During my visit to London and Paris last year I had many talks with the
materialistic philosophers of Europe. The basis of all their conclusions
is that the acquisition of knowledge of phenomena is according to a fixed,
invariable law--a law mathematically exact in its operation through the
senses. For instance, the eye sees a chair; therefore, there is no doubt
of the chair's existence. The eye looks up into the heavens and beholds
the sun; I see flowers upon this table; I smell their fragrance; I hear
sounds outside, etc. This, they say, is a fixed mathematical law of
perception and deduction, the operation of which admits of no doubt
whatever; for inasmuch as the universe is subject to our sensing, the
proof is self-evident that our knowledge of it must be gained through the
avenues of the senses. That is to say, the materialists announce that the
criterion and standard of human knowledge is sense perception. Among the
Greeks and Romans the criterion of knowledge was reason--that whatever is
provable and acceptable by reason must necessarily be admitted as true. A
third standard or criterion is the opinion held by theologians that
traditions or prophetic statement and interpretations constitute the basis
of human knowing. There is still another, a fourth criterion, upheld by
religionists and metaphysicians who say that the source and channel of all
human penetration into the unknown is through inspiration. Briefly then,
these four criteria according to the declarations of men are: first, sense
perception; second, reason; third, traditions; fourth, inspiration.
In Europe I told the philosophers and scientists of materialism that the
criterion of the senses is not reliable. For instance, consider a mirror
and the images reflected in it. These images have no actual corporeal
existence. Yet if you had never seen a mirror, you would firmly insist and
believe that they were real. The eye sees a mirage upon the desert as a
lake of water, but there is no reality in it. As we stand upon the deck of
a steamer, the shore appears to be moving, yet we know the land is
stationary and we are moving. The earth was believed to be fixed and the
sun revolving about it, but although this appears to be so, the reverse is
now known to be true. A whirling torch makes a circle of fire appear
before the eye, yet we realize there is but one point of light. We behold
a shadow moving upon the ground, but it has no material existence, no
substance. In deserts the atmospheric effects are particularly productive
of illusions which deceive the eye. Once I saw a mirage in which a whole
caravan appeared traveling upward into the sky. In the far North other
deceptive phenomena appear and baffle human vision. Sometimes three or
four suns, called by scientists mock suns, will be shining at the same
time, whereas we know that the great solar orb is one and that it remains
fixed and single. In brief, the senses are continually deceived, and we
are unable to separate that which is reality from that which is not.
As to the second criterion--reason--this likewise is unreliable and not to
be depended upon. This human world is an ocean of varying opinions. If
reason is the perfect standard and criterion of knowledge, why are
opinions at variance and why do philosophers disagree so completely with
each other? This is a clear proof that human reason is not to be relied
upon as an infallible criterion. For instance, great discoveries and
announcements of former centuries are continually upset and discarded by
the wise men of today. Mathematicians, astronomers, chemical scientists
continually disprove and reject the conclusions of the ancients; nothing
is fixed, nothing final; everything is continually changing because human
reason is progressing along new roads of investigation and arriving at new
conclusions every day. In the future much that is announced and accepted
as true now will be rejected and disproved. And so it will continue ad
infinitum.
When we consider the third criterion--traditions--upheld by theologians as
the avenue and standard of knowledge, we find this source equally
unreliable and unworthy of dependence. For religious traditions are the
report and record of understanding and interpretation of the Book. By what
means has this understanding, this interpretation been reached? By the
analysis of human reason. When we read the Book of God, the faculty of
comprehension by which we form conclusions is reason. Reason is mind. If
we are not endowed with perfect reason, how can we comprehend the meanings
of the Word of God? Therefore, human reason, as already pointed out, is by
its very nature finite and faulty in conclusions. It cannot surround the
Reality Itself, the Infinite Word. Inasmuch as the source of traditions
and interpretations is human reason, and human reason is faulty, how can
we depend upon its findings for real knowledge?
The fourth criterion I have named is inspiration through which it is
claimed the reality of knowledge is attainable. What is inspiration? It is
the influx of the human heart. But what are satanic promptings which
afflict mankind? They are the influx of the heart also. How shall we
differentiate between them? The question arises: How shall we know whether
we are following inspiration from God or satanic promptings of the human
soul? Briefly, the point is that in the human material world of phenomena
these four are the only existing criteria or avenues of knowledge, and all
of them are faulty and unreliable. What then remains? How shall we attain
the reality of knowledge? By the breaths and promptings of the Holy
Spirit, which is light and knowledge itself. Through it the human mind is
quickened and fortified into true conclusions and perfect knowledge. This
is conclusive argument showing that all available human criteria are
erroneous and defective, but the divine standard of knowledge is
infallible. Therefore, man is not justified in saying, "I know because I
perceive through my senses," or "I know because it is proved through my
faculty of reason," or "I know because it is according to tradition and
interpretation of the Holy Book," or "I know because I am inspired." All
human standards of judgment are faulty, finite.
17 April 1912
Talk at Home of Mr. and Mrs. Edward B. Kinney
780 West End Avenue, New York