another,[41]
that, according to his theory, "dulse and hen-ware became, through a
very wonderful metamorphosis, cabbage and spinach; that kelp-weed and
tangle bourgeoned into oaks and willows; and that slack, rope-weed, and
green-raw, shot up into mangel-wurzel, rye-grass, and clover." So much
for the FLORA; and now for the _Fauna_, and the transition from the one
to the other. His views are thus exhibited by Sir David Brewster: "The
electric spark, escaping from the wild elements around it, struck life
into an elementary and reproductive germ, and sea-plants, the food of
animals, first decked the rude pavement of the ocean. The lichen and the
moss reared their tiny fronds on the first rocks that emerged from the
deep; land-plants, evolving the various forms of fruit and flower, next
arose,--the Upas and the bread-fruit tree, the gnarled oak and the lofty
cedar. Animal life appeared when the granary of nature was ready with
its supplies. A globule, having a new globule forming within itself,
which is the fundamental form of organic being, may be produced in
albumen by electricity; and as such globules may be identical with
living and reproductive cells, we have the earliest germ of organic
life, the first cause of all the species of animated nature which people
the earth, the ocean, and the air. Born of electricity and albumen, the
simple monad is the first living atom; the microscopic animalcules, the
snail, the worm, the reptile, the fish, the bird, and the quadruped, all
spring from its invisible loins. The human similitude at last appears in
the character of the monkey; the monkey rises into the baboon, the
baboon is exalted to the ourang-outang, and the chimpanzee, with a more
human toe and shorter arms, gives birth to man."[42]

The remarks which were offered, in the previous section, on Cosmical
Development, are equally applicable, _mutatis mutandis_, to this other
form of the doctrine of Creation by Natural Law. It might be shown, with
reference to the supposed generation of plants and animals, just as it
was then shown with reference to the generation of planets and astral
systems, first, that the theory rests upon a mere hypothesis, which is
utterly unsupported by experimental evidence; secondly, that the
progress of science has hitherto afforded no ground to believe that the
transmutation of species is provided for under the established
constitution of nature; and, thirdly, that even were the theory
admitted, it would not destroy the evidence of Theism, any more than the
propagation of plants and animals under the existing system, which, so
far from excluding or impairing, serves rather to enhance and illustrate
the proof of creative wisdom and power. In support of this last
position, we might adduce the testimony of the author of "The Vestiges"
himself; for, referring to the idea that "to presume a creation of
living beings by the intervention of law" is equivalent to "superseding
the whole doctrine of the Divine authorship of organic nature," he takes
occasion to say, "Were this true, it would form a most important
objection to the Law theory; but I think it is not only not true, but
the reverse of the truth. As formerly stated, the whole idea of law
relates only to the mode in which the Deity is pleased to manifest His
power in the natural world. It leaves the absolute fact of His
authorship of and supremacy over Nature precisely where it was." He
adds, in the words of Dr. Buckland, "Such an aboriginal constitution, so
far from superseding an Intelligent Agent, would only exalt our
conceptions of the consummate skill and power that could comprehend such
an infinity of future uses under future systems, in the original
groundwork of His Creation."[43]

But, without enlarging on those general considerations which were
formerly stated, and which admit of an easy and obvious application to
this _second_ form of the theory, we shall offer a few remarks bearing
directly on its distinctive peculiarities, and directed to the exposure
of its radical defects.

The theory rests on two very precarious foundations: the assumption of
_spontaneous generation_, on the one hand, and the assumption of a
_transmutation of species_ on the other. Each of these assumptions is
necessarily involved in any attempt to account for the origin of the
vegetable and animal races by natural law, without direct Divine
interposition. For if, after the first organism was brought into being,
the production of every subsequent type may be accounted for simply by a
transmutation of species, yet the production of the original organism
itself, or the first commencement of life in any form, must necessarily
be ascribed either to a creative act or to spontaneous generation. A new
product is supposed to have come into being, differing from any that
ever existed before it, in the possession of vital and reproductive
powers; and this product can only be ascribed, if Creation be denied, to
the spontaneous action of some element, such as Electricity, on mucus or
albumen. In this sense the doctrine of spontaneous generation seems to
be necessarily involved in the first step of the process of Development,
and is, indeed, indispensable, if any account is to be given of the
origin of vegetable and animal life; but in the subsequent steps of the
same process it is superseded by a supposed transmutation of species,
whereby a lower form of life is said to rise into a higher, and an
inferior passes into a more perfect organism.

