An edition of Natural religion
(1889)
Natural Religion
the Gifford lectures delivered before the University of Glasgow in 1888
by F. Max Müller
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Religion, Natural theology, Language and languages, Mythology, Philosophy, HistoryShowing 6 featured editions. View all 6 editions?
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Natural religion: the Gifford lectures delivered before the University of Glasgow in 1888
1975, AMS Press
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Natural Religion: the Gifford lectures delivered before the University of Glasgow in 1888
1898, Longmans, Green, and Co.
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Natural religion: the Gifford lectures delivered before the University of Glasgow in 1888
1898, Longmans, Green
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Natural religion: the Gifford lectures delivered before the University of Glasgow in 1888
1889, Longmans, Green, and Co.
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Book Details
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
Introduction on Certainty by the Editor i
Editor's Preface xxxiii
Author's Preface xxxvii
CHAPTER I.
DOUBT IN RELIGION
Christ and Pilate I
Truth and doubt 2
Christianity still doubted 3
I. Intellectual causes of doubt 4
Nothing certain but what is proved 5
But certainty prior to demonstrative proof 7
First principles self-evident ; hence scientific doubt irrational 8
But plausible 10
Exclusive study of natural science begets scepticism 11
Yet nature presents mysteries which, though undemonstrable, undoubtedly exist 13
Progress, true and false 14
II. Moral causes of doubt, — Mental dissipation 15
Material ends unduly pursued 16
For natural science, truly studied, leads to God 17
Indifferentism 18
III. The Passions — Moral defects frequently the source of intellectual error — Influence of the will on the tnind — "What we will, that we believe" 21
Voluntary doubt incompatible with faith 22
Impartiality in religion impossible 24
Religious error a personal choice and individual sin 25
The habit of doubt irrational and immoral 27
The earnest inquirer finds truth 28
But grace necessary 29
The means it uses — sorrow and suffering 30
Faith alone sustains in death 31
CHAPTER II.
THE THREE ORDERS OF TRUTH
Truth, sensible, intellectual, and religious, and their negations, scepticism, materialism, rationalism 33
Truth, object of the intellect, its definition 34
Misery of man, if truth unattainable 35
Scepticism, first kind of doubt — Absolutely impracticable 36
One cause of scepticism, false claim to absolute, universal knowledge 37
Man's knowledge limited, but certain 38
Triumphs of modern science do not satisfy 39
For physical science cannot tell the cause or purpose of anything, which are found only by the intellect within itself 40
Thus the investigation of nature leads to that of man, its superior, and physical to metaphysical science 41
The laws of the mind fixed, certain, though undemonstrable 42
Absolute liberty of thought impossible 43
Second kind of doubt. — Materialism 44
Refuted by transcendental ideas, which are recognised by scienee 45
And by moral ideas, which are also supersensuous 46
These necessary ideas, intellectual and moral, necessarily lead to the knowledge of God, as First Truth and First Good 47
But this external knowledge of God, only partial 48
And points to the need of a revelation 49
A revelation not impossible 50
Faith in it, highest intellectual act 51
Threefold ascent : reason and nature, faith and grace, God and life of glory 52
Why unattained by heathen 53
How faith and philosophy assist each other 54
Supremacy of theology 55
Rationalism, the third kind of doubt — Error of Froschammer 56
Leads to pantheism, as with Strauss 58
Or scepticism, as with Fichte 59
Rousseau's objections to a revelation, anticipated and answered by St. Thomas 60
Need of a revelation shown from history 62
Earnestness needed for faith 63
CHAPTER III.
GOD, HIS EXISTENCE AND ESSENCE.
