And although, under such circumstances, I should
consider that man the more rational who carefully suspended his judgment, I
conclude that if this course is departed from, neither the metaphysical
teleologist nor the scientific atheist has any perceptible advantage over
the other in respect of rationality. For as the formal conditions of a
metaphysical teleology are undoubtedly present on the one hand, and the
formal conditions of a speculative atheism are as undoubtedly present on
the other, there is thus in both cases a logical vacuum supplied wherein
the pendulum of thought is free to swing in whichever direction it may be
made to swing by the momentum of preconceived ideas.
Such is the outcome of our investigation, and considering the abstract
nature of the subject, the immense divergence of opinion which at the
present time is manifested with regard to it, as well as the confusing
amount of good, bad, and indifferent literature on both sides of the
controversy which is extant;--considering these things, I do not think that
the result of our inquiry can be justly complained of on the score of its
lacking precision. At a time like the present, when traditional beliefs
respecting Theism are so generally accepted and so commonly concluded, as a
matter of course, to have a large and valid basis of induction whereon to
rest, I cannot but feel that a perusal of this short essay, by showing how
very concise the scientific _status_ of the subject really is, will do more
to settle the minds of most readers as to the exact standing at the present
time of all the probabilities of the question, than could a perusal of all
the rest of the literature upon this subject.
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