God Author:Paul Carus Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: which serve the educational purpose of a high- minded self-discipline. THE LESSON OF UNIFORMITIES. Having made all these concessions to atheism, we shall n... more »ow build our God-conception upon the very foundations which atheism leaves us. We shall thereby construct a conception of God which rests on an irreversible foundation, on the rock of ages. It will prove tenable not only before the most critical tribunal of science, but even the atheist will be unable to refute or reject it. There are uniformities of a definite type in nature, which render it possible to describe natural phenomena, and even predict the course of events to come. These uniformities are the conditions of science. On the one hand they make the phenomena of the world classifiable and thereby comprehensible; and on the other hand they make possible the development of an organ of comprehension called "reason." Reason is simply the faculty of tracing samenesses by designating the same type of phenomena by the same name. By comprehending samenesses we can anticipate the future and by anticipating the future we learn to seek the useful and to avoid evil. Thus, uniformities naturally produce purposive action. The apprehension of future results leads to adaptation, and adaptation pursued with conscious intention is the condition of ethics. The uniformities of nature in their totality constitute a grand harmony which is commonlj called the cosmic order; and this cosmic order comprises the chemical combination of atoms, no less than the motions of stars, and is the principle which permeates the realm of man's life, including his highest intellectual and moral aspirations. What is the raison d'etre of these uniformities? Have they, such as they are, been ordained by the Creator, or are they accidental similariti...« less