Chapter 3 Part 1 - 2
The passages in the book of Job are not clear to me, and cannot be properly quoted here: but one passage comes to my mind which is applicable to the subject I am now discussing. "Can you find out God by searching?
Can you fathom the Almighty? "
I don't know how the printer punctuated this verse, for I have no Bible with me; but it contains two different questions, and should have different answers.
First, can you find God by seeking?Yes; for first I know that I did not make myself, yet I live now; and in seeking the nature of other things, I find that none can make itself; yet thousands and thousands exist; I came to a positive conclusion, I know that there is a power above all things, and that power is God.
Second, can you fully understand God?No, not only because the power and wisdom of God that I see in the structure of creation is inconceivable to me, but because that very manifestation, great though it may be, is only his infinite power and wisdom. small portion.This infinite power and wisdom created thousands upon thousands of other worlds which continue to exist today, being too far removed from my sight.
It is evident that both questions are addressed to the reason of the person who is imagined to be interrogated; and the second can only follow up if the first is allowed to be answered positively.If the first question has already been answered in the negative, it will become unnecessary and even absurd to ask a second question which is more difficult than the first question.The objects of these two questions are different: the first speaks of the existence of God, the second of his attributes; reason can discover the one, but is infinitely far from discovering the whole of the other.
Of all that was written by the so-called apostle, I cannot think of a single verse that conveys an idea of what God is.Those works were chiefly polemical; they dealt with a man dying in agony on a cross, a subject more befitting of a cell-dwelling monk of dismal genius (as any breathing the outside air of "creation"), and it is not impossible that those works were written by such monks.The only verse I can think of is something about God's creation, from which we can know God's power and wisdom. This part is said to come from the mouth of Jesus Christ, so as to eliminate the worries that people might not believe it. "Think of the lily of the field, how it grows; it neither toils nor spins."This one, though, is far inferior to the hints in Job and in the nineteenth Psalm; but it is similar in concept; and the imaginative humility corresponds to that of the man.
Regarding the belief system of Christianity, it seems to me that it is a kind of atheism-a kind of religious denial of God.What it preaches is to believe in a person and not in God.It is a mixture, mainly Manna, with a little deism.So it is as close to atheism as dim light is to darkness.It introduces between man and his Creator an opaque body called the Savior, just as the moon introduces her opaque self between the earth and the sun, and in this way produces a religious or secular Dim light.It throws a shadow over the whole luminous body of reason.
The effect of this shady operation has confused everything and made them appear in opposite postures; and out of the revolutions which it so magically produced, there have also been revolutions in theology.
What is now called natural philosophy includes the entire scope of science, of which astronomy occupies the main position. Natural philosophy is the study of the things created by God, and the power and wisdom of God in the things he created, and this is the real theology.
As for theology, which is now being studied instead of natural philosophy, it is only the study of human opinions and fantasies about God.This is not to study God himself from what God has made, but from what man has made or written; and the Christian system has not done little harm to the world, and it has abandoned the original and beautiful. A theological system is like throwing a beautiful innocent person into pain and shame, leaving room for a superstitious monster.
The Book of Job and the Nineteenth Psalm, even the Church admits that they are more
The historical procedures occupied in them are even earlier, they are theological speeches, which conform to the original theological system.The internal evidence of those speeches proves that the study and reflection upon the things of God's creation, and the power and wisdom of God manifested in them, formed a great part of the religious fervor at the time these documents were written; The research and reflections of human beings lead to the discovery of the basic principles we now call science; and because of the discovery of these principles, almost all technologies that are helpful to the convenience of human life have been established.Every major technique has grown out of some scientific matrix, though a man who does it mechanically cannot often, but only rarely, see the relation.
The Christian system is deceptive in calling science a human invention; only the applications of science belong to man.Every science has as its basis a set of principles which are as fixed as those which regulate and govern the universe.Man cannot create principles, he can only discover principles.
