The Natural History of AtheismDaldy, Isbister, 1877 - 247 pages |
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Page 3
... universe , the word means either that the mighty something , the TÒ Tav , the all , was produced out of nothing , nobody knows how , and goes on producing itself into some- thing , nobody knows how ; or that it has existed for ever ...
... universe , the word means either that the mighty something , the TÒ Tav , the all , was produced out of nothing , nobody knows how , and goes on producing itself into some- thing , nobody knows how ; or that it has existed for ever ...
Page 16
... universe . Of these two types of popular faith the first is certainly the more important , affecting as it does directly the conduct of human life , and the position of personal subordination and responsibility , which all faith in a ...
... universe . Of these two types of popular faith the first is certainly the more important , affecting as it does directly the conduct of human life , and the position of personal subordination and responsibility , which all faith in a ...
Page 20
... universe . To call Night the mother of Day , if anything like causal connection be implied , is just as absurd as to say that emptiness is the mother of fulness . When I pour water into an empty tumbler , no doubt the tumbler was empty ...
... universe . To call Night the mother of Day , if anything like causal connection be implied , is just as absurd as to say that emptiness is the mother of fulness . When I pour water into an empty tumbler , no doubt the tumbler was empty ...
Page 25
... themselves com- placently in their own real or imagined perfections , which are very far from exhausting the sum - total of plastic forces in the universe . CHAPTER II . REASONABLE GROUND OF THEISM . Εστι δἡ PRESUMPTIONS . 25.
... themselves com- placently in their own real or imagined perfections , which are very far from exhausting the sum - total of plastic forces in the universe . CHAPTER II . REASONABLE GROUND OF THEISM . Εστι δἡ PRESUMPTIONS . 25.
Page 29
... pleading , and therefore must be more seriously looked at . The pious theist founds his faith on the wonderful order and beauty , and the exceeding cunning displayed in the architecture of the universe . The REASONABLE GROUND OF THEISM .
... pleading , and therefore must be more seriously looked at . The pious theist founds his faith on the wonderful order and beauty , and the exceeding cunning displayed in the architecture of the universe . The REASONABLE GROUND OF THEISM .
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Common terms and phrases
absurdity according action altogether ancient atheism beauty become believe body Buddha Buddhist called cause certain certainly chapter character Christian Church common condition contrary course creature deny desire Divine doctrine doubt earth effect element eternal evil existence extreme eyes fact faith father feeling forces give gods Greek hand head heaven human idea imagine intellectual kind knowledge least less living look matter means mere mind moral nature necessary never notion object observed original perfect persons philosophical physical piety pleasure popular possible practical present prince principle produced race reasonable regard religion religious reverence Roman seems sense shape simply sort speculation spirit strong talk theology things thinking thought tion true truth universe virtue whole wise worship
Popular passages
Page 85 - Towards the crescent moon, with grateful heart Called on the lovely wanderer who bestowed That timely light, to share his joyous sport : And hence, a beaming goddess with her nymphs, Across the lawn and through the darksome grove (Not unaccompanied with tuneful notes By echo multiplied from rock or cave) Swept in the storm of chase, as moon and stars Glance rapidly along the clouded heaven, When winds are blowing strong.
Page 85 - When winds are blowing strong. The traveller . slaked His thirst from rill or gushing fount, and thanked The Naiad. Sunbeams, upon distant hills Gliding apace, with shadows in their train, Might, with small help from fancy, be transformed Into fleet Oreads sporting visibly. The Zephyrs fanning, as they passed, their wings, Lacked not, for love, fair objects whom they wooed With gentle whisper. Withered boughs grotesque, Stripped of their leaves and twigs by hoary age, From depth of shaggy covert...
Page 85 - In that fair Clime, the lonely Herdsman, stretched On the soft grass through half a summer's day, With music lulled his indolent repose : And, in some fit of weariness, if he, When his own breath was silent, chanced to hear A distant strain, far sweeter than the sounds Which his poor skill could make, his Fancy fetched, Even from the blazing Chariot of the Sun, A beardless Youth, who touched a golden lute, And filled the illumined groves with ravishment.
Page 61 - A Moralist perchance appears; Led, Heaven knows how ! to this poor sod : And he has neither eyes nor ears ; Himself his world, and his own God; One to whose smooth-rubbed soul can cling Nor form, nor feeling, great or small; A reasoning, self-sufficing thing, An intellectual All-in-all...
Page 149 - I now desire to turn the wheel of the excellent law ; For this purpose am I going to that city of Benares, To give light to those enshrouded in darkness, And to open the gate of Immortality to men.
Page 226 - As well might we, resting on the earth, deny that there is any depth beneath, or, living in time, deny eternity. I do not say, therefore, that there is no God : but that it is extravagant and irreverent to imagine that cause a Person. All we know is phenomena : and that the fundamental cause is wholly beyond our conception. In this I do not suspend my judgment : but rather assert plainly that of the motive power or principle of things we know absolutely nothing, and can know nothing...
Page 188 - God ; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Page 14 - Christian missionaries going about doing good are thus probably not so despicable as some might imagine; there is no necessity for beginning to tell even the most degraded of these people of the existence of a God, or of a future state, the facts being universally admitted. Everything that cannot be accounted for by common causes is ascribed to the Deity, as creation, sudden death, itc. ' How curiously God made these things !' is a common expression ; as is also, ' He was not killed by disease, he...
Page 175 - F5 by the Confucians, that they unfit men for the business and duties of life, by fixing their speculations so entirely on another state of existence as to lead some fanatics to hang or drown themselves in order to anticipate futurity ; nay, two persons have been known to commit suicide together with a view to becoming man and wife in the next world.