Studies in Theism

TN order to a correct estimate of the theistic argumenty we must know its exact scope and purpose. Misconception on this point is very common, and injustice is done to theism. It is commonly assumed that the theist aims to demonstrate the existence of God. Of course a strict demonstration is impossible, and then theism is held to be overthrown. No notice is taken of the great fact and field of probable reasoning upon which both daily life and objective science are built. It is also urged that the theist assumes that all order is designed order, and thus begs the question; for the dispute is, whether the natural order be designed. Most criticisms of theism turn upon one of these objections. Either the argument is rejected as a failure, or it is called a begging of the question. Such criticisms, so far as they are made in good faith, rest upon a failure to distinguish between demonstrating a theorem and solving a problem. The demonstration of theorems belongs entirely to the formal sciences; all the sciences which deal with reality aim only at the solution of problems. They find their problems in the observed facts, and then they raise the question how we must think of the back-lying cause or causes, or antecedents, in order that the facts should be as they are. Every scientific hypothesis is an attempt to solve the problem presented by a certain class of facts; and the proof of the hypothesis always consists, not in its being impregnably deduced according to the canons of formal logic, but in its furnishing the only adequate solution of the facts. The geologist finds traces of fire in the rocks, and he explains them by assuming that the earth was once molten. Now even allowing this conclusion to be just, he would not pretend that he had demonstrated the original fluidity of the earth, but only that he had given a rational solution of the problem contained in certain geological facts. So with the nebular, the atomic, the ether, the evolution theories, etc.; they are all solutions of problems, and our faith in them is based entirely upon their adequacy to the facts.