For example, everyone who reads an almanac can see when there will be solar and lunar eclipses recorded on it, and he also knows that the solar and lunar eclipses must act according to the records and there is no mistake.This shows that people are already familiar with the law of celestial body motion.But any church on earth who says those laws are the invention and creation of man is doing worse than ignorance.If the scientific principle that helps man to calculate and know in advance when there will be solar and lunar eclipses is a human invention, it is ignorance or worse than ignorance.Man cannot invent anything permanent and unchanging; but the principles of science which he employs to this end must be as permanent and unchanging as the laws of motion of the heavenly bodies, or else they could not be used to determine When and how a solar or lunar eclipse occurs.
The scientific principles that people use to predict a solar or lunar eclipse or to predict any piece of science about the movement of celestial bodies are mainly contained in a part of science, which is called trigonometry, or the science about the nature of triangles.When this science is applied to the study of celestial bodies, it is called astronomy; when it is used to guide the course of ships on the ocean, it is called navigation; When it is used to measure a part of land, it is called architecture; when it is used to measure a part of the land area, it is called land surveying.In a word, it is the soul of science; it is an eternal truth; it contains what one would call a mathematical proof, although the extent of its use is unknown.
Some would say that since man can make or draw a triangle, the triangle is a man's invention.
But the drawn triangle is only an image of a principle; it is the reflection of a principle acting first on the eye, and from the eye to the brain, which would otherwise be invisible.
That triangle does not create principles any more than a candle brought into a dark room creates chairs and tables that were not seen before.All the properties of a triangle exist independently without relying on graphics, and they already exist before people draw or think of any triangle.Man is as powerless in forming those properties and principles as he is in forming the laws of the motions of the heavenly bodies; therefore both must have the same divine origin.
Just as someone would say that a person can make a triangle, some people would say that he can make a mechanical tool called a lever; but the principle of leverage and the tool are not the same thing. If the tool does not exist, the principle can still exist: the principle is in the tool. It is only combined after it is made.Therefore the instrument cannot act in another way, nor can man, with his best inventive efforts, make it act in another way—in all such cases, the effect man speaks of is not otherwise. Only the principle itself becomes visible to the sense organs.
Since man cannot make principles, where does he get knowledge of them, so that he can apply them not only to things on the earth, but also to determine the motion of all celestial bodies so infinitely far away from him?Where, I asked, could he get that knowledge but from genuine theological studies?
It is the structure of the universe that has taught this kind of knowledge to humans.That structure is the eternal exhibition of every principle upon which every part of the mathematical sciences is built.The offspring of this science is mechanics; for mechanics is nothing but the practical application of scientific principles.A man who assembles the parts of a pulverizer uses the same scientific principles as if he were capable of constructing a universe; but he cannot produce that invisible force, that action The force which causes all the parts of the infinite machine of the universe to affect each other, and to act in unison in motion, without any visible contact, is called attraction, attraction, and repulsion, and he Only lowly imitation, the use of teeth and gears in place of that force. —All the parts of man's microcosm must have visible mutual contact: but if he can acquire knowledge of that force and be able to use it in practice, we may say: another book of the Word of God The real Bible has been found.
If man can change the nature of a lever, he can likewise change the nature of a triangle: for a lever (to take the kind of lever called a steelyard) forms a triangle in motion.A line starting when the lever descends (one point of this line is on the fulcrum), a line reached after descending and the chord of an arc drawn by the end of the lever in the air are the three sides of a triangle.The other arm of the lever also draws a triangle; the corresponding sides of the two triangles are calculated scientifically or measured geometrically: the sine, tangent, and secant made from those angles are likewise measured geometrically: In the same proportion to each other as the different weights balancing each other on the pole, if we leave out the weight of the lever itself.
It can also be said that a man can make a wheel and an axle, and he can fit wheels of different sizes together to make a mill.Such cases still go back to the original point, that is, he did not create the principle that makes those wheels generate power.This principle is as immutable as that in the previous instance, or it may be said to be the same principle in different forms to the eye.
The forces acting on each other of two wheels of different sizes are in the same proportion as a lever, if we connect the radii of these two wheels together to form a lever of the kind I have just described, suspended between two The connecting part of the radius; for those two wheels are scientifically studied as nothing but two circles made by the motion of the restoring rod.