Idea of God connatural to man 67
Three proofs of God's existence : history, nature, mind 68
I. Proof from history — Idea of God found in all races, not invented by priests or theologians, nor based on fear of natural portents 69
Polytheism, corruption of this idea, and not itself a primal religion 70
The savage not the natural man, but man degraded and chastised 71
Vitality of a belief, a proof of its truth 72
Alleged instances of Atheist races unreliable (Waitz) 73
Atheism, where found, produces degradation 74
No entire nation without some religion (Tylor, Max Miiller) 75
Theism then in possession — Direct proofs of God's existence 76
II. Proof from nature (Romans i. 19) 77
(a.) First cause — Creatures, not self-created, demand a Creator 78
Beings contingent suppose a necessary Being 79
An infinite series of creatures, a contradiction in terms 80
Disproved also by natural phenomena 81
And by history of man 82
(b.) First Mover 83
Gravitation implies an immaterial cause 84
(c.) Argument from design 85
Order of the universe not fortuitous 86
Nor necessarily produced 87
Designed action in living creatures 88
Identity of form with essence prove identity of Designer with Creator 89
Objections — Existence of evil 90
Evil permitted in parts for good of whole 91
The beneficent destruction of insects (Baer) 92
Huxley, Lyell, admit design 93
Creation a divine act 94
Incomprehensible to the creature 95
"Ex nihilo nihil fit" merely denies pre-existing matter 96
III. Proof from the human mind 96
Truth objective and independent of the reason 97
Not co-existent in creatures, which are contingent, while truth is absolute and eternal 98
And therefore presupposes a supreme, eternal, existing reason 99
As is shown by St. Thomas and St. Augustine 100
Man it alto a moral agent 100
His conscience witnesses to the moral law 101
Which, as eternal and independent 102
Can originate only in the will of God 103
God not unknowable ; though infinite, not indefinite 104
One in Himself, but virtually multiple 105
As conceived by us 106
Absolute and supreme 107
A Spirit, and therefore intelligent, and because intelligent, free 108
Sufferings of the just for their probation 109
Faith in the One God alone gives life its value 110
CHAPTER IV.
MATERIALISM.
Materialism denies existence of aught beyond matter 112
Matter eternal, and cause of everything 113
An ancient error 114
What is matter? — Its indestructibility 115
Taught by Plato and Aristotle — St. Augustine on primary matter 116
Atomic theory of Epicurus 117
Objections to Materialism — The atom indemonstrable 118
An infinitude of atoms inconceivable 119
If a definite number, then created 120
The law and order ef their conformation proves an intelligent cause 121
As does their reciprocal dependence 122
Inert matter cannot cause movement 123
And supposes an immaterial first Mover 124
Gravitation cannot cause movement (Newton) 125
Design in organised bodies 126
The life cell, the body in germ 127
Structure of organs predetermined for their special objects 128
Design and natural science 129
Unity of creation and its completion in man, proof of design 130
So also uniformity of species 131
Absurdity of other theories, spontaneous generation abandoned 132
"Omne vivum ex ovo" (Virchow) 133
No primal generating power in nature 134
Chemical changes, which now destroy organic life, could not have produced it 135
The beginning of life a mystery 136
Revival of materialism by Darwinism, in its materialistic sense 137
Objections to Darwinism 139
1. Absence of transitional forms 139
2. Fixity of species 139
3. Identity of primitive and existing types 140
4. Sudden appearance of new groups of species 141
5. Variations of type limited and determined 142
6. Survival of the lowest organisms 144
Mutual completion of exemplars and species 144
7. Various species in the same locality, and the same species in various localities 147
8. Morphological qualities unsusceptible of change; functional the reverse (Nageli) 148
9. Uninherited peculiarities : Neuter ants 149
10. Higher instincts in lower organised animals 150
11. Different instincts in similar organisms, and vice vend 150
12. Independent formation of species, and of organs 151
Rudimentary organs 152
Four typical classes of animals unchanged 152
Injurious effect of exclusive study of natural science 153
God revealed in nature 154
Creation acknowledged by the most eminent naturalists >154
CHAPTER V.
PANTHEISM.
Pantheism, or all things accidents of the one substance, God 156
Objections: Then things temporal, and yet eternal 157
Finite, and yet infinite. The same substance conscious and unconscious 158
The greater product of the less 159
No individuality 160
Man self-created, eternal 161
Himself, and not himself 162
Necessitated, and yet free 163
Assumptions of pantheism 163
One universal truth, but this is impossible to man on earth 164
Thought and being not identical 165
Neither thought or nature are God, but both have a common first cause 166
"The absolute Reason," but abstract thought non-existent 167
Absolute reason disproved by the diversity and progress of science 168
God, not the one substance of all things 169
God, though infinite, not undetermined 169
God not limited by being defined 170
Lotze, St Thomas, on personality 171
Pantheism destroys God, explains nothing 172
Makes no distinction between good and evil 172
Self-destructive, socialistic 173
A transitional system, leading to materialism, or to Christianity 174
Pius IX. on pantheism 175
Pantheism and the theism of the Greeks and Romans 176
Socrates, Plato 177
Aristotle 178
CHAPTER VI.
SOULLESS MAN.