But we have no experience either of spontaneous generation on the one
hand, or of a transmutation of species on the other. Observation has not
discovered, nor has history recorded, an authentic example of either. In
regard to the _first_, the author of "The Vestiges" anticipates this
objection, and attempts to answer it. The objection is, that "a
transition from the inorganic to the organic, such as we must suppose to
have taken place in the early geological ages, is no ordinary cognizable
fact of the present time upon earth; structure, form, life, _are never
seen_ to be imparted to the insensate elements; the production of the
humblest plant or animalcule, otherwise than as a repetition of some
parental form, is not one of the possibilities of science."[44] Such is
the objection; and how does he attempt to answer it? He endeavors to
show, first, that the work of creation having been _for the most part_
accomplished thousands of years ago, we have no reason to expect that
the origination of life and species should be _conspicuously
exemplified_ in the present day; secondly, that the comparative
infrequency, or even the entire absence, of such phenomena _now_ would
be no valid reason for believing that they have _never_ been exhibited
heretofore, if, on other grounds, the doctrine of 'natural creation' or
'life-creating laws' can be rendered probable; and, thirdly, that even
in our own times there ARE facts which seem to indicate the reality, or
at least the possibility, of "the primitive imparting of life and form
to inorganic elements."[45]

Now, to this elaborate argument in favor of _spontaneous generation,_ or
the production of life by natural law, we answer, in the first place,
that the mere fact of its being adduced in connection with the Theory of
Development affords a conclusive proof that it is indispensable to the
maintenance of that theory, that the hypothesis would be incomplete
without it, and that no account can be given of creation by the mere
doctrine of a _transmutation of species_. It is the more necessary to
make this remark, because not a few who embrace the latter doctrine
affect to disown the former, and seek to keep it out of view. But the
one is as necessary as the other to a complete theory of Natural
Development. The author of "The Vestiges" felt this, and virtually
acknowledges it when he undertakes the task of vindicating the
credibility of spontaneous generation. But we answer, in the second
place, that the method in which he performs his self-imposed task is
singularly curious, and not a little instructive. He had, it must be
owned, a difficult game to play. The general theory of "The Vestiges"
is founded on the fact that, in the ordinary course of Nature, the races
of plants and animals are perpetuated by propagation, according to
established Natural Laws,--a fact which might seem to afford a strong
analogical argument in favor of the supposition that the same order of
Nature is maintained also in the few apparently exceptional cases in
which, from our defective knowledge, we are unable to trace the
connection between the parent and the product. And yet the author
evinces no little anxiety to make out a case in favor of "a
non-generative origin of life even at the present day;" and he appeals
to a class of facts, confessedly obscure, which have not been, as he
thinks, satisfactorily accounted for by the law which usually regulates
the production of organic beings. He refers us to the speculations of
Dr. Allen Thomson on the primitive production of Infusoria,[46] to the
facts which modern science, aided by the microscope, has discovered
respecting the Entozoa, or the creatures which live within the bodies of
others, and, above all, to the experiments of Mr. Crosse and Mr. Weekes,
which seemed to result in the production of a small species of insect
(_Acarus Crossii_) from the action of a voltaic battery on a saturated
solution of the silicate of potash, or the nitrate of copper, or the
ferrocyanate of potassium. The reason of his anxiety to avail himself of
these cases is evident. The exigencies of his theory demanded a method
of accounting for the primary origin of life different from any that can
be found in the common process of propagation. He saw clearly enough
that his main argument, founded, as it was, on the law of hereditary
transmission, could not account for the production of the first
organism; and that, if he would avoid either the doctrine of _Immediate
Creation_, which is so offensive to him, or the idea of _Eternal
Generation_, which is utterly excluded by the clearest lessons of Fossil
Geology, he must have recourse to the hypothesis of _Spontaneous
Generation_. Hence he attempts to account for the commencement of new
species both of plants and animals, in the course of the world's
history, by a transmutation of species; while, for the origin of the
first species, he has recourse to the same law of Development, but
acting in widely different circumstances, and giving rise to what he
calls "aboriginal generation," whereby the inorganic passes into the
organic, and life, form, and structure, are imparted to hitherto inert
materials by the action of Electricity on mucus or albumen. To
accomplish this twofold purpose, he felt it necessary to insist, in the
first instance, on the ordinary law of generation as the established
order of _mediate_ creation; while he found it equally necessary, in the
second place, to insist on those apparently exceptional cases in which
the connection between the germ and the product has hitherto eluded
philosophical research,--and this for the purpose of showing that the
original production of plants and animals was _not similar_ to the
ordinary method of their propagation in any other respect than this,
that in both cases the result is brought about by Natural Laws, without
the direct interposition of any supernatural cause.

Now, in so far as his argument is founded on the principle of
analogy,--and it is on this principle that it proceeds throughout,--we
submit that it is radically vicious, and utterly inconclusive. For the
vast majority of cases in which the commencement of life and
organization falls under our notice being confessedly those, not of
primary production, but of mediate reproduction, it is reasonable to
believe that the same law governs all cases alike, whether we have been
able or not to trace the origin of life to the principle of propagation,
the few apparent exceptions being sufficiently accounted for by our
imperfect knowledge of the causes and conditions on which they depend.
Besides, the argument from analogy in favor of a primary production of
life by natural causes, in so far as it is founded on the present law
of hereditary transmission, is radically defective, since the two cases
are widely different; the one presupposing _a primary organism of the
same kind_, from which others are evolved by a law of natural
succession, the other exhibiting life as a new product, resulting not
from any prior organism, but from the action of _causes of a totally
different kind_, which are not known to be capable of giving birth
either to vegetable or animal organisms under the actual constitution of
Nature.

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