All our scientific knowledge is derived from the study of true theology, and all technology is derived from that scientific knowledge.
The almighty Lecturer unfolds the principles of science in the fabric of the universe.With this he calls people to study and imitate.As if he had spoken to the inhabitants of our earth (as we call it), "I have made an earth inhabited, and I have made visible the celestial orbs, so that Teach people science and technology. He can now provide for himself in comfort, and learn from my generosity in everything, and be kind to one another."
A man's eyes, endowed with the gift of the ability to see at infinite distances, point to God in space. - translator
What is the use of this power, if he cannot draw some lessons from the vast and boundless worlds that swirl in the sea of the universe?Or what is the use of people being able to see this vast and myriad worlds?People can see Taurus, Orion, Sirius and the so-called North Star, and some planets in motion, which are called Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, etc. If they are only visible, it is of no use. What does man matter?If the infinite eyesight that man has now is only wasted on a vast and boundless desert of the sky where the stars are shining like in the past, it would be better to have less eyesight, and that would be enough.
Only when man considers the orbs which he calls the stars the books and the school of science, can he discover what is the use of being able to see them, or what benefit can he derive from his infinite sight?But when he thought of the subject as such, he felt that it would be useless to say that "nothing was ever made"
There is another motive in this remark; for this visible power, too, would be rendered useless, if it were of no instruction to man.
As much as the Christian belief system has produced a theological revolution, it has produced an intellectual revolution as well.What is now called knowledge is not primitive knowledge.Knowledge does not limit it to the knowledge of language, as the schools do now, but to the knowledge of the things that language names. The Greeks were a learned people, but they learned to speak Greek, as the Romans spoke Latin, and the French People who speak French or English people who speak English do not need to learn more.From what we know of the Greeks, it is impossible to discern them except in their own language.No other language is known or studied, and that is one of the reasons why they are so learned; for it gives them more time for better research.The Greek school was a school of science and philosophy, not of languages; and learning consists in the knowledge of things which science and philosophy teach.Almost all existing scientific knowledge has been passed down to us from the Greeks or people who spoke Greek. —Therefore, it is necessary for the people of other countries with different languages to have some of them learn Greek, in order to translate Greek science and philosophy books into the national languages of each country, so that people in those countries can understand the learning of the Greeks .
So the study of Greek (and Latin as well) is nothing but the drudgery of a linguist; and the language thus acquired is nothing but a means, or instrument, by which all the learning of the Greeks is acquired, which is not a part of the learning itself. ; and it is so distinct from learning that it is quite possible that there are persons who are sufficiently studied in Greek to be able to translate such works as Euclid's Principia, but who are not at all as to the content of those works. do not understand.
Nothing new can now be learned from those dead languages, all useful books have been translated, those languages have become useless, and it is a waste of time to teach and learn them.The study of so-called language can help the progress and communication of knowledge (because it has nothing to do with the creation of knowledge), and new knowledge can only be obtained from living language; Learn more than you can learn from a dead language in seven years; and teachers who know much themselves are few.The difficulty with learning dead languages is not that the languages themselves are particularly esoteric, but that they are dead and their sounds have been lost entirely.
This is true of any language when it becomes dead.The best Greek scholars of the present day do not know Greek as well as a Greek farmer or a Greek milkmaid of old: in Latin, as compared with a farmer or milkmaid among the Romans; so It is to the advantage of learning to abolish the study of dead languages and to devote, as at first, to the study of scientific knowledge.
The continuation of the teaching of dead languages is sometimes justified by saying that they are taught at a certain period because a child at that period has no other use of the mind than memorization; but that is quite false.The human mind has a natural inclination towards scientific knowledge and things related to scientific knowledge.A child's first pastime, even before it begins to play, is to imitate the work of adults.He built a house of cards or sticks of wood; he made a boat of paper to sail in a bowl of water that was the ocean; How fate is very careful, close to true love.Then he goes to school, his genius is extinguished by the useless study of a dead language, and the philosopher disappears among the linguists.
