A rap is heard at the door. It being opened, Christian enters. "Good
morning, gentlemen. I am very glad to find you all here. Since our
former interview I have been very anxious to continue our investigation
of the evidence of the existence of God. I presume, as you are
'_Free-thinkers_' and lovers of truth, you are by this time ready to
give a scientific reason for the existence of the idea of God, and, as
you agree with me that we only obtain ideas through the aid of the five
senses, our only idea of color by the eye, of sound by the ear, etc., I
wish to ask you to account for the idea of God. Will you oblige me?"
_Atheists_--Certainly. We have consulted on this theme since our last
interview, and now declare it to be the work or nature of the
imagination. It is a scientific truth, as you will readily admit, that
imagination can and does get up some singular and unreal forms. We now
assume that the idea of a God is but the thought of an imaginary being.
_Christian_--True, gentlemen. Fancy, or imagination, does, in active
moments, bring for our amusement some fantastic pictures. Her work,
however, is never simple, but always complex. This that we are in search
of is the idea of a simple being--a being that is single, and not
duplex. I will now illustrate the extent of the power of the
imagination. Taking a walk through nature's flower garden, we gather one
of every variety, and examining them closely, one by one, we notice
their difference in form, color and size by the eye. Their fragrance we
note by the smell. Thus, by the aid of the senses, we note all their
sensible properties. Now, allowing that memory is perfect, we have in
store all the peculiarities of each and every individual flower.
Gentlemen atheists, am I correct in this conclusion?
_Atheists_--Well, yes.
_Christian_--Very well; then I'll proceed. Having learned, by what we
saw, the art of combining, we can and will imagine all these single
flowers blended in one large conglomerated flower, containing all the
peculiarities of each and every single flower. Now, gentlemen, is not
this all that the imagination can do?
_Atheists_--It is.
_Christian_--Very well. Is this a simple or compound idea?
_Atheists_--It is a compound idea. It is simply the blending of the idea
of each single flower.
_Christian_--And this is all the imagination can do? Then, gentlemen, do
you not see that as the idea of God is the idea of a single person, it
would be utterly impossible for imagination to be its author? It is not
a conglomerate idea, but a single one. Now, if there is no God, we have
a clear, definite idea of _nothing_. How will you account for this? Are
you not now unable to give a reason for your premises? Is it not the
truth that fools are wiser in their own conceit than men who can give a
reason?
_Atheists_--Mr. Christian, we did not think that you would thus call us
all fools, and as our investigation has taken such an unlooked for turn,
we must ask time for consultation before we proceed further.
_Christian_--Very well. When will you be ready to resume? this I am
anxious to know; as you are "liberalists" and "free-thinkers," you will
be equally anxious to reach the truth in the premises?
_Atheists_--At two P.M.
It is two o'clock, and all are present.
Mr. Reason, who was an atheist, opens the discussion as follows:
"Mr. Christian, we have held a council on the subject under discussion,
and our conclusion is that you are right. There must be, and is, such a
being as God. Were this not so, we never could have had the idea of him.
We are now deists. We deny that he has ever imparted knowledge to man by
revelation."
_Christian_--Gentlemen, do you think your present position is a
scientific one?
_Deists_--We think it is both scientific and invulnerable, and we also
think that if you continue this investigation with us you will find it
so. How did you obtain this idea? Have you seen God? No. Have you heard
him speak? No. If we had we could not be honest without being
Christians?
_Christian_--Gentlemen, have you not contraband goods in your warehouse?
As your eyes have not seen, nor your ears heard, nor your powers of
observation perceived him, and as you acknowledge that every one of your
ideas entered the mind through the aid of one or another of the five
senses, now, I ask, are you logically any better off than before you
found yourselves obliged to relinquish your atheism? Do you not now, as
well as then, occupy unreasonable ground? Having rather conceded that
atheists are fools, and turned _deists_, are you really any better off?
Can you give a reason for your present infidelity? Out of your own
mouths you stand condemned as unreasonable and foolish. You pretend to
venerate reason, while you discard her first principles. You need not
try to evade me at this point by an appeal to nature. Here you can find
no aid, for nature tells us of no first cause. The apple tree, before
this window, now so richly laden with fruit, tells not of its first
cause. If you say it came from an apple-seed, and that from an apple,
and that from another tree, another seed, and another tree, and so on,
in a circle you may always go, for nature does not tell you of a first
tree as a cause uncaused, nor of a Creator, a God. She does not go
behind herself. Gentlemen, have you any reply? If you have, I would like
to hear it.
Reason timidly says: "Mr. C., in your very severe strictures on the
deists, are you not condemning yourself? You pretend to place full
confidence in the teachings of your Bible, and does it not say: 'The
heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his
handiwork?' Can nature thus declare and not make known?"
_Christian_--Yes, your quotation tells the truth; yet in this also you
have taken too much for granted. There stands a clock; it keeps correct
time, but does it declare the glory of any one?
_Deists_--Yes, that of its maker.
_Christian_--But who was its maker. You say you do not know. That is
true, and, for ought you know, or can learn from its mechanism there
might have been several makers connected with its origin. If you had
stood by and seen it made, then you might have told me all about it. In
that which you call the works of nature, neither you, nor I, nor any of
our fellows, are instructed by actual observation consequent upon being
present when they were made--we were not standing by when the heavens
were made; so that source of information is closed up. There is now but
one resort left to us--but one reasonable means of information. That is,
the maker of all things must, necessarily, have told man that he created
all these things. Then, with David, he could sing, "The heavens declare
the glory of God." Man first learned from God that he was the creator of
all things, for God alone could tell it. Gentlemen, the Christian is
the only reasonable being upon the earth, and the only _fearless
free-thinker_. The atheist, you see, is proved a fool, and the deist is
no better. Think this over, then call again.
_Deists_--We will. _Good evening._