[1] The argument which the fatalist bases upon organisation is
self-annihilating when applied to the common relations of
life. The fatalist himself does not believe in his own
doctrine; in speculative reasoning he is eager to charge
moral crime upon organic defect; yet, in practical
magistracy, he arraigns and condemns the criminal to
punishment. But how monstrous an outrage is this upon his
own creed! The criminal was compelled through stress of
organisation to commit the crime, yet the fatalist punishes
him for doing what he could not help! Let the principle of
the fatalist be admitted, and there is an end to all
legislation--an end, indeed, to the social compact itself.
All associated life is regulated by a system of restraints;
but restraint implies self-control, and self-control is
directly opposed to fatalism. Let a criminal plead that he
could not help committing a certain crime; and if the judge
allow the plea, he will at once treat the criminal as a
lunatic, and instruct the officers of justice accordingly.
Magistracy proceeds upon the principle that men can "help"
committing crime. All human legislation assumes a man's
power of self-regulation, and grounds itself on the grand
doctrine of man's responsibility to man. At this point,
upon the same principle in relation to God, Theology says,
You hold yourselves responsible to one another on all
social matters, you punish the criminal, you ignore the
plea of fatalism on all questions of property, order, and
security; now go further, heighten your own social base,
carry out to their logical issues your own principles and
methods, and you will reach all that God requires of man.
If it be urged that God gave the criminal his organisation,
the objection does not touch the argument. The argument is,
that in human consciousness the plea of fatalism is ignored
on all practical matters; away beyond all written statutes
there is a conviction that man can regulate his actions,
and ought to be held responsible for such regulation. Man
himself thus, by his own conduct and his own law, acquits
God of all charge upon this matter; the very recognition by
the magistrate of man's responsibility is itself a direct
acquittal of God from the accusations of fatalism. God need
not be interrogated upon the subject, for the magistrate
himself, faithful to the consciousness of universal
humanity, treats the fatalistic theory as an
absurdity.--_Joseph Parker._