But the present justification for continuing to teach dead languages is not the original reason for relegating learning to the narrow and humble sphere of linguistics; its reason must therefore be sought elsewhere.In all investigations of this kind, the best evidence that can be brought up is that which is internal in the thing, and external in conjunction with it; and in this case neither was difficult to find.
Leaving aside, then, the blasphemy of the moral justice of God (that is, by speaking of God as causing the innocent to suffer for the guilty, as by immoral and despicable schemes which made him incarnate in human form, to excuse himself for not executing the the so-called punishments imposed by the Christians) and leave them for later consideration; and I say put those things aside for further consideration, and it is certain that the so-called Christian system of belief contains strange stories of creation, strange stories about Eve. The story, the snake and the apple, an ambiguous idea of "man-god", a concrete idea of the death of a god, a mythical idea of a family of gods and the arithmetic of the Christian system are three in one, one in one. Third, all this is contradictory, not only with the innate reason God has given to man, but also with man's knowledge, which is acquired by man with the help of science and the study of the structure of the universe created by God. received from the power and wisdom of God.
Therefore, the founders and supporters of the Christian belief system could not fail to foresee that, with the help of science, human beings can obtain progressive knowledge from the power and wisdom of God embodied in the structure of the universe and in all creation, and With this knowledge comes objection and doubt as to the truth of their system of belief; it is therefore necessary, in order to attain their object, to narrow learning to that which is less dangerous to their projects, and they rely upon You're limited to dead-reading dead languages to do this.
They not only excluded the study of science from Christian schools, but persecuted it; hence the revival of scientific study in the last two hundred years.As late as 1610, the Florentine Galileo invented and introduced the use of the telescope, and used it to observe the movement and shape of celestial bodies, providing a new means for determining the real structure of the universe.For those discoveries, instead of being honored, he was tried, and finally condemned to abandon them, otherwise the opinions derived from them would be regarded as sinful heresies.Before this, Phegilis was condemned to be burned for asserting that the antipodes—in other words, that the earth is a sphere, and that every place where there is land can be inhabited; Familiar with it, there is no need to talk about it.
If false beliefs were neither morally bad nor harmful, man would have no moral duty to oppose them and get rid of them.For example, believing that the earth is flat like a plate is no morally better or worse than believing that the earth is round like a ball.Or it makes no moral difference to believe that the Creator created no other worlds but this one than to believe that He created millions of worlds, and that infinite space is filled with them.But where a religious system arises from an unreal, fabricated system of creation, and the two are joined together almost inseparably, the position taken in that case is quite different.Although the mistakes at that time were not morally bad, they seemed to be morally bad because they were full of harm.At that time, truth, though in another case it was regarded as irrelevant to it, has already become an important thing by becoming a criterion of judgment, confirming by corresponding evidence or denying religion by contrary evidence. authenticity itself.Looking at the case from this point of view, it is a moral duty of man to obtain every possible evidence of a religious system from the structure of the heavenly bodies, or from any other part of creation.But the supporters or partisans of the Christian system seem to be afraid of its consequences, so they continue to oppose it, not only rejecting science, but also persecuting the professors.If Newton or Descartes were born three or four hundred years earlier, and they did the same research work they did, it is very likely that they would have passed away before they finished their research.If Franklin had induced lightning from the cloud at the same time, he might have also risked being burned.
Later ages cast all blame on the Goths and Vandals; but the partisans of the Christian system, however unwilling they may be to believe or admit it, are absolutely true that ignorance The era of Christianity began at the same time as the Christian system. —There was more knowledge in the centuries before this period than in the centuries after it.As to religious knowledge, then, as has been said, the Christian system is but a variety of mythology; ①It is because of this long hiatus in science, and for no other reason, that we are now obliged to look through a great gap of centuries in order to see those respectable persons whom we call the ancients. —If the progress of knowledge proceeded in proportion to the amount of previously accumulated knowledge, then that blank period would have been filled with persons with special expertise in knowledge; into the background.But the Christian system destroys everything; and if we place ourselves at the beginning of the sixteenth century and look back through that long interval to antiquity, it is as if across a vast desert, without a single tree to obstruct our view, to the On the other side of the fertile hills.