Man, according to materialism, a nexus of matter 182
Thought, product of brain 183
Poetry of materialism 184
Its real meaning. Pius IX 18
Alleged proofs of materialism 186
Size of brain determines power of thought 186
The soul "function" of the brain 187
St. Thomas. Faculties many, soul one 188
Brain, condition not cause of thought 190
The soul distinct from its instrument, the brain 191
As seen in the sick and dying 192
And in the insane 193
Man composed of body and soul 194
Materialism confounds the soul with one of its faculties 194
Objections unanswered by materialism Immaterial ideas 195
Personal identity 196
Process of thought imperceptible to sense 197
Mayer, on brain and thought 199
Power of reflection 200
Mistaken theories on the union of the soul and body, which prepared the way for materialism — The Occasionalism of Geulincx 201
Leibnitz' Predetermined Harmonies. Leclerc, Physical Influx 202
CHAPTER VII.
MAN, BODY AND SOUL.
The soul, self-movement 204
Prop. I. Man has a soul, and is therefore more than matter 205
Organism and mechanism contrasted 206
Soul, act of body 207
Souls, vegetable 208
And animal 209
The rational soul, immediate principle of rational acts ; mediate, through bodily organs, of sensitive and vegetative acts 209
Every organ, even in vegetables, depends on vital principle 210
Nature of an organism 211
Organisms and minerals 212
Life determines matter, not matter life 213
Effects of vital activity, growth* of hair, healing 213
Primary life cell same in all creatures, individualising principle within 214
No argument from lower to higher science 215
"Ex nihilo nihil fit," how far applicable 215
Life unproduceable, though all constituents of living body known 216
Chemical elements in organic and inorganic bodies 217
Sensation, transformed motion, according to Strauss 218
But thought incapable of physical test 219
Motion only generates motion 220
Life imperceptible "in se," perceptible only in its effects 221
Our unity of sensation, though nerves multiple 222
And the body in constant change 224
Prop. II. Man has a rational soul, and is therefore above the brute 225
Erect attitude — Human senses, instruments of thought, develop harmoniously 226
Apprehension of universal truth 227
Mental action independent of body — Power of reflection 228
Free will 230
Instinct and reason contrasted 231
Man develops, brute does not 232
Speech, expression of reason, proper to man alone 233
Prop. III. The soul of man is immortal 233
Subjectively — The soul of man individual, independent of body in its action, and therefore self-subsisting 234
Objectively — His ideas of truth necessary and eternal 235
Soul therefore not necessarily mortal 236
Will God preserve the soul? — Desire of immortality proves that He will 237
For the desire universal, and therefore natural 238
Plato, on the immortality of the soul 239
The desire for happiness also universal, and happiness, to be complete, must be eternal 241
True and false self-love 242
The moral order justified in eternity alone 243
For virtue not its own reward 244
Nor sin its own punishment 245
Stoicism, in denying immortality, false and impossible 246
Virtue good because of its reward 247
Idea of future retribution and reward universal 249
Resurrection of the body 250
By the immortal soul redetermining the matter 251
The resurrection completes Christian dogma and human desire 252
CHAPTER VIII.
GOD AND MAN
Man's relation to God 255
Not disproved by atheism 256
Expressed by religion 257
Natural religion basis of positive religion 258
Prayer its act 259
Its dignity and necessity 260
Practised by pagan nations — Cultus and culture 262
First man civilised 263
Monotheism, the original religion 264
Idol worship unknown in earliest ages 265
The theism of the Greeks, and of the Indians 267
How St. Augustine ascended from creatures, to find rest in God 268
CHAPTER IX.
END OF MAN.
Religion an universal law 271
Binds even unconscious nature 272
And thus nature leads to religion 274
Of its revelation — Man the interpreter, sacrificer, and priest 275
Abuse of nature makes man its slave 276
Visible creation to be glorified with man 276
Adoration first act of religion 277
Prayer perfects the soul 278
Petition — Reconciliation — Communion 279
Worship external as well as internal 280
Sacrifice universal 281
Prayer, source of moral life (Dollinger) 282
Religion and morality inseparable 283
For religion, or justice towards God, specifies every other moral act 284
Morals without religion (Kant) really atheism 285
Morals imply a lawgiver 285
Who is God alone 286
Hence religion alone makes the moral law obligatory 287
And denial of morals follows that of religion 288
Without morals, no order or society 289
Plato, Aristotle, St. Justin, in support 290
Hence religion necessary for the State 291
Walter, testimony of 292
Montesquieu 293
Religion embraces the whole man 294
Perfects his mind, will and heart 295
And guides him to his end 295
Index 297
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