There is an almost unbelievable paradox that there are things that exist in the name of religion, that it is irreligious to study and contemplate the structure of the universe that God created.But the facts are too true to be denied.The event that broke the first link in this long chain of despotism and ignorance was the most powerful event of the famous Lutheran Reformation.Since that time, though not in the sense of Luther or any other supposed reformer, science has determined its rise and fall differently.All the gods in that mythology, except Saturn, are all modern creations.The dominion of the so-called Saturnians predates the myths of so-called paganism, and is, so to speak, a species of monotheism which admits of belief in only one God.
Saturn is said to have abdicated with his three sons and a daughter, namely Jupiter (the main god), Paluto (the god of the underworld), Liputun (the god of the sea), and Juno (the queen of heaven); Thousands of gods and demigods were created in the imagination, so that the name of gods multiplied as rapidly as that of saints, and henceforth that of courts.
All the corruption that has happened in theology and religion has sprung from the admission of a religion which one calls revelation.Mythists presuppose more revealed religions than Christians.They had their oracles and monks, and they were said to receive and convey the dictated word of God in almost everything.
Everything that has corrupted since then, from Moloch (the god of fire) to modern fatalism, and from pagan human sacrifices to Christian sacrifices of God, has sprung from religions that allow what is called revelation, preventing The most effective way of all these evils and deceptions is to recognize only one revelation embodied in the book of creation and no other revelation, and to regard creation as the only real work done by God, or everlasting work ; as for all other things that claim to be the Word of God, it is false and deceitful. --author
There was a revival, and tolerance, which was originally accompanied by science, also began to appear.This was the only public good the Reformation ever did: for it would be better if it had not happened, so far as religious good was concerned.The myths continued; and from the decline of the Christian popes grew a variety of popes.
Having thus proceeded from the inner evidence of things to point out what caused the change in the state of learning, and from what motives the study of dead language was substituted for science, I now, in the first half of this work, propose several points which should be noted. Beyond this point, it is necessary to further compare or contrast the evidence provided by the structure of the universe with the Christian religious system.But I would do well to begin this section with thoughts that occurred in my early life, and which I am sure almost everyone has at one time or another.I shall describe what those thoughts were, and add some other things which arose from this subject, giving a brief introduction to the whole by way of a preface.
My father was a Quaker, and I have been fortunate to have had a good moral education and a considerable store of useful knowledge.Although I went to a Latin school, I did not study Latin, not because I did not want to learn the language, but because the Quakers objected to books teaching the language.But this did not prevent me from becoming acquainted with the subject of all the Latin books used at school.
The natural inclination of my heart lies in science.I have a little talent, I believe a little poetic talent; but this I would rather curb than encourage, because this would lead too far into the realm of the imagination.As soon as I had power, I bought a set of globes, and attended the philosophy lectures of Martin and Ferguson, and later met Dr. Peeves, who was called the Royal Society. He lived in the church at that time and was a superior astronomer.
I don't like so-called politics.Politics, in my opinion, does not carry more meaning than the meaning of the word equestrianism.So when my thoughts turned to matters of government, I had to form a system of my own which corresponded to the moral and philosophical principles I had learned in my education.I see, or at least I think I see, that in the affairs of the United States there is a vast scene unfolding before the world; and it seems to me that the Americans, unless they change the plans they are pursuing with respect to the British government, and declare independence, Not only would they encounter many new difficulties, but they would close off the prospects that were then available to mankind through their power.
From these motives, I published my work called , which was the first work I published.Judging by myself, if it were not for American affairs, I believe I would never have been famous as a writer on any subject in the world.mine
It was written at the end of 1775 and published on January 1, 1776.The independence of the United States was declared on the 4th of that year.
He who has studied the state and progress of human thought, from the study of his own thoughts, must have noticed that so-called thoughts are distinctly divided into two classes; the first class is produced by the act of retrospect and thinking; The second category is that they pop into the mind suddenly by themselves.It has always been a rule for me to be courteous to unsolicited visitors, and try to scrutinize whether they are worthy of hospitality; and from them I have acquired almost all my knowledge.As for the knowledge acquired by anyone from school education, it can only be regarded as a small capital, which can be used as a start for his own learning in the future. —Anyone who is learned, who is at last himself his teacher, on the grounds that principles and circumstances are of a decidedly different nature, and therefore cannot be inscribed on memory; their place in the abode of thought is understanding, and they Never have been as enduring as when they began as concepts.Enough of this introductory part.
From the time I could have a thought and act on it, I either doubted the truth of the Christian system, or thought it was a strange thing; I don't know which; but I remember it well , when I was about seven or eight years old, I heard a sermon given by a relative of mine who was an ardent supporter of the church. .When the sermon was over, I went out into the garden, and as I descended the steps in the garden (for I remembered the place perfectly), I remembered what I had heard, and rebelled, thinking to myself that this would be the almighty God acts like a fanatic, and he can't do it any other way. The school is Detford School, Norfolk, where the present Counselor Minkey attended under the same principal. --author
When he came to take revenge, he killed his son; I know that a person who does such a thing will be sentenced to death, so I don't understand what their purpose is when they preach such a sermon.This thought of mine does not contain the frivolous thoughts of a child; for me it is a serious thought, born of an idea of mine; and I think God is too good to do this He is also so omnipotent, there is no need to do this.I still think the same; and I am still more convinced that no system of religion can be a true system if it contains something that shocks the minds of children.
Parents who profess to be Christians seem ashamed to tell their children anything pertaining to the principles of their religion.They sometimes teach them morally.And tell them about the goodness of what they call God; in Christian mythology there are five gods--Father, Son, Holy Spirit, God and Nature.But the story in Christianity that the Father killed his son or used the people to kill his son (for that story expressly says so), parents cannot tell it to their children; if told to do so to make mankind happier and better, and thus make the story worse, as if mankind could be improved by the example of murder; and to tell him that all this is a myth is to show that the story is not a credible cover-up. word.
How different this is from outright professing Deism!The true deist has but one God; and his religion consists in contemplating God's power, wisdom, and benevolence from his creations, and striving to imitate him in all moral, scientific, and mechanical things.
The closest, in morals and benevolence, to true Deism, of all other religions, is that of the Quakers; but they place outside their system what God has created, and so place I restrained myself too much.Although I respect their benevolence, I can't help but laugh at their cleverness. If they act according to their hobbies when creating, how silent and colorless the created world will be!Not a flower will make its beautiful color, nor will a bird make its song.
I leave these reflections now to discuss other things.Ever since I had mastered the use of globes and orreries, had acquired an idea of the infinity of space and the perpetual divisibility of matter, and had acquired at least a general knowledge of what is called natural philosophy, I set to Compare the external evidence with the Christian belief system, or compare them as I said before.
Although in the Christian system, there is no creed that directly states that the world we live in is a fully created world with inhabitants.But in the account of the creation, which is said to have been written by Moses, in the story of Eve and the apple, and in the story's tie-in, the death of the Son of God, it can be seen that it took such a labor of love, and The opposite belief, that God has created most of the worlds, at least as many worlds as we call stars, would at once make the Christian system of belief seem small and absurd, and fall upon man like a feather in the air. My mind flew away.这两个信仰不能同时并存于一头脑里面；凡是自以为两者都相信的人，对于任何一个都没有好好地思考过。
虽然关于多数世界的信仰，对于古代人是熟悉的，但是我们所住的这个①读这本书的人，可能有人不知道什么叫做“太阳系仪”，为供他们的参考，我在这里加一个注释，因为单看名称，并不能了解这样东西的用途。它的名称是从它的发明者而来的。它是一个钟式的机器，具体而微地代表着一个宇宙。在它里面，地球自转并且绕着太阳转，月球绕着地球转，行星绕着太阳转，以太阳为整个体系的中心，它们对于太阳，各有一定的距离，而且它们彼此之间也有一定的距离，它们的大小也各有不同，总之，把它们象真实存在的天体一样表示出来。 --author